Dawson City - A History of Growing Pains 1896 - 1906
As prepared by Dawson Historian, John Gould.
STOP AT ONCE
City's Garbage dumped near the water front, is not carried away. Drops into an eddy opposite the lower part of town and swirls around until it finally deposited on the shore.
There is much complaint about town as to the manner in which the city's garbage ' is disposed of.
Residents along the water front, especially those in the lower part of town, are strong in their denunciation of the way in which the city scavengers dispose of the city's filth.
Numbers of witnesses are not wanting to testify that most of the city's garbage is merely dumped into the edge of the river where is is strewn along the shore or drops down to the big eddy at the lower end of town where is swirls round and around and most of it finds a permanent abiding place to swelter and decay breeding pestilential vapors day by
day. It is the custom of most of them to back their carts into the river as far as it is convenient for them to do so and then dump the filth, not in the current, but into the comparatively still water. (Dawson Daily News Aug. 31,1899)
FACTS ABOUT DAWSON
In the mining edition of the Dawson Daily News of September 1899, the following facts were published;
Banks 2
Dairies 5
Doctors 25
Theatres 3
Dentists 10
Lawyers 25
Churches 4
Breweries 2
Skating Rinks 1
Public Hall 1
Laundries 12
Pack Trains 8
Social Clubs 4
Gymnasium 1
Assay Office 5
Planing Mills 2
Bottling Works 1
Machine Shops 3
Population 5,000
Private Schools 3
Public Hospitals 2
Suburban Towns 2
Private Hospitals 3
Steamboat Docks 12
First Class Hotels 12
Suspension Bridge 1
Fraternal Societies 4
Up-River Steamers 23
Shipyards & Ways 1
Vegetable Gardens 12
Express companies 3
Royalty Paid $700,000.
Saw Mills 6
Down Steamers 41
Brick Yards 3
Restaurants & Cafes 40
Jewellers 7
Miles of Improved streets 5
R.N.W.M.P. 118
Police
Coal Mines nearby 5
Athletic & Sport Clubs 2
Salvation Army & Barracks 1
Dog Team Freighters 75
Turkish & Plain Bath Houses 9
Tonnage From St. Michael 15,000
School age Children 165
Indians in & About Dawson 150
Electric Light Plant 1
Cold and Warm Storage 8
Water Systems in City 2
Field Force 85
Telegraph Office 1
Distance to Skagway 628 miles
Gold Produced in 1898 $15,000,000
Realty Investment $20,000,000
Papers Daily 1
Semi Weekly 1
Weekly 3
Weekly Mail out
Fire Department with 2 engines, 2 hose carts, 2 chemicals a hook and Ladder truck
(Dawson Daily News Mining edition Sept. 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)