Dawson City - A History of Growing Pains 1896 - 1906
As prepared by Dawson Historian, John Gould.
EDUCATED HEELS
The dancing carnival is now an assured fact.
Next Monday evening at the Grand Opera House any and all comers will be invited to participate in the prize dancing contest.
Four judges, to be selected by the editors of the different news papers of Dawson, will decide the momentous question and the prize will be a beautiful gold medal worth at least $100.00
The medal was offered by Mr. Meadows and must be won three times by the same couple in open competition before it can be finally claimed. The contest to take place at intervals during the winter and at different places .
"Nigger Jim" offers to wager $500.00 that a certain lady to be named by him will carry off the prize with a fair field and no favor. (Dawson Daily Aug. 23,1899)
DAWSON WATER SYSTEMS
(Dawson Daily news August 25,1899)
There were a number of ways that Dawson was supplied with water for domestic and fire fighting purposes, the following are two of them.
On August 25, 1899, the paper announced that the water would be turned on
following Monday. The water company decided that they would use wood for the
mains and that water would not be taken directly from the Klondike, as in the
spring the water is very dirty. It was decided to sink a well near the Klondike
river for the necessary water, going as deep as bedrock as there is always
plenty of water at that level the water filtering through the gravels from
the river would be suitable for domestic use as well as fire fighting. The
well would be 10 feet square and walled with closely fitted sawed logs. The
water is then pumped 45 feet to a large holding tank of a capacity of 10,000
gallons. The iron pipe from the pump to the tank is encased I a 10 foot square
box filled with sawdust also along side the iron pipe is a 2 inch steam pipe
from the pump to the tank. There was also a coil of galvanized pipe in the
storage tank that will carry steam during the cold weather, to help keep the
water from freezing when pumped around the city. Tanks and taps will be place
around town at convenient locations. Then on September 13,1899, two men, George
VanMeter and H.M.Henning announced the formation of the Arctic Water Co. Organized
to supply water for domestic and fire purposes. The plan was to have an immense
reservoir on the hill to which water will be pumped from a natural spring.
Water mains were to be layed along the principal street, in the winter hot
air pipes will be place along side the water mains.
In October 1899, Colonel Word of the Dawson Water Works proposed a water system that would be supplied from a reservoir on the hill, the water in the reservoir would be steam heated before it starts on its run through pipes, it would always be under cover and would be kept running at a lively gait. The water to be pumped from a covered well on the Klondike to a reservoir 50 feet up on the hill, it would be covered, and have a coil of pipe on the bottom through which steam would be continuously circulated. The main lines would be of wood and less likely to freeze, 18 to 20 taps or hydrants would be located around town, over these wooden shelters would be built with room enough for a stove, the shelter would be kept just warm enough to keep the iron pipes from freezing in the coldest weather. The Dawson residents would get their water from these taps. (Dawson Daily News Aug. 25,1899)
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
An organizational meeting was held on a Friday evening to form a Dawson Chapter of the chamber of Commerce. The meeting was held in the Criterion Hotel. A large number of the leading business men of Dawson signed up. Many of the business men had been members of commercial organizations elsewhere and were keenly interested in the advantages of such a group, recognizing the permanency and natural advantage of Dawson to forever be the "Queen City" of the Yukon as a mining centre. Forty four business men signed at this meeting. (Dawson Daily News August 31,1899)
©John Gould
(This is copyrighted material and under no circumstances is allowed to be copied or used without the express permission of the author)