The 50th anniversary of the Whitehorse Rapids dam was celebrated Friday.

Yukon Energy president David Morrison hosted the party while a handful of Yukoners who were around for the construction of the Whitehorse Rapids facility or were familiar with the project provided firsthand accounts.

Al Lister compiled a photographic display of the work while it was in progress, including the first and only photos of a Yukon River below the dam with no water in it.

Staff with Yukon Energy also provided walking tours of the control structure and the building which houses the fourth turbine.

The dam's construction was approved by the federal government in 1956 to help meet rising energy demands in Whitehorse, such as those created by the new Riverdale subdivision and the then-new Whitehorse General Hspital. Construction began in 1957.

The first turbine began generating power on Nov. 15, 1958.

Bruce Baker, an 87-year-old resident of Porter Creek, remembers the early days as one of the first operators who began watching over the three turbines in 1959 or 1960.

Baker and his wife, Freda, were among those who took the walking tour.

"I just wanted to see what things were looking like now compared to back then," he said in an interview at the end of the tour.

Baker painted a large mural in the original plant that was largely destroyed by a fire in the 1990s.

He also painted one inside the generating facility at Aishihik Lake.

A employee with the former Northern Canada Power Commission for nearly 30 years, Baker recalled how he used to do push-ups next to the monitors at the Whitehorse facility.

So many did he do, that he wore the paint off the cement.

"I did thousands and thousands of push-ups."

And sure enough, as another walking tour began Friday, Baker set his cane aside, got down on the ground and performed 15 regular push-ups to help commemorate the day.

Tour guide Miles O'Brien, an operator at the system control centre, pointed out the 366-metre long fish ladder, built to facilitate the migration of chinook salmon, is the longest fish ladder in North America.

The volume of water flowing through the dam Friday was such that it could fill up the swimming pool at the Canada Games Centre in 3.3 minutes, he told his guests.

If the control gates were lifted to their full height, he added, Schwatka Lake could be drained in 12 to 15 minutes.