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Yukon Nuggets

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1898

Alaska Statehood - 50 years ago

On January 3rd, 1959, Alaska officially became the 49th state in the Union. Like the continuing quest for Yukon autonomy, the road to Alaskan statehood had been long and winding. The United States bought Alaska from the Russians in 1867…

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1950

Operation Sweetbriar, 1950

The skies over Whitehorse were filled with planes and parachutes.The streets were swarming with combat-ready soldiers.The Alaska Highway was a battle-ground.

The frigid winter showed no sign of abating, but the heat was on around the world. Thousands of Canadian…

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1951

Phelps

I didn't really know the elderly gentleman who spent his days in the back room of the little Yukon Electrical clapboard office on Main Street, except that my school chum, Willard, enjoyed stopping there to say hello. To me, he…

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1952

Champagne

If there ever was a cowboy town in the Yukon, Champagne was it. After all, the community had horses, fences, log buildings like the American west had in the movies - and most importantly - a rodeo.

In the 1950s,…

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1952

Sam McGee

It's not often you get to meet a legendary character who was cremated and lived to tell the tale, but one day, years ago in Whitehorse, I did.

When Sam McGee came to the Yukon around 1898, he had no…

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1952

T.C. Richards (and the Whitehorse Inn)

It’s gone now. The three-story clapboard building on the corner of Second and Main harboured many a Yukon legend. Some were true. Some were almost true. In its day, it was the focal point of the Whitehorse business and social…

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1954

Five-dollar Bill

I learned a new word today. It is difficult to pronounce, but it means a lot. The word is Paradoli. It was coined in 1994 and means mistaking something perceived as recognizable. Like shapes of angels in clouds. Or the…

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1954

The Big Inch Saga

The land is still here - listed as Group 2 in lot 243 - a nineteen-acre plot on the west bank of the Yukon River about three miles upstream from Dawson City. It is long way from Chicago, Illinois where…

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1955

The Big Inch Company

In the 1950s, millions of North American kids owned land in the Klondike. They dreamed about mining, farming, fencing, building cabins, raising sled dogs. They dreamed the dreams of early Klondikers, and like the majority of the gold seekers of…

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1955

The Diary of Otto Steiner

There were many remarkable stories to come out of the Klondike gold rush. Some of the most interesting were first-hand accounts kept as diaries.

Otto Steiner set sail from Seattle, bound for the Klondike, in April of 1898, along with…

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1956

by a malamute (or husky) standing on a mound of snow.

The Yukon Coat of Arms is a red, blue, gold and white shield surmounted by a malamute (or husky) standing on a mound of snow.

Wavy vertical white and blue stripes represent the Yukon River and…

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1958

1958 in review

Ian Tyson is one of my favourite singing story tellers. Always has been. He wrote a wonderful song called "50 Years Ago".

If I could roll back the years,
Back when I was young and limber,
Loose as…

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1958

Cool

That's cool. Real cool. What a great word - cool - especially when it has nothing to do with the weather. While slang and pop phrases come and go as fast as a Ferrari, the word cool is more like…

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1958

Fishing with Dief, the Chief

As fishing trips go, it was a whopper. Little wonder. After all, Canada’s newly electedPrime Minister was in town and 'Dief the Chief' was known as a fisherman of considerable skill.

It was September 1958. John Diefenbaker had just led…

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1958

SS Klondike Sold

Today, a story that could come from the pages of Ripley's "Believe It or Not", a story about how the Yukon almost lost one of its most important historical artifacts. A tale of what-ifs and might-have-beens.

It all began in…

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