Building on the Past, Looking to the Future

David and I decided to stay in Whitehorse one more day.  We had not visited The McBride Museum of Yukon History and we really wanted to do that before we left.  Since we had shopping to do we moved over to the Walmart parking lot.  We restocked our supplies and made plans for the next day. That night we were surrounded by at least 30 other RV's.  Everyone was loading up with supplies.  It reminded me of the craze of the gold rush days as people pushed loaded grocery carts to their rigs.

That night we had a hard time falling asleep because of the incessant cries of sea gulls. They did not let up their racket until midnight, when it finally got dark.  The next morning we decided to walk the river trail just opposite Walmart.  Not far up the path we learned from an information marker that the islands there were probably the biggest colony of Mew Gulls in the Yukon Territory. Apparently the birds flock to this place to escape the treat of predators inland, and to take advantage of the plentiful food supply in the river. When we saw the birds flhying all over the island we realized why it was such a noisy night!

Taking the path in the other direction led us back to town.  Whitehorse has many small parks and we found this sculpture in one of the parks next to the river.  The plaque near it named it "Building on the Past, Looking to the Future". It was created by Ken Anderson in 2002.  It reflects the currant efforts to bring all the people of the Yukon together as one people and recognize the history and the contributions of the First  Nation People

David and I decided that Whitehorse is a young people's town.  We have never seen so many canoes and kayaks and bikes as were here. The coffee shops were full of young people chatting, or busy on their computers or i-pods. There is a Starbucks in town, but it gets local competition from cafes like Baked.

After our lunch we wandered through The Pioneer Cemetary taking note of the grave markers of people who hailed from such far off places as Dublin, Ireland and Edinburgh, Scotland.  Emil Forrest seems to have been born here. 

We spent a couple hours at the MacBride Museum of Yukon History.  It is a wonderful place to get a glimpse into every part of the Yukon's history.  Of course, when I heard they had Sam McGee's cabin I was eager to see it.

                           

Sam McGee was actually a resident of Whitehorse. Apparently Robert Service liked his name and so he used it in his famous poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee". I remember my father reading that poem to us children when we were young.  My dad loved to read the works of Robert Service and Jack London and he dreamed about travelling to Alaska someday.  Now I am living his dream.

In my opionion, the other real treasure in the museum is "The Champion Hair Picker".  That contraption was new to me.  It was used to card horse hair.  The horse hair arrived full of hay and dirt and was put through this machine to clean it.  The horse hair was then used as stuffing in the upholstry for seats of wagons and coaches and even house furniture. I had heard of horse hair stuffing but I never thought of the process it took to prepare it.

In a gift shop on Main Street I found some artificial Fireweed blossoms.  Fireweed is the official flower of the Yukon and by July it will have replaced the ever present dandelions we see along the roadways now.  I like this humble plant. Every part of it is edible. I like that. And I like its brilliant color which some people tell me is "my" color. I like that too.