Dawson City - A History of Growing Pains 1896 - 1906
As prepared by Dawson Historian, John Gould.
PARIS OF THE NORTH
By June 1897 the new town of Dawson had a population of some 4,000, by June the following year the population had grown to over 25,000.
By 1898 Dawson became the "Paris of the north" the biggest city west of Winnipeg and north of San Francisco, with all the amenities of the outside world. On June 13, 1898, Yukon Territory was formed out of the western part of the Northwest Territories encompassing the Yukon River water shed. The Yukon was governed by Ottawa, with a Commissioner who had his headquarters in Dawson
The new town of Dawson, was now the capital of the new Yukon Territory. With
elaborate theatres, hotels, saloons. Dance halls. Fine stores selling all the
things that were
available in the stores in the rest of Canada and the United States, including
the latest fashions from Paris.
Four major religious orders erected churches, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Roman Catholic. By 1900 Dawson had electricity, water and sewer, and telephone, and in 1901 was connected by a telegraph system to the rest of the world.
When gold was found on the beaches of Nome Alaska, in 1899. It was estimated that by spring 8,000 left Dawson for Nome. In 1900 Dawson had a population of 5,400.
INCORPORATION
Once Dawson got established It wasn't long before the people of started agitating to have the town incorporated, they were fed up with the Government from Ottawa and Regina, running things with no say in the regulations, taxation etc.
If the town was incorporated as a city then they could elect a mayor and council, that way they maybe they would have a say in the running of the city. Agitation started in early 1898 for incorporation. Finally in January of 1902 Dawson became an incorporated city, and a Mayor and council elected.
Much of the material in this document is taken directly from the news papers of the day, as it was written at that time. The reporters then had a different way of expressing the event that they wrote about, an effort has been made to keep these items as they were written; There were no papers until 1898.
FIRE!
Dawson was in fee heyday when thanksgiving day 1897, arrived. Two dances were
on the program, and the youth and beauty of the olden days were gathered in
a maelstrom
of uproarious enjoyment. The Opera house was packed to the doors, the M&M,
owned by Pete McDonald, was the other center of conviviality, and money was
spent with reckless
abandon which characterized the sourdough of 1897. A sea of happy faces met
the eyes of the onlookers, and tile proprietors visage outshone the most joyous,
and why not? This was the night he was square with the world He had just completed
his house at a cost of $15,000 and on that very night he had made the final
payment on the establishment. Between the hours of 9 and 12 o'clock of the
night he paid $1.900 which left him clear with the world, owning, besides the
building and fixtures, a $20,000 stock of liquors. The dance went on until
early morning, when suddenly the cry of fire was raised. A man rushed down
from the upper story and reported that the house was on fire. Effort was made
by every one to extinguish the fire by bucket brigade, a hole had to be chopped
in the ice of the Yukon for water but it was of no use the fire Bad gone beyond
a bucket brigade. Within a few minutes the building was burnt to the ground
and was followed quickly by other buildings. The Opera house, the Dominion.
The fire in one night had wiped out the center of town.
©John Gould
(This is copyrighted material and under no circumstances is allowed to be copied or used without the express permission of the author)