Travelrific® Travel Journal

Celebrating the Gold Rush in Canada

August 16, 2010 8:00 am

By Linda Tancs

On the third Monday of August Canada’s Yukon Territory celebrates the advent of the Klondike Gold Rush spurred on by the discovery of gold in Bonanza Creek in 1896. That means today is a public holiday in the territory, and you should plan on traveling early to avoid traffic to and from the various locales offering events to celebrate the day. The usual roundup includes Watson Lake (known as the “gateway to Yukon recreation”), the Yukon capital of Whitehorse and, of course, Dawson City, the heart of the Klondike gold rush. In fact, the celebration began at Dawson City on 12 August, and there’s plenty to see here, like Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Casino, the Klondike Institute of Arts and Culture and the spectacular wilderness of Tombstone Territorial Park, protecting over 2,000 square kilometres in the south Ogilvie Mountains off the Dempster Highway. Did you know that gold is 19 times heavier than water? You can pan for your own on Bonanza Road at Claim #6, where it all began.