August 3-6, 2018
Our return to Whitehorse had a sense of urgency with the discovery of the front end damage to the Jeep. Our first stop in Whitehorse was to the Jeep dealer who informed us that they could not repair the damage but did recommend a welding shop with experience repairing damage similar to ours. The welding shop was willing to repair the damage but couldn’t begin work on the Jeep until the following week. This forced us to reduce the number of days we would spend in Skagway, but we now had time to visit a couple of places in Whitehorse that we missed on our first trip to town.
The Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre was a celebration of the culture and traditions of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation. Our guide for a tour of the centre was a delightful young First Nations woman who freely shared her views and experiences as an indigenous person in an at times hostile world. The stories passed on to her from family and friends were enlightening. We enjoyed hearing of her recent experiences hiking the Chilkoot Pass which miners had used during the Gold Rush.
Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre
These beaded moccasin toppers called vamps were made by Yukon women for an exhibit called “Walking With Our Sisters: A Commemorative Art Installation for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women”. The uncompleted moccasins symbolize the unfinished lives of the women.
This traditional Tlingit canoe was carved as part of a project to teach Yukon First Nation youth how to create a dugout canoe.
Ione Christensen, a trapper, had her own snare line by the time she was six, catching squirrels and rabbits and selling them to the Hudson Bay Co. for 25 cents each. in 1940 her family had a tin with a portrait of King George VI and his family, The two princesses were wearing ermine stoles so Ione trapped two ermine, sold them to the Hudson Bay Co. for $2 each with the strict instructions that they had to be sent to the princesses. Note that Ione is wearing a double ermine stole and fur muff that she trapped.
The Old Log Church Museum is in the heart of downtown Whitehorse just a block off Main Street. It was built in 1900 by the Reverend Richard Brown. It hosts a museum year-round and church services during the summer. Our tour guide shared several stories not included in the displays.
The Old Log Church is one of the oldest buildings in Whitehorse, now a museum and church in the summer, it has been in continuous service since 1904.
Part of the museum section of the Old Log Church.
Reverend Exham was an early pastor of the church.
Many of the street signs in Whitehorse are captioned in the Indigenous Native languages.
On Monday morning we dropped off the Jeep at the welding shop and picked it up Tuesday morning on our way out of town. We had to wait a while because the broken parts in the front end had damaged the wiring to the lights on the front passenger side and the technicians hadn’t been able to locate the short in the wiring. It was eventually located and repaired and we were able to hook up and continue our trip to Skagway.
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