Downtown Hotel on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Downtown Hotel is an establishment at Second Avenue and Queen Street in
The Downtown Hotel is an establishment at Second Avenue and Queen Street in Dawson City
Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest town in Yuko ...
, Yukon
Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
, Canada. It contains 59 rooms.
History
Contrary to popular belief, the current hotel structure wasn't built in the late 1890s gold rush, because great fires, storms and flooding have weathered away any previous buildings. The current structure was built in the early 1980s, conforming to city building codes ofgold rush
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...
boomtown
A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although ...
style catering to modern tourism.
Sourtoe cocktail
The hotel has gained notoriety for its Sourtoe cocktail. The Sourtoe cocktail began during prohibition with a case offrostbite
Frostbite is a skin injury that occurs when exposed to extreme low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues, commonly affecting the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin areas. Most often, frostbite occurs in the ha ...
. In the 1920s, two outlaw brothers, Louie and Otto, were caught in a blizzard. Louie soaked his foot, and when the brothers got back to their cabin, Louie's foot was frostbitten with his right toe becoming gangrenous. Otto amputated it, and placed it in a jar filled with bourbon to commemorate the event. The drink tradition was established by riverboat captain Dick Stevenson in 1973 ( 1930 - 21 November 2019).
To gain admittance to a club of drinkers of the Sourtoe cocktail, members must drink the cocktail and the lips of the participant must touch the toe, and gets presented with a signed certificate but ingesting the toe results in a $2,500 fine and permanent barring from the premises, up from $500 from when guest; "Josh from New Orleans" deliberately ingested it in 2013, proactively paying the fine and unremorsefully shocking the bartender. Over 100,000 customers have tried the concoction to date, as of 2023. Bartender Terry Lee says they would like to have another toe donated, because several toes have been damaged, stolen, swallowed or lost over the span of decades.
References
Buildings and structures in Dawson City Hotels in Yukon {{Yukon-geo-stub