Photo by Photo Submitted
AN EARLIER ERA – These squatters’ homes and fill at the Drury Street-area base of the escarpment are seen circa 1960. The White Pass and Yukon tracks and Yukon River are visible at the bottom. Photo courtesy YUKON ARCHIVES GOV. 982, f. 4
With the escarpment being in the news in recent weeks, I was reminded of the accompanying aerial photo, taken circa 1960.
With the escarpment being in the news in recent weeks, I was reminded of the accompanying aerial photo, taken circa 1960.
I used it in my book, Squatters of Downtown Whitehorse (p. 34).
Notice the old cars holding the bank in the foreground to protect the narrow road going to the rapids.
Oldtimers used to joke about the fill used – said to be Buzzsaw Jimmy’s saw, lots of U.S. Army scrap metal, cookstoves, etc.
Robert Service in 1904 loved to walk along the tracks to Miles Canyon on his day off from the Bank of Commerce, composing his poems.
He also loved to hike up Puckett’s Gulch to the top of a treed area (now the Whitehorse airport).
The photo shows all the squatters (c. 1960) near present-day Drury Street.
The property was eventually purchased by squatters.
There is still one squatter house (#1) in its original location.
Should it be preserved?
Pat Ellis
(Whiskey Flats, 1954)
Whitehorse
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