Whitehorse

I get up and turn on the heat and go back to bed.  Cold dreary morning, not much motivation to get up and get moving. We have a short driving day to Whitehorse, about two so no rush to get going.  The other 6  RV’s aren’t moving either.  I want to go to the Teslin museum, which opens at 10:00 a mile or so back towards town.

We are the first car there for the morning. We were in for a pleasant surprise and found the local history very interesting. The museum’s name is “George Johnston Museum”.  Before the Alaska Highway was built during WWII, Teslin was a remote eastern enclave of the Tlinget first people, that spread from the Alaska coast around todays Juneau. Until the Alaska highway was first built they fish, hunted and trapped the surrounding area. 

George Johnston who lived to become a venerated Tlinget Elder, made a good living trapping.  Teslin prior to WWII had no roads and the only access other than on foot was a paddle wheeler that came up the Yukon River.  George ordered a camera via catalog and he learned to take photos and develop his film. Most of the photos in the museum were his.  George had a desire to buy a car and his friends thought he was nuts. They had no roads, but in 1928 after a very successful trapping season he went to Whitehorse and bought a Chevrolet.  It was delivered via paddle wheeler.  Teslin still had no roads, but it did have 85 miles of frozen lake for more the ½ the year.

George, still a hunter, had a short tower where he could look out over the lake looking for game.  The game was quickly scared off by this black object speeding towards them. He solved that problem by painting the car white with house paint. His second problem was there was no such thing as automobile antifreeze for liquid cooled motors. He drained the radiator into a bucket, kept it near the stove and when he saw some game out on the lake, he would fill the radiator and take off. He also hired some fellows to build a couple miles of road along the lake and ran a taxi service on and off the ice.

George’s Chevy on the ice

George’s Chevy today

In 1963 after 35 years he returned to the Chevrolet dealer in Whitehorse to trade it in for a pickup truck.  The dealership restored the 1928 Chevy and it was featured in many parades for years, before it was donated to the museum.

George lived to be 80 and died around 1970

We get to Whitehorse in the afternoon and book two nights at the Pioneer RV park.  Tomorrow is a work day. I have some plumbing and electrical fan switch issues to fix. Picked up the necessary parts at Canadian Tire, tires are only a small part of this store, they have everything you could possibly want.

Out slot at the RV Park