Dawson City - A History of Growing Pains 1896 - 1906
As prepared by Dawson Historian, John Gould.
BIG CELEBRATION BEGINS THlS AFTERNOON
Grand Fourth of July Observance Opens with initial heat of derby on first avenue, at 4 o'clock.
The committee was hard at work transforming First Avenue into a scene gay with bunting and flags. From the Fairview to the N. C. Co. stores, the thoroughfare is being decorated with national colors of the United States and the British Empire.
The committee are aiming to make the avenue a living mass of color from one end of the race course to the other. A man will be stationed in the ferry tower with a big flag which he will wave when the horse, races etc. start down the street in fierce competition.
The finance committee ran the donations for the celebrations up to $1,500.
The grand stand has been erected on First Avenue. Considerable difficulty was experienced in getting the massive machinery of the Andrews Hydraulic company off the street so the grand stand could be erected.
A $200 prize was offered for the derby. After the first heat came the quarter
mile bicycle race. Then the long shore mens 100 yard dash with trucks, then
comes the half-mile handicap horse race. The farmers slow race was then ran»
the last one to cross the line will get the prize. The day will end with a
baseball game at the police grounds between the Idyle Hours
and the Amaranth nines.
The Bank of British North America
Established 1836, Capital $4,866,666; reserve
$1,388,000. Drafts bought and sold, gold dust purchased.
FOURTH OF JULY
On July 4th 1898 the Americans in Dawson decided to celebrate on the occasion
of the "Glorious Fourth"according to the Klondike Nugget of July
5th Scarcely had the clock ticked a few seconds past midnight on Sunday, when
a fuselage of pistol shots broke the Sunday stillness, and noise and lots
of it became the shrill order of the day. Whoops and Hallow's sprang from every
throat of the thousands of American throats, from one end of Dawson to the
other end in Klondike City, and proceeded to pierce the air with all kinds
of guns in the hands of all kinds of men, but every mothers son of them
were jubilant over the fact for the first time in history the vast Yukon was
being awakened from her sleep of centuries by 10,000 loyal Americans who could
not and would not forget, "the day we celebrate,' even though thousands
of miles from home. The dogs of Dawson also got into the celebration stampeding
and howling in tune with the rest of the noise.
Sleeping policemen jump from their beds with exclamations as to what was all
the shots and noise about, but looking at the clock and the calendar they realized
it was the American population celebrating the American holiday, independence
Day".
The sports in the afternoon were witnessed by a large enthusiastic crowd.
A game of base ball was played on the sand bar in front of the town, the teams
were the "Sourdough Stiffs" and the " Cheechaeos." the
bats were made from discarded boat masts, the bases were from rounded blocks
of
wood. Though the sand was ankle deep the game was played with much zest and
enjoyed by all the onlookers. The score was 8 to 9 in favour of the "Stiffs"
©John Gould
(This is copyrighted material and under no circumstances is allowed to be copied or used without the express permission of the author)