RubiKon: Yukon Quest '09

Keno City: Silver Capital Of the Yukon

Silver is found in galena. Galena is an amalgamation of lead, zinc and silver. High in the mountains, far north of Whitehorse, lies Keno City. Hard rock mining was the work of the day and many folks came from around the world to work in this region of the world. Migrants from Yugoslavia, Gemany, Italy, UK, etc... came here to live and build a community high in the mountains. The mines were open from 1914-1989. Today, the population is around 14 hardcore folks that consist of miners and artists. Perhaps looking for the perfect place to live... or hide.

The residents don't find much purpose anymore or pretense or conformity... if they ever did. Keno is at the end of a long, long road where few others have followed. It is a beautiful place, a harsh land and required hard work to make a living.
Yukon Johann and GrizzLee visited this town and toured the mining museum.
The Snack Bar serves great pizza and is the only real business.. such that it is in town.

Did we mention the Grizzly in the visitors center. Whoa... this guy was big.

Ore was originally hauled out of Keno City to Mayo Landing where it was loaded onto paddle wheelers and sent down the Stewart river to the Yukon River where the ore was transferred to bigger steamships and shipped to Whitehorse. (Stewart Landing was a place in the middle of nowhere we visited on the Yukon River a week before).

Among the oddities in Keno is this house made from Stubby beer bottles long before the refunds for glass bottles was enacted. It took 4 years and 32,000 bottles to build.

There is a signpost and a memorial to the Alfred Schellinger, a pioneer in hard-rock mining up on the mountain. It is a rough road to the top, almost impassable in our Toy house. The signpost was erected during an international meeting of scientists (Geophysical Year) where the arrows point to the various countries represented. We could see many cabins and mines from this vantage point and the views further north were very much like those found along the Dempster Highway as we were on the edge of the treed zone where the arctic tundra begins high in the mountains.

We went for an extended hike and explored many mines. Many artifacts and equipment were left behind.We were advised by the publications to leave the artifacts alone, however, we couldn't resist a little ride on this mining cart placed on the edge of a cliff.

Imagery reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie came to mind.

The setting was surreal

Mining carts littered the hillsides everywhere.

Many of the tracks led to the end of cliffs where they were emprtied into sky trams and the ore carried downhill.

Again, ignoring the warnings, we entered a couple of mines.

The old sky tram supports provided an errie setting.

Although the mines stated to beware of open holes, we couldn't resist having a look inside a couple of mines.

So much for open holes, the mines are all frozen. Mining in permafrost presents challenges not found elswhere. Not only does one have to pump the water out, they have to heat it to keep it from freezing.

An old radio tower (presumably) stands like a sentinel in no mans land. We stood in awe and spent the night on teh summit where it hailed and rained all night and into the long morning. So much for more hiking :-(