bobanddenisewanderlust

We went to the Yukon Government Building to see the mural and tapestry that was listed in the Milepost 2013. We walked in and the mural was on the wall to the right. It is acrylic resin, 120 ft. which portrays the historical evolution of the Yukon.  It is made of 24 panels, each measuring 4 x 5 ft. and highlight events such as the arrival of Sir John Franklin at Herschel Island in 1825, the Klondike Gold Rush, and the coming of the automobile. It was quite beautiful with the light coming through it. Of course, this means that the pictures are not that great, but here they are:

I went to the information desk which was being staffed by Ian. He was a very nice black man who checked to see if we could get into the area that had the tapestry, as it is in the Assembly Members lounge. We could, so he took us in. 

The Women’s Yukon Tapestry, 5 panels each 7 x 13 ft, hang in the legislative library lounge. The wool panels portray the role of women in the development of the North. They represent Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Survival.  Begun by the Whitehorse Branch of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women in 1976 for the  International Women’s year. The wall hangings were stitched by over 2500 Yukon women.  It is professionally hung as the weight of the hanging would tear if just hung up on the wall.  Winter  below

 

Above is Survival. Below is Spring.

 

Above is summer and below is fall.

Ian took us out to the lobby again and showed us these items.

This sculpture of the Eagle is by a famous and expensive Canadian artist.

This train, which looks like it is made of wood, is actually ceramic. 

Ian then took us into the Legislature Chamber.

The wall hanging in the back is an abstraction tapestry which symbolizes the fireweed plant, Yukon’s floral emblem.  There are two different flags, which symbolize the mountains in the center of the cross and the other flag has the mountains, the river and the gold.

Since there  are only 35,000 people in the entire Territory, everyone pretty much knows everyone else.  Canada has provinces and territories. The Territories have gained a lot of power in the Canadian Government. There are no federal taxes, they get their money from the sales tax, GAT. The federal government supports the Territory, as with 35,000 people, they would not be able to afford the cost of running the entire Yukon Territory.

Ian was awesome. He took us on this nice tour, explaining the government and answering our questions.  We think, since we were interested and asked questions, we got the full tour!

From there, we went to the Old Log Cabin Museum. Across from the museum were these murals.

To be honest, the museum, was a $5( each) mistake. there was not much there! We were very disappointed. We thought it was going to be different. It was more museum than church. Even the alter was not set up. They  had tours, but it was different tours each day at different times. None of todays interested us. They had this painting.

The painting was done by a Sgt. in the RCMP who donated it to the church. If you look closely at the faces, they appear to be different movie stars from the 1930’s.

This is a nice picture of the church in the winter.

This is the oldest building in White Horse, still in it’s original location.

On the way back to the RV park, we stopped at Miles Canyon. The canyon is south of White Horse, and was a real problem for the boats getting to White Horse, before they put in the dam.  The rapids were treacherous, and many  inexperienced people died during the Gold Rush, while trying to get through this area.  You can imagine trying to navigate this river in a small boat. 

We stopped at an overlook first. you can tell the water is fast moving.

Then we drove over to the area near the bridge and hiked down to the bridge. Not a place I would want to take the motor home, but people did!

 

We returned to the motor home, ate lunch and took a nap. In the afternoon, the temp went up to 85 degrees, before we had some sprinkles. Bob cooked dog food and we had dinner with Margie and Wayne. We sat talking until almost 9 PM, not that you would know it was that late,as the sun shines until about 12:30 and comes back up at 2:30, at least we think so. We are  asleep!

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