The Copperbelt Mining Museum’s popular Loki train ride is back up and running, delighting local rail buffs and tourists alike.

The Kopper King-area ride, previously closed due to COVID-19, returned to the track on July 11.

Operations manager Ali Nordahl said recently the ride is operating on the smaller loop due to continuing maintenance on the longer track.

“The tracks are an ongoing thing,” said Nordahl. “We replace about a third of the tracks every year.”

The Loki runs on a little diesel engine on a two-kilometre track. It takes visitors on a 10-12 minute ride through the scenic greenbelt, which is perched on the edge of the city’s historic copper mining area.

“There is another loop that goes further back into the woods over there, but that track needs some serious maintenance before we’re able to operate on it,” Nordahl told the Star.

“So our staff is hard at work on that. But right now we’re just operating with the inner loop.”

The MacBride Museum took over the operation of the Copperbelt in May 2017, and operated it each year until the COVID closure began in 2020.

Its website states “copper deposits were first discovered in this area in 1897 as Gold Rush stampeders were making their way to Dawson. Because of the Gold Rush, most people overlooked the outcroppings of copper on their way to the Klondike.

“Copper stakes were not claimed until the following year. John McIntyre staked the first claim on July 6th, 1898 and called it the Copper King’.

“The copper belt is 30 km long and extends from south of the intersection of the South Klondike and Alaska Highways to an area west of Porter Creek subdivision in the north of Whitehorse.

“MacBride Copperbelt Mining Museum is an interpretive learning experience that preserves and presents Whitehorse Copperbelt mining history.

“Whether it’s a train ride through the northern boreal forests you crave, a place to take your family for fun and adventure, or a fascinating history lesson on northern mining, rail, and life, visiting our museum, picnic pavilion, playground and beloved ‘Loki’ ride is a must for everyone,” says the website.

Patricia Cunning, the museum’s executive director, told the Star it wasn’t allowed to operate during COVID because passengers’ seating distance on the Loki was too close.

“MacBride complied with all COVID rules mandated by governments in the interest of public safety and that of our staff,” she said via email.

Cunning said everything was closed in 2020 by the pandemic restrictions in April and May.

“After those were lifted, MacBride remained open with limited capacity per the restrictions until 2022,” she said.

“In January 2022, Yukon had a COVID outbreak and restrictions necessitated closing until all restrictions were lifted (sometime in March 2022),” Cunning said.

In 2020 and 2021, she added, staff worked at Copperbelt on infrastructure projects and did not open to the public because of the spacing restrictions due 
to COVID.

“Copperbelt is lovely; it’s just a little gem in the forest. And it’s a tourism asset for the community,” she told the Star.

“The vision and the imagination that Miles Canyon Railway had to found it and develop it, you have to acknowledge that and appreciate it. They put hundreds of hours of volunteer time and labour into building a railway and a museum.

“And I think the important part of that story is that the Gold Rush is what made the Yukon famous, but if you look at Whitehorse, it was actually all about the copper mining,” Cunning pointed out.

“So Copperbelt has a great little museum that tells the copper story. It’s a spectacular woodland setting, with kids’ play areas, trails for walking and biking and the local train ride.

“It’s also a venue for weddings, staff gatherings and children’s birthday parties,” she added.

This summer, the Copperbelt will be open until Aug. 25.

Nordahl said the museum had hoped to get the Loki running last summer but staff were unable to get it working.

She explained the Loki engine was originally constructed in Austria. It operated as a mining engine in a coal mine in British Columbia and eventually made its way to the Yukon.

“The ride itself takes you through the greenbelt,” Nordahl said.

“Here we are right on the edges of the copperbelt itself. And it takes you through the copper mining history in the Yukon, which is a really a very rich history a lot of people don’t know a whole lot about.

“It gets overshadowed by the Gold Rush a lot, but there’s a lot to be heard about the copper belt itself,” Nordahl added.

Donna Clayson-Prokop, the former spouse of the deceased volunteer train mechanic Brian Clayson, told the Star the importance of understanding history.

“When you think of Yukon, you think of gold, but it really is about copper. And so that’s why the railway is so important.”

Clayson-Prokop said Clayson worked with the Copperbelt until the day he died in October 2016, after several years of volunteer maintenance work with the Copperbelt museum.

“I’m so happy that they’re finally starting to run it again,” said Clayson-Prokop.

The MacBride Museum is working on upcoming additions to the Copperbelt museum, including an attraction called Heritage Town.

Nordahl told the Star people are very excited that the train is running.

“We’ve been pretty busy so far, lots of families coming through.

“And I think a lot of people grew up here being able to come visit the museum to ride the train.

“So it’s really exciting to have it up and running again after that long of a gap. We’re seeing many, many new faces and many familiar faces coming through.”