October 2023

My car started sliding across the sloped and slick, muddy highway, and I wondered for a moment if perhaps I was as crazy as some naysayers in my life probably portrayed me as.  I had decided to take a 1000+ km (600+ mi) round trip detour from my main route going through Whitehorse, up to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory.   It was close to a full day of driving in each direction through the golden fall foliage that was drenched in rain, and my car had been skating across unfinished, muddy construction zones on the two lane highway for more than 50 miles.  

Dawson City captures the imaginations of many.   The Tr’ondek Hwech’in people have a rich history in this area, inhabiting the town long before it captured the attention of huge swaths of North America.   Resolute gold mining hopefuls went through interminable lengths to travel to this remote corner of Canada, ravaging the landscape while hoping to win their fortune here during the Klondike Gold Rush starting in 1896.  Landscapes on the way into Dawson City are still marked with piles of upturned earth as people actively continue search for gold today.   Tourists are now drawn from all corners of the world as well, flooding the small town of 1500 people for only a few months every year. 

Some of the gold mining lore was drawing me to this town, however, what was really pulling me was a curiosity about the vibrant, queer community that sits only 150 miles shy of the Arctic Circle.  I almost skipped this 6 day detour, but a few different contacts in Whitehorse had urged me to make the drive, saying that Dawson City had a quirky heartbeat of its own that was worth experiencing.  

“The Pit” – A Pulse of Dawson City

“Let’s meet at the Pit, everything in Dawson City happens here…” suggested the first person I was in contact with in here.  As Andy moved on their own time to catch a ferry from the other side of the Yukon, I chilled out during the late morning coffee hour and got a feel for one this main beat.  The exterior of the prior hotel was painted a fresh pink to fit the refurbished façades of the old gold rush town, while the interior of the first floor bar looked tired and faded with an eclectic array of intricate murals, animal heads, and an old piano.  I squinted at the bar and tried to figure out what looked off about the open room.  The long bar top was not quite level with the floor, and the floor not quite level with the ceiling in the tired, leaning building.

An eclectic range of people steadily trickled in and out of the bar to grab their morning coffee.  People with queer coding haircuts and weathered looking men headed out to gold mining jobs sat alongside each other at the bar over their steaming drinks.  The barista with a stereotypical queer appearance greeted each of them warmly and knew what their drinks were without asking any questions. 

Andy spearheaded the event Drag Me North, as they were starting to get into drag performance and found themselves making the full day drive to the Territory’s only shows that were being hosted in Whitehorse.  Why not “drag” performers from all over the territory further north and host them in Dawson City for an annual event?   The first event in 2018 was hosted at a recycling center in Dawson City, where Andy recalls that the center smelled terrible, and cuisine consisted of beer and sprouts raised in the community garden on the property.  The way they described the nature of the event strangely seemed to fit the spirit of Dawson City. 

 Last year’s show was upgraded to the historic Palace Grand, but still fit the spirit of pulling in novice and experienced performers.  The Palace historically hosted vaudeville performers starting during the gold rush era, but at some point gender queer performances fell by the way side before recent efforts to bring them back. 

Off the Grid

Andy and I decided to meet for photos on the other side of the might Yukon River where they lived in West Dawson.  I asked what the ferry schedule looked like so I would be on time … they weren’t sure, and said it didn’t seem to have a schedule anyway.  So I just showed up to wait for the boat that connected the two sides of this highway: one stretching to Whitehorse and the other stretching north to the northernmost U.S./Canada border crossing.  On the way back, I waited a lot longer, almost a couple hours as the ferry crew cleaned up an accident of spilt fuel all over the slick deck on the opposite side. 

Andy described what it was like to live in West Dawson, a residential area of mostly off-grid homes.   Living here involves some planning around the river.   During the summer, the ferry chugs back and forth to connect the highway.  During the winter, an ice highway is created over the river to connect West Dawson and Dawson City.  From early September to May, the U.S. border crossing closes, cutting off road access from West Dawson to the nearest Alaskan towns two hours in the other direction.   

So, what happens in the fall and winter then?   How do you get to the grocery store? I was burning with questions.  Andy grinned and said they don’t.  The Yukon River is a powerful force, and when it’s in the process of freezing over, or “breaking up” there is nothing man-made that will dare cross it.  They prepare the food they’ve grown and harvested and stock up heavily on supplies before these time periods.  I’m not sure this lifestyle would be for me, but could see that the tranquility found in the West Dawson’s slower pace was part of its allure.  

Nationwide Protests Against 2SLGBTQ+ Rights in Canada

Organized, anti-2SLGBTQ protests rocked queer communities all over Canada during the time I was in Dawson City.   The “1 Million March for Children” on September 20^th had dismayed queer communities nationwide as thousands of Canadians who had expressed their bigotry more quietly in the past, now came out loudly in overwhelming numbers all over the country.   Except for … Dawson City.   

Queer activists in Dawson City were prepared to politely counter protesters against LGBTQ indoctrination in schools with an educational event.  I probably shouldn’t even say “counter;” a prominent activist in town who had organized an event that day made a point to NOT label it a counter-protest. It was simply an educational event celebrating LGBTQ identities.  It looked like more than 30-40 supportive people ambled through the town’s park pavilion decked out with a rainbow banner and informative materials next to the Yukon River.   By the end of the afternoon, not one person had shown up to march down the street in a protest against our existence.   The organizer’s bubbling personality overflowed with joy as he declared, “zero bigots, lots of joy!!”   

Being Treated to An Early Northern Lights Show

Dawson City’s tourist town prices for traditional lodging were prohibitive on my travel budget, but mostly couldn’t complain about car camping in the folds of the golden colored hills bursting with fall.  On one my last evenings in town, I felt grumbly as a full bladder woke me up around midnight.  Should I climb out of the car?  Maneuver an in-the-car pee?  Could I go back to sleep?   My blankets had heated up to just the right temperature, as the wind rocked my car and temperatures outside dropped to 15 deg F (-10 C).   

When I finally decided to stumble out of the car, the cold wind whipped into my face.  AND the Sky … filled my vision with green and purple dancing lights!  I had seen the northern lights once the year before as I drove out of central Alaska, but nothing like this.  The green, white and purple glimmers seemed to have a life of their own, shimmering and moving across the sky.  Something was rapidly painting the sky with a light brush, then erasing their work just as quickly.   Celestial beings seemed to dance with each other over the Yukon moving north, west, east, and even south.  As I drove a couple miles up a mountain for a treeless view of the town, the active wildlife almost seemed to be in sync with the lights in the sky, as a black bear, a red fox, then another black bear moseyed across the road. 

This added to my short experience of Dawson City feeling like a special place.  Dawson City is not for everyone … it feels a little overtouristed, maybe a little grungy, and so far away from the rest of our world’s more urbanized centers.  It also holds a bit of wild magic, that each of the four people I photographed here and many other queer locals and allies vividly described during this visit in different ways.  Vibrantly visible queer communities are not just reserved for metropolises like Vancouver, San Francisco, and Toronto.  Some of the most inclusive and welcoming places have their homes in places like these, in the sub-Arctic regions of Canada.

Thank you for keeping me company on these journeys! The next stop is a northern detour to Tombstone Territorial Park, a 75(‘ish) mile drive into more remote territory.