Bessie Gideon refused to let mere death end her career at the Caribou Hotel. Her husband Edwin died in 1925 and never came back. Bessie died in 1933 and never left. Her friends and neighbors gave her a funeral and buried her in Carcross—but no one knows the location of her grave. Ghosts Haunt the …
Tag Archives: Carcross
Ghosts Haunt the Caribou Hotel.
Ghosts haunt the Caribou. Fabled figures came to Yukon Territory with the rush to the Klondike gold fields. They created the famous Caribou Hotel that centered life in tiny Carcross. Apparently even death couldn’t make some of them leave its history behind. The story weaves its way through John Firth’s book, The Caribou Hotel. In …
First Woman of the Klondike
The first woman of the Klondike struck gold in the Klondike, but still lived the saddest life on record. Born Shaaw Tiaa, native Tagish, she married a Tlingit man and bore him a daughter. A flu epidemic killed them both. When Shaaw Tiaa’s sister passed away she married the widower, a white man named George …
Inwood to Skagway
Inwood, Iowa to Skagway, Alaska—Doctor Peter Dahl moved his family to an utterly different, utterly unique world. Wife Vera liked Iowa just fine, but “whither thou goest…” The move struck eleven-year-old Lew, ten-year-old Robert, and even three year old Roger as pure excitement. Buffalo Soldiers in Skagway In his memoir, After the Gold Rush, …
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Bennett Came First
Bennett, in 1898 and 1899, made sense as a first stop in Yukon Territory for the thousands of would be miners passing through on their way to the Klondike gold fields. The majority of them made their way on ships to Skagway, Alaska; struggled up the Chilkoot or the White pass; and settled at the …
Millie’s First White Men Were Black
Millie Jones, born in Whitehorse, grew up in Carcross, Yukon Territory—about as remote a place as the world had to offer. People in Carcross ordered their groceries in bulk–had staples shipped to Skagway and then up to them by the White Pass and Yukon Territory railroad. Clothes came from the Sears catalogue. Millie shared the Carcross …
Communicable Disease and Canadian Natives
Communicable diseases swept the native population of Northern Canada in 1942. And, when illnesses began to appear, the army and civilian physicians who came with the Corps offered their services. At first Canadian bureaucracy made that difficult. Territorial authorities, protecting existing private medical practices, required Canadian licensure for physicians treating Canadian citizens. Sickness from Outsiders …
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Stampede to the Klondike
A stampede of gold seekers descended on Skagway, Alaska in 1897. As the crow flies, Caribou Crossing and Lake Bennett lay just a few miles from Skagway and from Lake Bennett the Yukon River flowed north to the Gold Fields. No, as they say, big deal. More on Skagway Unfortunately, the stampeders weren’t crows, and …
Peeing in a Coffee Can?
Peeing in a coffee can, an art “Dusty” Hannon had no interest in mastering, led her to carry her very own chamber pot on the train to Carcross. Well, of course. Everybody in Skagway and in sister town Carcross, for that matter, knew “Dusty”, accepted her logic. Skagway welcomed and took its true flavor from …