DAWSON CITY - Greg Hakonson is having another Big Idea.

Since the man who has been the driving force behind the Oddfellow's Hall restorations and the transformation of the Old Liquor Store into the School of

Visual Art has a way of dreaming plausible dreams, people are listening.

Hakonson drafted what he calls An Unsolicited Proposal Regarding Tourism Oriented Developments for the Future of Dawson in the fall of 2007. It has been quietly making the rounds since then.

The big unveiling of the seven-page document came at a well-attended meeting of the Dawson City Chamber of Commerce last Wednesday.

Hakonson has already had preliminary discussions with the Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation and Parks Canada, whose co-operation would be essential for his plan to work.

Hakonson begins with the assumption that the lure of the Klondike Gold Rush is no longer enough to draw people to the region. The numbers may be consistent over the last decade, but they are also stagnant, and something must be done to increase Dawson's attractions.

Citing a similar problem faced by a California gold rush town called Placerville, he wrote:

"Dawson is beginning to see the same waning of interest in its Gold Rush history, and there is an urgent need to reinvent ourselves and create new reasons for people to be drawn here.

"The new 'themes' or attractions should not be seen as competitive to the existing themes and attractions but complementary and as such should be designed to be entwined."

Hakonson went on to identify the themes he thought could be key to the revival.

"There are four main themes that make up the feel and nature of Dawson: wilderness, the North, our first nations culture and the Klondike Gold Rush."

His first idea is to link the prehistory of the region, the Beringia period, with the history of the Tr'ondek Hwech'in.

"Relocate Beringia to Tr'ochek, the historic fishing camp of the Tr'ondek Hwech'in (TH) First Nation.

"Beringia is where the first nation story begins and Dawson is in Beringia so the fit is excellent.

"As well, the Great River Journeys trip theoretically reaches farther and farther back in time the closer it gets to Dawson, so having Beringia as the final destination is perfect since it is the beginning of the first nation's story in the Americas."

In a further link to this idea, Hakonson proposes using the moribund Palace Grand Theatre as a dramatic showcase for this same history.

"With flagging interest in the Klondike Gold Rush history, it is becoming harder and harder to fill the Palace Grand Theater using that story.

"Over the past 10 or so years, it has become increasingly difficult to make the theatre economical. It is time for a new show."

That new show would be the first nation's story, "beginning with their creation story, to their arrival in the Americas via Beringia, their pre-European history,

European contact and (from) the Klondike Gold Rush to (the) present."

Hakonson feels there are also untapped Gold Rush themes that could be mined to enhance the tourism experience here, but the main one he has included in his proposal is the creation of a new wilderness experience.

"Create a world-class hike, along the lines of the Chilkoot Trail, which parallels the Twelve Mile Ditch. The north end of the hike would be the Tombstone campground and the south end would be Bear Creek.

"The industrial history of the Klondike Gold Rush would be interpreted at Bear Creek and the fauna & flora and TH/Tombstone history interpreted at Tombstone."

Hakonson's vision of Dawson as a tourist Mecca involves some large projects and a great deal of co-operation.

Such major undertakings would require the total support of the City of Dawson, whose council was shown the plan at Tuesday evening's meeting, and the

Tr'ondek Hwech'in, Parks Canada, the Dawson City Museum, the Yukon government, the businesses of Dawson and many community stakeholders.

Chamber members were enthusiastic about the scope of the vision, although the discussion did fragment into hypothetical debates about details yet to be worked out.

There was general agreement that a working group would need to be established to add detail to the outline in the document.