Day 19 - Beaver Creek

Woke up after a very cold night.  It had got down to 31 degrees Fahrenheit and it was a very cold morning.  Put the windows on the truck and layered up with clothing as it was very cold in the van.

 

Just before Beaver Creek we went through Canadian Customs so it was goodbye to Alaska and its friendly people and hello to the Yukon.

 

Our overnight stop was at Beaver Creek which has a population of 112 people.  Near this Yukon community, American soldiers encountered extensive permafrost.  When builders scraped off the insulating layer of overburden, they transformed the permafrost into an ice-bottomed mud bog.  On October 28, 1942 the 97^th Engineers met the 19^th Engineers here, forming a continuous link between Dawson Creek, BC and Fairbanks.

 

Beaver Creek which is home to the White River First Nation is Canada’s westernmost settlement adjacent to the Canada/US Border.  Primarily a border post and a service centre for the Alaska Highway.  In the early 1900s, the settlement of Beaver Creek was established as a camp for the team surveying the Canada-Alaska border.  Later, mining interest developed in the area and in the 1940s, the Alaska Highway was constructed.  In the mid-1950s, a Canada Customs post was built and the community of Beaver Creek began to develop.  Here the Alaska Highway parallels the majestic outer rim of Kluane National Park offering one of the continent’s healthiest grizzly populations.  We are yet to sight any sort of bear.

One of the residents has a collection of everything imaginable that can be collected so members of the convoy made a beeline to his house.  He has built a couple of out buildings, which resemble a barber shop, grocery store and bathroom.  They were deliberately built with uneven flooring so that they would look old.  Apparently you don’t need a permit to build in this neck of the woods.