Dawson City Research Articles

Pre-onset auroral signatures and subsequent development of substorm auroras: a development of ionospheric loop currents at the onset latitudes

Abstract. Substorm auroras observed on 17 January 1994 were localized within the field of view of an all-sky imager installed at Dawson City (DWS, 65.7° ILAT). In association with the enhancement of the anti-sunward convection in the polar cap and the ion flux enhancement in 1–6 keV at geosynchronous altitudes, a wave-like structure propagating equatorward to the onset latitudes with a high wave number in azimuth (m ~ 76, T ~ 120 s) was observed 30 min prior to the activation in the equatorward latitudes. The activation of the auroras in the equatorward latitudes and the subsequent poleward expansion lasted for approximately 6 min until a diffuse aurora formed. The auroras in the last 6 min were isolated and localized within the field of view of DWS, from 400 km west to 400 km east, and accompanied the magnetic pulse at the optical station. The magnetic pulse is interpreted by the propagating ionospheric current loop with a size comparable to the isolated auroras (~ 1000 km). We conclude that the wave-like structures in the pre-onset interval relate to the intrusion of the plasma-sheet plasmas from the tail by the convection. The plasmas from the tail eventually developed the ionospheric loop currents at the onset latitudes, in association with the triggering of the bead-like rippling of auroras and subsequent breaking out from the onset latitudes.

Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure by David Meissner (review)

Reviewed by: Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure by David Meissner Elizabeth Bush Meissner, David. Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure; by David Meissner and Kim Richardson. Calkins Creek, 2013. 167p. illus. with photographs ISBN 978-1-59078-823-3 $16.95 R Gr. 5-9. The Yukon Gold Rush of 1897 is revisited here through the experiences of two young men who were among the first stampeders to make their way to the Klondike after news of gold strikes reached Seattle and San Francisco. Stanley Pearce and Marshall Bond, financed largely and speedily by Pearce’s well-to-do father, outfitted themselves in what would have been considered high style—from collapsible boats to fur robes—and caught one of the first vessels north from Seattle, hoping to reach Dawson City before the region became frozen in for the winter. Just one step ahead, it seemed, of the elements and fellow stampeders, the men cleared the White Pass (nicknamed Dead Horse) Trail and Lake Bennett before the freeze and settled into a cabin in Dawson City in time to investigate possible claims to stake. They did everything right, were better equipped than most, had a fair share of luck, and yet came away a year later with only life experience to show for their efforts, and most of their good humor thankfully intact. Meissner pieces together the account mainly from letters, journal entries, and newspaper dispatches the men sent back to the States throughout their adventure, and the emotional highs and lows of hope and disappointment come vividly through their accessible writings. Plenty of period photos, many of notable detail and clarity, augment the text, and a bibliography and list of further resources are included. U.S. History teachers will appreciate the deft integration of primary sources, but kids who love adventure stories will simply appreciate an exciting personal account—topped off perhaps with a Netflix viewing of Chaplin’s The Gold Rush. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Accumulated state of the Yukon River watershed: Part I critical review of literature

A consistent methodology for assessing the accumulating effects of natural and manmade change on riverine systems has not been developed for a whole host of reasons including a lack of data, disagreement over core elements to consider, and complexity. Accumulated state assessments of aquatic systems is an integral component of watershed cumulative effects assessment. The Yukon River is the largest free flowing river in the world and is the fourth largest drainage basin in North America, draining 855,000 km(2) in Canada and the United States. Because of its remote location, it is considered pristine but little is known about its cumulative state. This review identified 7 "hot spot" areas in the Yukon River Basin including Lake Laberge, Yukon River at Dawson City, the Charley and Yukon River confluence, Porcupine and Yukon River confluence, Yukon River at the Dalton Highway Bridge, Tolovana River near Tolovana, and Tanana River at Fairbanks. Climate change, natural stressors, and anthropogenic stresses have resulted in accumulating changes including measurable levels of contaminants in surface waters and fish tissues, fish and human disease, changes in surface hydrology, as well as shifts in biogeochemical loads. This article is the first integrated accumulated state assessment for the Yukon River basin based on a literature review. It is the first part of a 2-part series. The second article (Dubé et al. 2013a, this issue) is a quantitative accumulated state assessment of the Yukon River Basin where hot spots and hot moments are assessed outside of a "normal" range of variability.

In August We Drove Up the Blunt Mountains to Dawson City

In August We Drove Up the Blunt Mountains to Dawson City

Eldorado!: the archaeology of gold mining in the far North

List of illustrations Acknowledgments and contributors by Catherine Holder Spude Part I. Rediscovering Eldorado: an introduction to this volume by Catherine Holder Spude and Robin O. Mills 1. An Overview History of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rushes, 1880-1918 by Robert L. Spude 2. Theoretical Perspectives on the Frontier Mining Pattern by Donald L. Hardesty 3. A Proposed Model for a Placer Gold Mining Settlement System by Robin O. Mills 4. Predicting Social and Economic Function at Residential and Commercial Site Types in the Far North, 1880-1920 by Catherine Holder Spude 5. New Perspectives from the North: Comparative Opportunities and Challenges in an Archaeology of Eldorado by Margaret Purser Part II. Intermediate Coastal Transfer and Supply Settlements: Supplying the Upper Yukon through Skagway and Dyea by Robin O. Mills and Catherine Holder Spude 6. Already Here and Rich: A Brief Ethnohistory of Upper Lynn Canal by Thomas F. Thornton 7. Tobacco Pipes, Medicinals, and Decorated Dishes: The Archaeology of Gender and Economic Class in Households from Skagway, Alaska by Doreen C. Cooper and Catherine Holder Spude 8. Faunal Remains in Skagway, Alaska: Gold Rush to Working Class by David R. Huelsbeck Part III. Getting around the Landscape: Links in the Interior Transportation System by Robin O. Mills and Catherine Holder Spude 9. An Overview of Chilkoot Trail Archaeology by Eve Griffin and Karl Gurcke 10. Canyon City: The Archaeology of a Company Town on the Transportation Network to the Klondike by T. J. Hammer Part IV. Central and Secondary Distribution Settlements: Supplying the Mining Districts by Robin O. Mills and Catherine Holder Spude 11. Explaining Variability in Northern Gold Mining Saloons by Catherine Holder Spude, Robert M. Weaver, and Tim A. Kardatzke 12. Living at the Edge of a Boomtown: Transient Life in Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush by Michael Brand 13. Boom through Bust and Beyond: Changing Settlement System Functions at Coldfoot, a Placer Mining Town in Alaska by Robin O. Mills 14. Alder Smoke and Shoe Nails: Life in an Early-20th Century Mining Camp by Howard L. Smith, Robin O. Mills, and Catherine Holder Spude Part V. Extracting the Wealth: Sites on the Gold Creeks by Robin O. Mills and Catherine Holder Spude 15. Living the Solitary Life: Placer Mining Camps in Alaska, 1900-1950 by Becky M. Saleeby 16. Alaska Natives in the Gold Rush: A Look at Valdez Creek in the Early to Mid-20th Century by Robert E. King 17. Cabin Comforts: The Archaeology of Bachelor Cabins on Fish Creek, Alaska by Andrew S. Higgs and Robert A. Sattler References Cited Index

Pleistocene vertebrates of the Yukon Territory

Unglaciated parts of the Yukon constitute one of the most important areas in North America for yielding Pleistocene vertebrate fossils. Nearly 30 vertebrate faunal localities are reviewed spanning a period of about 1.6 Ma (million years ago) to the close of the Pleistocene some 10 000 BP (radiocarbon years before present, taken as 1950). The vertebrate fossils represent at least 8 species of fishes, 1 amphibian, 41 species of birds and 83 species of mammals. Dominant among the large mammals are: steppe bison ( Bison priscus), horse ( Equus sp.), woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius), and caribou ( Rangifer tarandus) – signature species of the Mammoth Steppe fauna ( Fig. 1), which was widespread from the British Isles, through northern Europe, and Siberia to Alaska, Yukon and adjacent Northwest Territories. The Yukon faunas extend from Herschel Island in the north to Revenue Creek in the south and from the Alaskan border in the west to Ketza River in the east. The Yukon holds evidence of the earliest-known people in North America. Artifacts made from bison, mammoth and caribou bones from Bluefish Caves, Old Crow Basin and Dawson City areas show that people had a substantial knowledge of making and using bone tools at least by 25 000 BP, and possibly as early as 40 000 BP. A suggested chronological sequence of Yukon Pleistocene vertebrates ( Table 1) facilitates comparison of selected faunas and indicates the known duration of various taxa.

Genesis of Turbic Cryosols on north-facing slopes in a dissected, unglaciated landscape, west-central Yukon Territory

The characteristics and landscape distribution of Histic Dystric Turbic Cryosols were examined on a steep (>30%) northerly slope in the unglaciated Klondike Plateau, near Dawson City, Yukon Territory. Based on texture, major element geochemistry, and clay mineralogy, the mineral parent materials were crudely stratified, with a silty material of likely aeolian origin overlying sandy gravelly colluvium. Discontinuous organic matter-enriched horizons occurred 50 cm or more below the active layer, and contained abundant partially decomposed plant detritus. Eight accelerator radiocarbon dates, ranging from 350 ± 40 to 3680 ± 40 14C years BP, suggested that incorporation of organic materials within and below the active layer was geologically recent, and had likely occurred by a combination of cryoturbation and slope processes. The widespread and rapid initiation of mass movements on slopes containing permafrost that followed forest fires in 2004 on the Klondike Plateau may be an analogue for the processes that contributed to organic matter burial in these Cryosols. These soils may represent a significant reservoir of C, as similar sites occupy at least 15% of a representative portion of the Plateau. This reservoir may be vulnerable to mobilization if future climatic warming increases the frequency of forest fires and resulting slope instability.Key words: Tyrbic Cryosol, Yukon Territory, cryoturbation, soil organic carbon, mass movement

Floodplain stratigraphy of the ice jam dominated middle Yukon River: a new approach to long‐term flood frequency

AbstractFloodplain stratigraphy is used as a new method for reconstructing ice jam flood histories of northern rivers. The method, based on reconstruction of the sedimentary record of vertically‐accreting floodplains, relies on stratigraphic logging and interpretation of floodplain sediments, which result from successive ice jam floods, and radiocarbon dating of inter‐flood organic material for chronology. In a case study along a reach of the Yukon River that straddles the Yukon–Alaska border, the method is used to develop a record of ice jam flooding for the last 2000 years. Detailed chronostratigraphic logs from three sites along the Yukon River indicates that the long‐term recurrence interval varies depending on location, but ranges from approximately once in 25 years to once in 38 years (or a probability of ca 3–4% in any given year). This is broadly similar to the 4·5% probability of recurrence calculated from archival and gauged data at Dawson City, Yukon Territory, for the period 1898–2006. Two of the three study locations, with sufficient chronology, suggest a decrease in flood frequency in the last several hundred years relative to the preceding period at each site, broadly corresponding to the Little Ice Age, suggesting climate exerts some control over long‐term ice jam flood frequency. This study demonstrates that the floodplain sedimentary record offers the potential to extend records of ice jam flooding in remote, ungauged northern rivers and provides a broader temporal context for assessing the frequency and variability of ice jam flooding. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Geomorphology and engineering geology of a landslide in ultramafic rocks, Dawson City, Yukon

The Dawson City Landslide is located at the northern edge of Dawson City, Yukon and took place prior to 1740 years B.P. The landslide occurred at the contact between the metasedimentary rocks of the Yukon–Tanana Terrane and the overlying altered ultramafic rocks of the Slide Mountain Terrane. The main part of the failure comprises altered ultramafic rocks, which have a lower Geological Strength Index (rock mass quality) than the underlying metasedimentary sequence. Division of the study area into smaller structural domains identified discontinuity sets associated with faulting along the contact of the two lithological units. A kinematic analysis of the identified discontinuity sets suggests that a toppling failure mechanism may be feasible. Due to the highly fractured nature of the ultramafic rock mass, a circular failure controlled by the low strength of the rock mass is considered a potential mechanism for the Dawson City Landslide. Limit equilibrium and finite difference numerical modelling codes support a circular failure mechanism hypothesis. However, a combination of high pore water pressure (ru = 0.3), and seismic loading are required to produce a factor of safety < 1.0. The dominant trends of linear geomorphic features (tension cracks, trenches, anti-slope scarps, ridges) correspond to a discontinuity set recognised in the headscarp of the failure. Tension cracks exposing roots and split trees indicate recent movement of a small section of the headscarp that is potentially unstable. The downslope risk represented by this unstable block is difficult to assess due to the uncertainties related to entrainment of talus material and potential travel distance over the rough and irregular surface of the middle coarse debris material. The movement rate of this block should be monitored and the surrounding area routinely investigated for the development of other potentially unstable sections of the landslide. Sheared trenches, stretched roots and split trees suggest that the middle to lower section of the debris is currently moving.

WANTED in Whitehorser: An Interview with Playwright Sally Clark

WANTED, by Sally Clark, premiered at Nakai Theatre (Whitehorse, Yukon) 26 March 2003, directed by Michael Clark. It then toured Watson Lake, Mayo and its historical setting of Dawson City.

Evidence for Human Modification of a Late Pleistocene Bison (&lt;i&gt;Bison&lt;/i&gt; sp.) Bone from the Klondike District, Yukon Territory, Canada

A 31 000 BP bison limb bone from Nugget Gulch near Dawson City, Yukon, shows a crack considered to be a human-made impact mark resulting in exposure of marrow. This bone is approximately contemporaneous with wolf, horse, and Dall sheep specimens found on an ancient Mid-Wisconsinan terrain surface at this locality. Similar ring cracks, also interpreted as human-made, have been noted on late-glacial bison bones from Engigstciak, Yukon, and Lost Chicken Creek, Alaska.

Dating Early and Middle (Reid) Pleistocene Glaciations in Central Yukon by Tephrochronology

The late Cenozoic deposits of central Yukon contain numerous distal tephra beds, derived from vents in the Wrangell Mountains and Aleutian arc–Alaska Peninsula region. We use a few of these tephra beds to gain a better understanding on the timing of extensive Pleistocene glaciations that affected this area. Exposures at Fort Selkirk show that the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced close to the outer limit of glaciation about 1.5 myr ago. At the Midnight Dome Terrace, near Dawson City, exposed outwash gravel, aeolian sand, and loess, related to valley glaciers in the adjacent Ogilvie Mountains, are of the same age. Reid glacial deposits at Ash Bend on the Stewart River are older than oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 6 and likely of OIS 8 age, that is, about 250,000 yr B.P. Supporting evidence for this chronology comes from major peaks in the rates of terrigeneous sediment input into the Gulf of Alaska at 1.5 and 0.25 myr B.P.

Estimation of Yukon River discharge during an ice jam near Dawson City

The paper presents two approaches used independently to estimate river discharge during an ice jam on the Yukon River near Dawson City. One method entailed the use of large-scale particle image velocimetry to obtain surface velocities, which were extrapolated and integrated to yield a discharge. Videotaping of ice-floe drift comprised the measurement method used for the large-scale particle image velocimetry. The second approach entailed numerical simulations performed with a 1-D ice-jam profile model (ICEJAM). The numerical model incorporates an "island-compensation" technique developed to take into account the difficulty of using 1-D ice-jam profile models to simulate accurately channels with two-dimensional features such as islands and bars. The two approaches yielded closely comparable estimates of river discharge.Key words: discharge, velocity, measurement, river, ice, jam, particle, image, velocimetry, islands.

Estimation of Yukon River discharge during an ice jam near Dawson City

The paper presents two approaches used independently to estimate river discharge during an ice jam on the Yukon River near Dawson City. One method entailed the use of large-scale particle image velocimetry to obtain surface velocities, which were extrapolated and integrated to yield a discharge. Videotaping of ice-floe drift comprised the measurement method used for the large-scale particle image velocimetry. The second approach entailed numerical simulations performed with a 1-D ice-jam profile model (ICEJAM). The numerical model incorporates an "island-compensation" technique developed to take into account the difficulty of using 1-D ice-jam profile models to simulate accurately channels with two-dimensional features such as islands and bars. The two approaches yielded closely comparable estimates of river discharge.Key words: discharge, velocity, measurement, river, ice, jam, particle, image, velocimetry, islands.

Zooplankton community composition of lakes in the Yukon and Northwest Territories (Canada) : relationship to physical and chemical limnology

We analysed associations between zooplankton species composition and local abiotic factors in 30 lakes located along a 900 km south-north transect from Whitehorse (Yukon Territory) to Inuvik (Northwest Territories). The lakes were situated in three broadly defined vegetation zones: (i) Boreal forest (between Whitehorse and Dawson City), (ii) alpine tundra (Ogilvie mountains north of Dawson City) and (iii) subarctic forest-tundra (near Inuvik). Lakes in the alpine tundra were characterised by lower conductivity, temperature, chlorophyll a and nutrients than those in the other two zones. Those in the forest-tundra were generally small and shallow, and had higher chlorophyll a concentrations than lakes further south. Lakes in forested catchments spanned a larger latitudinal range and exhibited a greater variety of physical and chemical characteristics. However, they were generally deeper, with higher conductivity, temperature and ionic concentrations. Forty-one zooplankton taxa were identified from the 30 lakes, of which the most frequently occurring were the rotifers Conochilus unicornis, Kellicottia longispina, Keratella cochlearis and Polyarthra vulgaris, the cladocerans Daphnia middendorffiana and Bosmina longirostris, and the copepods Leptodiaptomus pribilofensis, Heterocope septentrionalis and Cyclops spp. The lakes contained between two and fifteen species (mean = 6.9). Alpine tundra lakes contained slightly less species (mean = 5.8) than those at lower elevations; in particular the cladoceran fauna was depauperate or absent. Relationships among the lakes, species and environmental factors were examined using canonical correspondence analysis, with forward selection and associated Monte Carlo permutation tests. Chloride, silica and temperature showed statistically significant relationships with species distribution, and together these abiotic factors explained 25% of the variation in zooplankton communities within Yukon and Northwest Territories lakes.

The Man from the Creeks by Robert Kroetsch

B o o k R e v ie w s 2 1 7 cipitated the Fall. Francisco A. Lomeli and Tino Villanueva examine the ways that nanatives by Franciscan missionaries complicated imperial edicts to pro­ múlgate religious and colonialist ideologies intended to acculturate Native peo­ ples. The mestizaje is particularly evident in Luis Leal’s compelling analysis of Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá’s epic poem Historiade laNueva México (History ofNew Mexico). Leal demonstrates the ways that Villagrá recounted Aztec oral tradi­ tions and detailed the conquest ofNew Mexico while utilizing the “arms and let­ ters” theme and poetic conventions typical of European Renaissance literature. Herrera-Sobek’s collection masterfully repositions Fiispanic colonial texts both in the Chicano/a literary tradition as well as positing that these Hispanic colonial works produced the prototypes for many western American literary genres and archetypes, including the vaquero, rodeo, and the theatrical produc­ tion of western experience. This book is necessary reading for all those inter­ ested in the western colonial era and the development of western American literature and culture. The Man from the Creeks. By Robert Kroetsch. Toronto: Random House of Canada, 1998. 307 pages, Can. $32.00. Reviewed by Rand Marshall U tah State University, Logan In The Man from the Creeks, award-winning Canadian poet and novelist Robert Kroetsch has crafted a time-machine; the year is 1897 on the pitching decks of the Delta Queen, a rusting, dilapidated vessel called out of retirement to service some of the thousands of “stampeders” racing to their destinies in the Klondike gold fields. Kroetsch writes, “The Klondike gold strike had started up such a flutter of greed that people were willing to buy tickets on anything that promised to float in northerly direction” (4). The story unfolds through the voice of Peek, Kroetsch’s plucky fourteenyear -old narrator named for a mountain summit by a mother who couldn’t spell. In Seattle, Peek and his mother, Lou, stow away in a lifeboat and are dis­ covered en route to Skagway, Alaska. Mercilessly, the captain puts Peek and Lou ashore in the wilderness along with a man who has befriended them— Ben Redd, who, we learn, has been summoned to the Klondike by his pal Dangerous Dan McGrew. Eventually, the three struggle their way to goldcrazed Dawson City. Arriving there, they find “it was a circus, and a sideshow, and a calamity all in one” (253). Kroetsch borrows heavily from the lore and characters in Robert Service’s poem “The Shooting of Dan McGrew,” and in doing so, Kroetsch brings to mind other tales populated with famous frontier personages: Billy the Kid in Anything for Billy and Calamity Jane in Buffalo Girls, to name two by Larry McMurtry. Even the infamous sheriff of Skagway, Soapy Smith, rides through Kroetsch’s yarn, enduring long enough to menace the heroes. The author skill­ 2 1 8 WAL 3 5 .1 S u m m e r 2 0 0 0 fully treats this legendary cast. Kroetsch does not allow the story to be over­ whelmed by the images evoked by the Service poem, even as he employs them for their long associations with the Klondike. One wonders if Kroetsch might have been able to do without such props altogether, so rich is the vein of his­ tory from which The Man from the Creel

Abandoned Buildings, Living Communities

Dawson City is many things to many people. To the local white community, Dawson City is a home where they live within both a tourist destination and a globally recognised historic site. Many resist these labels, quietly opposing the reconstruction and tourism movements that have dictated much of Dawson City’s community history since the 1960s. Although they admit, “We’re living off our history, ” residents resist the power which has been given to the federal agency, Parks Canada, to decide which buildings should be restored and which should be left to die a “natural death.”

“Kickfest at Dawson City”: Native Peoples and the Sports of the Klondike Gold Rush

“Kickfest at Dawson City”: Native Peoples and the Sports of the Klondike Gold Rush

Waterborne Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts in the Yukon, Canada.

Several outbreaks of waterborne giardiasis have occurred in southern Canada, but nothing has been reported from the Canadian North. The objective of this study was to collect information relevant to waterborne giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis in the Yukon including epidemiological data and analyses of water, sewage, and animal fecal samples. Remote, pristine water samples were found to be contaminated with Giardia cysts (7 of 22 or 32%) but not with Cryptosporidium oocysts. Giardia cysts were found in 21% (13 of 61) of animal scats, but no Cryptosporidium oocysts were observed (small sample size). Whitehorse's drinking water was episodically contaminated with Giardia cysts (7 of 42 or 17%) and Cryptosporidium oocysts (2 of 42 or 5%). Neither were found in Dawson City's water supply. The only water treatment in the Yukon is chlorination, but contact times and free chlorine residuals are often too low to provide adequate protection by disinfection. Raw sewage samples from the five largest population centers in the Yukon contained 26 to 3,022 Giardia cysts and 0 to 74 Cryptosporidium oocysts per liter. Treated sewage from Whitehorse contained fewer Giardia cysts but more Cryptosporidium oocysts on average. Both were detected in Lake Laberge, downstream of Whitehorse, which has a history of fecal coliform contamination. Daily monitoring of raw sewage from the suburbs of Whitehorse showed a summertime peak of Giardia cysts and occasional Cryptosporidium oocysts after springtime contamination of drinking water. Despite this evidence, epidemiological data for the Yukon showed an endemic infection rate of only 0.1% for giardiasis (cryptosporidiosis is not notifiable).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

A Late Pleistocene Antler Artifact from the Klondike District, Yukon Territory, Canada

A modified caribou antler, interpreted as a flintknapper's punch, was collected with hundreds of other Pleistocene mammal bones at Hunker Creek near Dawson City, Yukon Territory. It has yielded a radiocarbon date of 11,350 &plusmn; 110 B.P. by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Although the specimen was not found in stratigraphic context, we infer its probable burial history from its radiocarbon age and surface alteration, and its artifactual nature from the way it has been modified. Since it is contemporaneous with Alaskan and Yukon sites containing core and blade technology, the punch may have been used for indirect percussion flaking of stone tools and preforms.Key words: caribou, Rangifer tarandus, Yukon Territory, late Pleistocene, bone tool