July 8, 2007 - Whitehorse, YT

Where the Buffalo still roam in Canada!

It is Sunday night and we will be leaving Whitehorse after a three day visit. W e will also be leaving our new friend, Mike and Annette, who will be traveling on but in a little different direction.

Yesterday we went to a local museum, "The Yukon Beringia Interruptive Center”. I have a special interest because my brother, Dave, a geologist, spent a large part of his career studying Beringia and became an expert on the subject. Beringia refers to the Bering Land Bridge that formed during the last Ice Age, when the formation of glaciers removed so much water that the level of the world’s oceans lowered. This lead to the migration of animals and probably plants from Asia to the North American contentment, and, of course, in the reverse direction. The museum was excellent with many excellent exhibits as well as some very good and informative movies.

A high point on the museum visit was a demonstration of spear –throwing using the hinged spear-throwing tool used by aboriginal peoples. After the demonstration we had an opportunity to try it ourselves. It is not as easy as it appears. One thing I learned was that mastodons and mammoths, although both large elephant-like animals were quite different. Mastodons were browsing type animals living of branches and bark of trees, and became extinct, probably due to loss of habitat—trees and forests giving way to grass land. Mammoths were grass-eaters. I asked the question, why could not mastodons eat grass? The answer lies in their teeth. Mastodons had teeth more designed like ours for cutting, while mammoths had huge teeth, which have a series of fine groves, enabling them to grind grasses to fine particles, which could then be digested.

Today we went to another local museum which dealt with the history of the area. A large part of the museum dealt with various techniques for gold mining, and also with the various routes the miner-to-be took to reach Dawson City -- also our eventual destination. The rigors of their trip were enormous – almost unimaginable. Sadly, by the time many of the men reach Dawson City, most of the claims with good prospects for gold had been filed. However, a short time later, another gold rush started toward Nome Alaska.