As quickly as the gold rush began, it was over. Gold was found in Nome Alaska in 1900, and miners left in droves in search of their fortune. Those who stayed were joined by their families and Dawson became a more stable family oriented community. The introduction of large-scale mechanized mining in the form of bucket-line dredges kept Dawson from becoming a ghost town in the years after the gold rush.

Dawson Today

Today, Dawson is a vibrant community with a year-round population of about 1800 people. The two mainstays of the economy here are mining and tourism. Since both are primarily summer activities the summer population is often close to double that in the winter.

Year-round residents take advantage of the quieter winter months to play sports, pursue hobbies, socialize, and engage in outdoor activities such as snowmobiling, dog mushing, skiing or snowshoeing. For many business people winter is the time for catching up on paperwork, and for members of the thriving arts community here, the winter months are a valuable time for producing art.

Pierre Berton and his dog “Grey Cloud” 1922, Dawson City Museum 1984.53.5