Judge Wickersham Slept Here

This morning, we toured the town of Eagle. Judge Wickersham is a folk hero in Alaska. He moved to Alaska to become a judge in Eagle, in order to bring the law to the miners. Later, he became Alaska’s representative to the US Congress. Earlier on the trip, we toured his homes in Juneau and Fairbanks. Today we saw his courtroom in Eagle. We seem to have gotten around Alaska as much as Judge Wickersham, though traveling today is far easier than 125 years ago.

Due to the gold rush, Eagle was originally expected to be a major city in Alaska, but that didn’t quite pan out. Pan! Gold! Get it?!

Today, Eagle is a village of about 100 people, with another 100 in a nearby native village. At the courthouse, there was a sign that the Eagle Historical Society gives tours every day at 9am. We were the only ones who showed up so we got a private tour of the historical buildings including the courthouse, a meeting hall and some of the preserved buildings of Fort Egbert. Eagle is on the shore of the Yukon River but there has been no riverboat traffic for generations. As we learned from our tour guide, life in Eagle is very quiet. It takes a huge effort to withstand the combination of the remote location and the harsh winters. It was worth a visit once, but we cannot imagine living there.

As we made the 2-hour return drive back to the main “highway”, we guessed how many vehicles we would see. The answer: 3. With the road virtually to ourselves, we made the drive without incident.

When we reached the Canadian Border, the agent asked us the usual questions about where we are going in Canada. When Greg said that we were going home with some sightseeing along the way including a drive to Tuktoyaktuk, he started to quiz us:

Do you have a spare tire? Yes, it’s underneath the vehicle.
Is it a full size spare? Yes it is.
Do you have Jerry cans for fuel? No, but we got the RV refitted with a 45-gallon fuel tank.
How long can you drive between fuel stops? About 700 miles or 1100 km.
Good, it sounds like you’re prepared for the long drive.

The rest of the drive along the Top of the World Highway was gorgeous. The road follows the mountain ridge so there are amazing views both north and south. And the road conditions were better than we expected for a gravel road. Then again, anything is better than the road to Eagle.

We reached the Yukon River again just across from Dawson City, Yukon. To cross the river, there is a free ferry. However, the ferry can only take a few vehicles at a time, and there was a long line of vehicles including several 40-ft (12m) class A motorhomes. The long motorhomes had to disconnect their tow cars to fit onto the ferry. We had to wait about an hour for our turn to cross. After several long driving days, we’re going to stay in Dawson City for an extra day. If you know Greg, you can guess that we will be too busy to relax much.

At the campground in Dawson City, everyone seems very friendly - both the Americans and the Canadians! Based on our conversations, almost everyone in the campground is either about to drive the Dempster Highway (like us) or just finished driving it. It was good to get tips from those who drove it this week.