More Whitehorse, museums, Sam McGee, Follies

Tuesday we visited the Old Log Church which is now a museum. The construction was quite interesting. The main church building corner logs were cut flat while the rectory next door (left photo) had dove-tailed joints! No one was able to explain this.

From photos and stories in the church, the priests and bishops of the time and their wives were just as hardy and tough as their parishioners!

Then we were off to yet another museum, the McBride museum, which features a mixture of things, primarily Natural History and Human History, both of the indigenous and arriving whites. They even have a section in the basement called the “Cluttertorium”! Outside were many old wagons, trains and automobiles. One of the strangest was a horse drawn wagon that ran on 8" diameter log rails!

Sam Magee's cabin is located here, and yes, Sam Magee was a real miner and known to the Yukon poet Robert Service who wrote of the gold rush era in which he lived.

Robert W Service came from Lancashire, England and worked in the Canadian Bank of Commerce in Whitehorse. His poems of the time are famous in Canada, known in much of the USA but not very well known in the rest of the world. In his best known work, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, Service states that Sam came from Tennessee (it rhymes with Mcgee!) but in reality McGee was born in Lindsay, Ontario. Sam also personally attended a reading of the poem about his own cremation!

At the museum, in front of Sam Magee's cabin we were treated to a recitation of the poem.

Here is the first (and also repeated as the last) verse:

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

To read the entire poem go to this link:

http://www.wordinfo.info/words/indexinfoview_unit/2640

Wednesday, July 7th Gillian walked Trekker along the trail from Miles Canyon to Canyon City. Don't know which one enjoyed the stroll more! For much of its run to the Bering Sea the Yukon River is flat and meandering. Miles Canyon is one of those places where it is neither flat nor meandering.






The north end has been dammed to provide flood control and hydroelectric power. In this area is the very long fish ladder known as the fishway. This 366 meter long fish ladder is believed to be the longest wooden fish ladder in the world.

Frantic Follies

Thursday night we attended the nightly theatre production of the "Frantic Follies" a recreation of the old entertainment common during the gold-rush era. Song, Dance, Scantily clad ladies--what's not to like! Predictable gags, loud raucous music, silly skits--we loved it! The picture on the right is from a skit portraying "The Cremation of Sam McGee". Sam is the frozen corpse sitting on the sled. The acting was probably better now than in the time!

And of course, Art's favourite!