Alaska or Bust: Revisited: Mendenhall Creek, YT to Lakeview, AK Part 1 (6/25/2017)

Day 12
1964, the Plan: Fairbanks, AK to Mt McKinley National Park.
1964, the Actuality: On Tuesday, July 28, the Explorer Scouts traveled from Mendenhall Creek, YT to Lakeview, AK, having finally entered Alaska. Kent reported via postcard that he hadn't caught any fish yet. He requested having a nice big steak waiting for him when he got home, please! He also hoped they had the pool table by then.

Sunday, June 25, 2017
We departed from Whitehorse, YT, to continue on the Alaska Highway/YT-1.

Well, not a white horse, but a horse sculpture
called the Whitehorse Horse (2011, by Daphne
Mennell and constructed by welder Roger Poole),
is made from scraps of metal donated from
over 200 Yukoners; it references the swirling rapids
of the Yukon River that were likened to white horses

Wondrous white clouds from the Alaska Highway

The Mendenhall River on the Alaska Highway

Possible 1964 camping site along the Mendenhall River

All along the Alaska Highway, ground squirrels kept dashing across the road in front of us!

1964: Clouds along the mountain peaks (Dr M)

2017: Clouds stuck on mountain peaks

Our Lady of the Way Catholic Church (1954) in Haines Junction, YT,
uses a Quonset hut left from the Alaska Highway construction days

Dä Kų Cultural Centre (of the Champagne
and Aishihik First Nations) dog sled

Since my photo did not show any sides, I grabbed a photo of
St Christopher's Anglican Church, an 8-sided church (1980s,
by Henry Henkel), a replica of a Viking-era chapel

Haines Junction Village Monument,
known as the "Muffin," depicting local wildlife

Homeward Bound (2007, by Bob Braun) at the Haines Junction
James Smith Government Administration Building that
houses, among many other offices, both the library and liquor store!

A detour to Silver City, the largest ghost town in the Yukon

In 1903 gold was discsovered in the Kluane Lake area, and in 1904 the Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP) set up a post at the mouth of Silver Creek. The community that grew around the post was called Silver City. Not much gold was found, and eventually Silver City was abandoned. During the building of the Alaska Highway, a temporary camp was set up here in 1942.

Silver City ruins

We ended up driving across the Kluane Lake Airport runway!

1964: First view of Kluane Lake (KSS)

2017: First view of Kluane Lake, the largest lake contained entirely in the
Yukon Territory, and the Alaska Highway goes around its south shore

1964: Kluane Lake (Dr M)

2017: Kluane Lake

1964: Kluane Lake (Dr M)

2017: Kluane Lake (KSS)

Red Chairs at the Tachal Dhal Visitor Information
Centre at the base of the mountain once known as
Sheep Mountain; the First Nation Southern Tutchone
people called the mountain Tachal Dhal, which means
skin scraper mountain; no Dall sheep today

Panorama of Kluane Lake, which is shrinking as seen by the mud flats to the right;
it was at this point that the official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to open the Alaska Highway on 11/20/1942

Continuing on the Alaska Highway/YT-1...

Ursus arctos/Brown Bear subspecies horribilis/Grizzly,
Mother and cub

The cub wandered across the road on his own, but soon returned to mom

Historic Mile Marker 1093 at Burwash Landing, YT, with a
mummified (jk) Alaska Highway construction worker on his tractor;
Burwash Landing was an established community when the highway
was built and offered the soldiers home-cooked meal on real plates (KSS)