Dawson City is an Odd & Special Town

(Yukoners aren't shy about dropping an ampersand whenever they like.)

Dawson City, Yukon is a mining town.  In 1896, people got word that there was gold here.  In 1900, literally 1,000,000 ounces of gold were extracted from the earth.  Within a few years, that number dropped almost as quickly as it spiked.

They still walk on boardwalk-style sidewalks here.  There's still lots of booze and some gambling.  It has the feel of a preserved gold-rush town, but there's something more too -- something weirder, to my eye. 

First, the obvious thing at this moment.  Instead of seeing the grand mining town against gorgeous verdant Yukon mountain peaks, I see it against a cloud of forest-fire smoke.

You couldn't see the scenery while I was here, even at the river.  It was cloaked in what looked like fog, but was really just smoke.

Possibly related, everything's covered in white dust and dirt.  That could be the fires, but it also may be how the town looks.  This is a gold town, and everything's been turned up and blasted apart.  The streets seem to be made of white dust, fires or not.  Random streets on the way to town look like they've been snowed on, and every car is blanketed in thick dust and mud.

Another reason for the oddness:  This is one of those "period" towns, like Williamsburg, Va. or Gettysburg, Pa.  Lots of people employed by the city (or by Canada) wear a funny costume while they interact with visitors, and it's not unusual to see a lady in a pioneer dress and funny hat leading tourists around town. 

Maybe 20 of the classic 1900-style edifices are original structures.  New structures are required by the zoning board to look like old structures.  There are other incentives to 1900-ize pretty much everything else too.  And it works!  It looks like you went back in time when you walk around.

Other weird stuff:

Every service person seems to be from Europe or Canada or the States.  They're smart, young, attractive, ambitious, and provide superb service.  The gays are here too.  Close your eyes and listen to the soundtracks, linguistic stylings, and general ambiance, and you might think you're in Los Feliz or Greenpoint or wherever.  When some girl with the side of her head buzzed isn't pouring you a craft cocktail and selecting a new playlist, some guy from Australia or Madrid is saying "soooorry" with a Canadian lilt as he nonchalantly buses your table.

Meanwhile, the rest of this very tiny population consists of Yukoners -- guys with giant beards who don't say anything for a long time.  These characters have their own quirks and manners, and they could certainly be a town unto themselves, as they no doubt were before the new guard showed up.  

To add one final layer of texture to the picture, Dawson City is an enormously popular RV destination.  Many locals along the Alaska Highway lament the rise of the RV crowd, but for the moment, it's here to stay -- and every RVer is rightfully nuts about Dawson City, which has plenty of space, beautiful scenery and wildlife and fishing, and tons of great bars and restaurants right in town.  To put it mildly, the RV crowd lends its own special patina to the social life of Dawson City.  For better or worse, that patina often involves drunk chubby retirees waving at you with the joy and subtlety of a toddler.

One last obvious thing:  It's obscenely cold here for most of the year.  It's (mostly) a seasonal town, and that has a big effect on how people and employees comport themselves during the relatively short period when Dawson City is In Season.  Everybody seems to have 50% more energy every night.

Without the period angle and the resort angle, this town would be proper Yukoners, hunters, and not much else.  It would be staggeringly beautiful (when the world isn't burning around it), but it might have three gas stations and not much else.  Instead, there's much, much more.  They hung on to the Gold Rush stuff, and that brought employees and tourists.  They managed the infrastructure and got RVers and Europeans and more employees.  They kept a foothold in nature and people come here to hunt, fish, and view wildlife.  They sell gold prospecting tours, helicopter tours for northern Yukon and Alaska, boat tours, and every other kind of tour you can imagine.  More employees arrive to handle these jobs.  And so it goes.  

Dawson City is mobbed all summer.  Every restaurant and bar I visited was packed solid.  Whether or not it has forged an identity or reached an equilibrium, Dawson City is firing on all cylinders -- whatever those cylinders might be.