Skip Larsen 1966 Travelogue

Dateline: October 6, 2024.

    The photos of Dawson City and Moosehide below were shot on Kodachrome slide film by Skip Larsen during a 6-week trip through the Yukon Territory and Alaska in 1966 - see the link above for more information about that trip and many more photos from it.

    We have posted 32 of the 51 photos in this part of the collection.

    Click on each image to greatly enlarge it.

The visit to Dawson City began in a bar chatting with locals, as any proper visit to Dawson should! In the first photo shot in Dawson, Skip's wife, Gloria Larsen, and friend Malcolm Soine, are talking with Bert Barber and Rod McRae in the Occidental Hotel. Thank you to the folks at the "Dawson City, Blast from the Past" group at Facebook for putting names and location to this and the next photo.

Doris Gates and friends were performing that night at the Occidental. It may have been George Howell on the accordion.

The "Midnight Sun" lit Gloria and Malcom's walk back to the camper trucks, which were parked at a ball field.

The cabin of poet Robert W. Service was on the walking route the next morning.

Klondike Mines Railway locomotives at the Dawson City Museum.

The big event of this day was a boat tour down the Yukon River to the Native village of Moosehide. When tens of thousands of people arrived in search of gold in 1897, the people who had lived at the site of Dawson City were relocated, and this traditional fishing camp became their permanent home.

The Yukon River provides a great view of the Moosehide Slide, Dawson's signature geographical feature.

The ferry landing at West Dawson, where the group had arrived from the Top of the World Highway.

The "Sternwheeler Graveyard," final resting place of several sternwheelers and barges.

Arriving at Moosehide.

Looking back up the Yukon River to Dawson City, with the Sternwheeler Graveyard visible on the right bank.

Caches at Moosehide, to keep food stores away from dogs and wildlife.

The fireweed at Moosehide was near its seasonal peak. Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) had been chosen as the Yukon's floral emblem in 1957.

The interior of St. Barnabas Church, which was built by the Anglicans in 1908.

Another closer look at the Sternwheeler Graveyard as they returned to Dawson.

It appears that on returning to Dawson, they went to the Palace Grand Theatre for a look, and bought tickets for a Gaslight Follies show that evening.

The Palace Grand Theatre was built in 1962 as a nearly exact replica of the original 1899 building which was in too poor a condition to restore and was demolished.

Each day at 4:00, Roy Cooper, an actor with the Gaslight Follies, was at the Robert Service cabin to tell visitors about Service's life and do some readings of his poetry. Cooper came up from Vancouver for the summer for the Follies.

A couple of photos of the interior of the Robert Service cabin.

The first of 17 photos Skip shot at the Gaslight Follies show was of the Master of Ceremonies, Roy Cooper, who they had met at the Robert Service cabin.

The costumes were wonderful.

Professor Fred Bass, known as the "King of the Honky Tonk Keyboard." Fred, like many of the members of the show, was from Vancouver.

One of the Klondike Kings tells his story, accompanied by his lovely house-maids.

The can-can girls' finale was the only moment when they slowed down enough to get a photo that wasn't blurred!

The curtain call.

The sternwheeler Keno, built in Whitehorse in 1922, was sailed from Whitehorse to Dawson under her own power in August 1960 and was set up on the riverbank for restoration and display.

A closer look at the interpretive sign.

The lovely flower-wagon.