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Arlington
Road House and other hotels along the
Yukon While attending
Klondike Night at the 1997 British Columbia &
Yukon Hotels' Association Convention, an old high
school friend, Kip Fisher of Mayo mentioned that
today's Yukon hotels are as modern as any on the
outside. As guests at two
Westmark
Inns, while
producing the Alaska Highway's 50th Anniversary
video, I can vouch for this. Going to the Yukon
this year? Perhaps you may relive some of the
history I spoke of, and I can assure you the
accommodation will be to your liking. The "Mile
Houses" along the Fraser River during BC's Cariboo
Gold Rush are another story we will enjoy telling
soon. At our Air &
Marine Tourism Conference in Vancouver , Victoria's
Kevin
Walker,
President of the BC-Yukon
Hotels' Association
at the
time, spoke of how today's hoteliers can meet the
challenge by creative tour packaging. While attending
Klondike Night at the 1997 British Columbia &
Yukon Hotels' Association Convention, an old high
school friend, Kip Fisher of Mayo mentioned that
today's Yukon hotels are as modern as any on the
outside. As guests at two
Westmark
Inns, while
producing the Alaska Highway's 50th Anniversary
video, I can vouch for this. Going to the Yukon
this year? Perhaps you may relive some of the
history I spoke of, and I can assure you the
accommodation will be to your liking. The "Mile
Houses" along the Fraser River during BC's Cariboo
Gold Rush are another story we will enjoy telling
soon. At our Air &
Marine Tourism Conference in Vancouver , Victoria's
Kevin
Walker,
President of the BC-Yukon
Hotels' Association
at the
time, spoke of how today's hoteliers can meet the
challenge by creative tour packaging. |
One winter, while finishing high school in Dawson
City on my own, I earned
my
'meal ticket' working at Curly Salois' Westminster
Hotel, one of the more sturdy remnants of Gold Rush
Days. For some reason Curly's place stood on its
foundation, despite the heaving permafrost that
left most older buildings lurching to the right or
left at some crazy angles. Yes Virginia, they
really did have meal tickets, and there really was
a hotel named The Pearl Harbour, after Pearl
Carswell, a family friend. Then there's the
original Whitehorse Inn, which my grandfather,
Ernie J. Somerton, almost won in a poker game with
owner T.C. Richards, a legend in his
time.
As
a curious youngster, I had a great fascination for
abandoned road houses, such as the Hollenbeck on
the Klondike's North Fork. The Arlington near the
Bonanza gold fields was still operating at the
time. Each roadhouse was a nugget , in a chain of
coach stops from Dawson
City, via
Stewart, Minto, Carmacks and Lac Le Berge to
Whitehorse, head of rail and steamboat
transportation. Apple Jimmy had the only fruit
store in the Yukon , at a time when the only fresh
fruit came by Paddle wheeler. We plan to name a
computer column in his honor.