City of Gold

2/16/2024

The first few scenes illustrate a town that little resembles the famed towns of the gold rush. Dawson City as it now is has a restaurant where people drink coffee with saucers under their cups under the gaze of a picture of The Queen on the wall. Now, all of the frenzy has gone and much of this place is abandoned and derelict. Nature is reclaiming the land so hastily claimed from it seven decades earlier - even the old railway engines and steam boats lie abandoned and untouched. Back in the 1890s, though, over one hundred thousand opportunists turned up expecting to make it rich - and the variety of photographs shown here remind us of just how ill-equipped many were for the wintery conditions this terrain could generate. 70 feet of snow fell in just one year whilst the would-be pan-handler