Silver and Gold
Keno City appealed to us even before we got there – had a dirt road to it, less than 15 inhabitants and supposedly unique flora and fauna. It proved to be all of these things and many more.
The road was paved up until Mayo – a small town that we spent, oh, about 5 minutes in – and we quickly departed from it to the gravel road for ~ 50km.
Keno City is not your typical “city”. The fact that the word “city” is in the name is a distant reminder of the past. Upon arrival we were surrounded by many old wooden cabins (some would call them “shacks”) and we were not surprised when we heard accounts of people immediately turning their cars around and leaving Keno when they drove in. Not us however, we loved it right from the start.
We went into the museum – kind of the central part of Keno – where we met Yvonne who looks after the museum/gift shop/community affairs. In retrospect, we think of her as the town’s welcome wagon – she is full of information and history as well as having sparkling personality. The museum was about to close, and we were hungry, so we paid Yvonne for camping and went to set up camp. Started setting up our tent, and got poured on. Luckily, the campground had a nice cooking shelter with a wood stove, so we were able to keep dry and warm while we waited the storm out. Next morning we woke up to another downpour that lasted all day, so we spent the day between the museum and shelter.
The Keno Museum is UNBELIEVABLE – describes and displays the history of Keno City as a silver mining town (hence the highway/dirt road name “silver trail”). Yvonne herself was involved in the mining when it was still going on. The museum was largely put together by a fellow named Mike (whom we would later meet) with a lot of help from the community. Mike used to be the Mayor of Keno City, and now owns the snack bar across from the museum.
That night, as we cooked our food in the shelter because the skies had still not let up, a friendly looking fellow with huge blue eyes came by to chat. We found out that his name was Eric, and he and his wife Prudence are from BC, but have been coming to Keno for 3 summers in a row now to be the campground hosts. We found out that Eric was one of those people that almost turned around when he first got a look at Keno, but his lovely wife talked him into staying, and he is sure glad that she did.
Eric is a retired geophysicist (of all things…), who has worked all over the world. His hobby is prospecting – ie panning for gold! Keno is a great place for him because there is currently active placer gold mining going on and he made friends with a miner who drops him “pay dirt” about once a week or so. Through talking with Eric, we learned that he goes up Lightning Creek on a daily basis where he keeps his own sluice box and gold pans and searches for gold! He must have seen Jim’s eyes light up because he invited us up the next morning for a lesson, pending the weather. So we hoped for good weather, and sure enough it came – overcast, but no rain.
Eric and his wife showed us their little hobby operation they had going. Eric would shovel the “paydirt” into the sluice box, have it washed, then when enough material collected in the box he would pan it out. Panning for gold may look easy, but in fact there is quite an art to it, and Prudence and Eric have it down to a “T”. We even found gold – tiny flakes in our pan about the size of a pin head! Eric later showed us his bottle of gold he has collected this summer – a substantial amount with some larger nuggets too. He usually gets about 2oz a season. Not bad for a free hobby!
We took advantage of the “no rain situation” and headed for Keno Hill. We had read a lot about this “hill”; it is known for its many alpine flowers and wildlife. It is a special spot because the mountains around Keno City remained ice free during the last ice age ~ 10,000yrs ago, when much of N. America was covered by glaciers. As a result, they are home to plants and animals unique to “Beringia”, the unglaciated grassland that once stretched from the Yukon across Alaska to Siberia. What makes Keno Hill even more special is that because it was a mining town, there are mining roads providing easy access up into the mountains giving us an excellent view of this special alpine wildlife that is rarely available elsewhere. Needless to say, we saw the most wildflowers we’ve ever seen in full bloom all at once – it appeared that we were there at the perfect time! We were surrounded most of the time by curious Hoary Marmots and Collared Pikas who allowed us to get pretty close for photos. We were also introduced to the Ptarmigan and American Golden Plover here. There are numerous old buildings and old mining shafts on the mountain as well – it was so fun exploring around the area, trying to envision what it would have been like working there when the mine was booming.
We had worked up quite an appetite after our day of exploring, so we thought we’d head to Mike’s Snack Bar – we had heard a lot about him by now, so we thought we’d better meet him since he sounded so interesting. His snack bar is a museum in itself, as it’s shelves and walls are completely covered with antiques and old signs. A very comfortable place that could keep one busy for hours just looking at the walls. He made us pizza -which turned out to be the best pizza we had ever had- and he sat and chatted with us for quite some time. We decided that he should write a book…he is so interesting and has done so much with his life and he is a super nice person to boot. His newest endeavour is in Dawson City, 3 hours away, where during the week he spends his time working on getting a Paddlewheeler on the Yukon River – it will be the first in 50 years.
Next day we got some sun!! We decided to go fishing – Jim caught his first grayling and we had a great shore lunch. Yum. Went back into town and said our goodbyes to the wonderful people we had met in Keno. As we drove away we both got a jolt of sadness; Keno was a place we really felt comfortable and the first place we have come across that we truly loved. Needless to say, we told Yvonne to contact us if (when) they decide to do reclamation on the land. We’d be there in a flash to help out.
Tags: Travel
Kristin
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