Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a city in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–1899). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest city in Yukon.

History

Packtrain carrying freight outside of the Bartlett Bros offices, Dawson, Yukon territory, 1899 (HEGG 624)

Prior to the

late modern period In many periodizations of human history, the late modern period followed the early modern period. It began approximately around the year 1800 and depending on the author either ended with the beginning of contemporary history after World War ...

the area was used for hunting and gathering by the Hän-speaking people of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and their forebears. The heart of their homeland was

Tr'ochëk Tr'ochëk is the site of a traditional Hän fishing camp at the confluence of the Klondike River and Yukon River. The site is owned and managed by the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, and is operated by the First Nation's Department of Heri ...

, a fishing camp at the confluence of the Klondike River and

Yukon River The Yukon River (Gwichʼin language, Gwich'in: ''Ųųg Han'' or ''Yuk Han'', Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Yup'ik: ''Kuigpak'', Inupiaq language, Inupiaq: ''Kuukpak'', Deg Xinag language, Deg Xinag: ''Yeqin'', Hän language, Hän: ''Tth'echù' ...

, now a National Historic Site of Canada, just across the Klondike River from modern Dawson City. This site was also an important summer gathering spot and a base for moose-hunting on the Klondike Valley. The current settlement was founded by

Joseph Ladue Joseph Francis "Joe" Ladue (July 28, 1855 – June 27, 1901) was a prospector, businessman and founder of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Ladue was born in Schuyler Falls, New York. His mother died when he was seven years old, and his father in 1874. ...

and named in January 1897 after noted Canadian geologist

George M. Dawson George Mercer Dawson (August 1, 1849 – March 2, 1901) was a Canadian geologist and surveyor. Biography He was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, the eldest son of Sir John William Dawson, Principal of McGill University and a noted geologist ...

, who had explored and mapped the region in 1887. It served as Yukon's capital from the territory's founding in 1898 until 1952, when the seat was moved to Whitehorse. 3rd St, Dawson, Yukon Territory, ca 1899 (HEGG 88)

3rd St, Dawson, Yukon Territory, ca 1899 (HEGG 88)

Dawson City was the centre of the Klondike Gold Rush. It began in 1896 and changed the First Nations camp into a thriving city of 16,000–17,000 by 1898. By 1899, the gold rush had ended and the town's population plummeted as all but 8,000 people left. When Dawson was incorporated as a city in 1902, the population was under 5,000. St. Paul's Anglican Church, also built that same year, is a National Historic Site. The downtown has been devastated by fire in November 1897 (that started when dance hall girl Dolly Mitchell threw a lamp at another girl in an argument), 1899 (that started in the Bodega Saloon), 1900 (that started at the Monte Carlo Theatre) and flooding in 1925, 1944, 1966, 1969 and 1979. The population dropped after World War II when the

Alaska Highway Robert Service Cabin

* Pierre Berton: Dawson City is home of the Berton House Writers' Retreat program, housing established Canadian writers for four three-month get-away-from-it-all subsidized residencies each year. Berton House was the childhood home of popular-history writer Berton. The program is now administered by the Writers' Trust of Canada. Berton narrated the 1957 film '' City of Gold'' which describes the excitement of Dawson City during the gold rush. He also wrote the book ''Klondike'', an historical account of the gold rush to the Klondike in 1896–1899. * Martha Black, the second woman elected to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

, as a single mother in Dawson earned a living by staking gold mining claims and running a sawmill and a gold ore-crushing plant. She later married George Black, Commissioner of Yukon, and in 1935 was elected to the House of Commons for the riding of Yukon as an Independent Conservative taking the place of her ill husband. *

Joseph W. Boyle Joseph Whiteside Boyle (6 November 1867 – 14 April 1923), better known as Klondike Joe Boyle, was a Canadian adventurer who became a businessman and entrepreneur in the United Kingdom. In the First World War he came to see service assisting t ...

, "Klondike Joe," entrepreneur, hockey organizer and adventurer. *

Suzanne Crocker Suzanne Crocker is a Canadian documentary filmmaker from Dawson City, Yukon. She is most noted for her films '' All the Time in the World'' (2014), which won the award for Most Popular Canadian Documentary at the 2014 Vancouver International Film F ...

, documentary filmmaker. *

John D. Ferry John Douglass Ferry (May 4, 1912 – October 18, 2002) was a Canadian-born American chemist and biochemist noted for development of surgical products from blood plasma and for studies of the chemistry of large molecules.Lulu Mae Johnson Lulu Mae Johnson ( – October 25, 1918) was a dance-hall performer and hotelier in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Johnson arrived in the Yukon in 1899 or 1900, probably from Alabama. She may have arrived with a dance troupe or with a trumpet pla ...

, manager of Dawson's dance hall in the early 1900s. She died on the

SS Princess Sophia SS ''Princess Sophia'' was a steel-built passenger liner in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Along with , , and , ''Princess Sophia'' was one of four similar ships built for CPR during 1910-1911. On 25 October 191 ...

.''Lulu Mae Johnson'' at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
/ref> * Victor Jory, actor of stage, film, and television, was born in Dawson in 1902 to American parents. * William Judge, a

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

priest who during the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush established a facility in Dawson which provided shelter, food and any available medicine to the many hard-at-luck gold miners who filled the town and its environs. * Jack London spent the late Autumn of 1897 and Spring of 1898 in Dawson. He spent part of the winter 1897–1898 in a cabin that was originally on Henderson Creek, a tributary of the Stewart River. It was in the 1960s located disassembled and relocated and is now just up the street from downtown Dawson. *

Micí Mac Gabhann Micí Mac Gabhann (22 November 1865 – 29 November 1948) was a seanchaí and memoirist from the County Donegal Gaeltacht. He is best known for his posthumously published emigration memoir ''Rotha Mór an tSaoil'' (1959). It was dictated to his ...

, an Irish language storyteller (

seanchaí A seanchaí ( or – plural: ) is a traditional Gaelic storyteller/historian. In Scottish Gaelic the word is (; plural ). The word is often anglicised as shanachie ( ). The word ''seanchaí'', which was spelled ''seanchaidhe'' (plural ''se ...

) who lived in Dawson in 1897–98 and whose memoirs of the Klondyke Gold Rush ''Rotha Mór an tSaoil'' were published posthumously in 1959. * William Ogilvie, a

Dominion land surveyor The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 19 ...

, explorer and Commissioner of the Yukon, surveyed the townsite of Dawson City and was responsible for settling many disputes between miners. *

Alexander Pantages Alexander Pantages (Περικλῆς Ἀλέξανδρος Πανταζής , ''Periklis Alexandros Padazis''; 1867 – February 17, 1936) was a Greek American vaudeville impresario and early motion picture producer. He created a large and p ...

, impresario, had his start in Dawson City. He opened a small theatre to serve the city. Soon, however, his activities expanded and the thrifty Greek went on and became one of America's greatest theatre and movie tycoons. * Robert W. Service, known as The Bard of the Yukon for his famous poems " The Shooting of Dan McGrew", " The Cremation of Sam McGee" and many others which depicted the Gold Rush and the culture of the Klondike. Service was transferred to the Dawson branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce in Dawson City in 1908. Then, he dwelt in a log cabin where he would pursue his writings with ''

The Trail of 98 ''The Trail of '98'' is a 1928 American silent action-adventure/drama film featuring Harry Carey and Dolores del Río about the Klondike Gold Rush. The film was originally released by MGM in a short-lived widescreen process called “Fantom Sc ...

''. *

Jan Eskymo Welzl Jan Welzl (15 August 1868, in Zábřeh, Moravia, Austria-Hungary – 19 September 1948, in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada) was a Czech of Moravian ethnicity who was a traveller, adventurer, hunter, gold-digger, Eskimo chief and Chief Justice on New ...

was a Moravian adventurer, hunter, gold prospector, Eskimo chief and Chief Justice on New Siberia island and later a story-teller and writer. During his life in Dawson City he was called Perpetual Motion Man and was also known as an inventor. Books based on his stories were published in many countries all over the world. Buried in Dawson City. *

Black Mike Winage Michael "Black Mike" Winage (14 March 1870 – 15 March 1977) was a Serbian Canadian miner, pioneer and adventurer who settled in the Yukon towards the end of the Klondike Gold Rush and who allegedly lived to be 107 years old. Biography Born in ...

, a Serbian-Canadian miner, pioneer, and adventurer, who lived to be 107 years old, lived in Dawson City. *

Weldy Young Weldon "Weldy" Champness Young (October 4, 1871 – October 27, 1944) was a Canadian businessman and athlete. Young was an ice hockey player for the Ottawa Hockey Club, playing in its founding years in the 1880s and in the 1890s. Young later beca ...

, professional hockey player for the Ottawa Silver Seven. * Joe Vogler, Alaskan politician, buried in Dawson.

Freedom of the City

The following people and military units have received the

Freedom of the City The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

of Dawson City.

Military Units

* The Canadian Rangers: 22 August 2022.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1896 establishments in Canada Former cities in Yukon Klondike Gold Rush Mining communities in Yukon Populated places established in 1896 Towns in Yukon Yukon River

History

Freedom of the City

Military Units

See also

References

External links