See the sights

Dawson Historical Complex

National Historic Site Just 322 kilometres below the Arctic Circle, this site preserves the remains of a once rowdy, lusty mining camp, celebrating how the Dawson of the Klondike Gold Rush embodied Canada’s last frontier, bestowing upon Canada some of her most colourful history.

Discovery Claim National Historic Site A National Historic Site cairn marks the spot on Bonanza Creek where gold was found, launching the 1898 stampede. A self-guided trail winds past the site where hundreds of men tore up creekbeds and hand-turned windlasses, employing gold mining techniques still used today. S.S. Keno National Historic Site Prior to the Klondike Gold Rush, only a handful of steam powered sternwheelers worked the Yukon River. Between June and Sept. 1898, 57 registered steamboats, carrying more than 10,000 tons of supplies, docked at Dawson City. While no steamers from that era have survived, this site preserves a 40-metre, 1922 vessel built to transport silver, lead and zinc ore.

Dredge No. 4 National Historic Site Built in 1912, No. 4 was one of two dredges working the area and North America’s largest wooden hull, bucket-line dredge. Twothirds as large as a football field and eight storeys high, it could dig 17 metres below water level and five metres above water level using hydraulic monitors to wash the gravel banks down.