St. Mary’s classroom was full of people and good food for a literary potluck on September 15. Photo by Dan Davidson.

A Mystery is Planned for the Klondike

by Dan Davidson

Eric Wilson got started in writing because his Grade 8 students hated reading. he might have been equipped for the task by parents to who read to him and an early love of the Hardy Boys mysteries, but it was those nonreaders in White Rock who pushed him over the edge.

Speaking to a group of about two dozen at a potluck dinner laid on in honour of him and his wife, Flo, who have been living in Berton House for the last six weeks, Wilson said he was determined to come up with something his students would read. He couldn’t find anything in the school library, so he tried to do it himself.

He knew he’d made it when a boy who had been sick and had missed the daily chapter the day before asked to borrow the story so he could read it at recess and catch up.

There were several more books after that before he came up with one that a publisher was interested in getting into print, That was Murder on the Canadian, the first of the Tom Austin mysteries. Twenty-one books later Tom, and now his sister, Liz, are still going strong.

“I’ve written at least one book in every Canadian province now,” he said, “ everywhere but the Yukon ... and that’s why Flo and I are in Dawson now.”

It’s Liz who will be coming to the Yukon in the book that Eric is researching while he’s been here. A good portion of this story about a mother who has run away with her child will take place in Dawson. It will begin on a cruise ship, take the traditional tourists route into the territory, arrive here around Discovery Days weekend, and finally end up in Eagle.

Wilson didn’t say a lot more than that about the book, nor did he reveal the title, but he certainly gave a strong sense of having been impressed by the Klondike and all that he has experienced since he got here in late July.

The theme for his after dinner chat was “getting published”. He advised potential writers to study the craft and handed out a list of good “how to” books which he has found valuable. He discovered most of them after having worked by his way by trial and error, which he advised wasn’t really the best way to go about it.

Despite the advertising that is done by the Berton House Committee to attract writers to the program, the Wilsons first learned of it from previous residents, Andrea and David Spalding, as well as Julie Lawson, before seeing any of those ads. Their application was among the five dozen or so that were scrutinized in Whitehorse and Dawson last fall for the 2004 season.

‘I consider my books to be kind of like a series of snapshots of our country,” he said. “I go to a real place, often with Flo, and we just look at it, put down the things that are interesting, and of course work them into a mystery. While kids are reading the mystery, they’re also learning about our country.

“There are many kids in this country who have never been or may never be to Dawson City, but by reading the story hopefully they’ll come here and experience what we’ve experienced.”

One thing that is certain to make an appearance in his Yukon mystery is the sound that are made my ravens when they talk to each other.

“It’s the most amazing sounds. I’ve written down a lot of that for the book, what they say to each other and how they seem to be saying it.”

Wilson will be speaking to a larger group of elementary school students in Dawson on September 23 and again at a public reading in the evening. As the Wilsons make their way home to Victoria, he will also be speaking at several schools in Whitehorse.

The Fox Lake Burn sign is by far the fanciest of the Fire Belt signs so far in place. This one has its own highway pull-out and is marked as a site for photographs.

Driving the North Klondike Fire Belt

by Dan Davidson

Driving north on the Klondike Highway during the last year travellers may have noticed a series of signs marking the times and places of various forest fires which have occurred over the last half century. While this may have seemed, at first glance, like an odd bit of signage for the tourist trade, it was inspired by just that market, according to Bruce Bennett, whose idea it was in the first place.

“It all started in ‘98, when we had the last big fire season. In ‘99 I started being the wildlife viewing biologist and one of the first things I encountered was tourists saying they didn’t want to go to Dawson because they didn’t want to drive through a devastated forest fire region.

“It started me thinking, Fire isn’t ugly. It’s just change - it changes the landscape. So if people can appreciate the importance of fire in the boreal system they’d enjoy it.”

This project began with a fire viewing site near Braeburn, a lookout perched atop a rock monolith from which visitors could survey the results of the 1998 burn. This included not only the stark matchsticks left behind by the 45,000 hectare blaze, but also the seas of fireweed and other plants that began to flourish in its wake a year later.

“I wanted to have pull-outs all the way up the road, looking at different aged fires and interpreting them.”

The Braeburn site has since been relocated to the top of a hill nearer the lodge.

Given that the situation changes from year to year, Bennett had in mind semi-permanent structures that could be easily relocated as the circumstances altered.

At the time of this interview he was thinking that the sign put up for the 1953 fire south of Dawson would have to be changed now that it has burned over again last summer. Someone has already altered the sign, striking out “1953” and writing in “2004”.

After a few false starts Bennett managed to supervise production of a folding brochure called “Driving the Fire Belt - North Klondike Highway”. This doesn’t cover all the fires along the Whitehorse to Dawson road, having its main concentration on the area from the city to Stewart Crossing. Five fires are highlighted: Fox Lake (1998), Braeburn (1958), Minto (1995), Pelly (1969) and Stewart (1951). The fires are located on maps inside the brochure and each has a small write-up giving the story of the, some of the features of the area, an anecdote from the period, and a photo of the area.

The outside flaps of the brochure describe the role played by fire in changing and renewing the landscape. The brochure plays up the positive aspects of fire and invites the reader “to experience a diverse range of fire ecology” along this route, which contains the largest concentration of “road-accessible ... large fires” in the Yukon over the last 50 years.

Other major players in this operation included David Milne, currently with Wildland Fire Management, and Libby Gunn, a wildlife viewing technician. Bennett's team hoped to produce a booklet, but finances cut it back to a brochure.

“It’s got a lot of information in a small space. We built it because there were a lot of misconceptions about what forest fires do.”

Mike McArthur, with the Highways Department, got the signs made and put up .

“He made recommendations on how they should be built, what size for visibility, and where they should go.”

Bennett said the project was also intended to make visitors curious enough to travel the Klondike Highway instead of shying away from the burned areas.

He’s not sure about the future of the project. He is currently acting as a botanist with Environment Yukon rather than in his former role as Wildlife Viewing Biologist.

“It’s ironic,” he said, “that this is the year we finally got it out in circulation. Of course now it will have to be changed for next year.”

This was the territory’s biggest fire season so far, with 1,454,909 hectares burned by 273 fires according to the September 3, 2004 Wildfire Situation Report.

Locals Update Fire Sign

by Dan Davidson

Though not officially part of the so-called Fire Belt on the North Klondike Highway, the area about an hour south of Dawson has seen its share of fires and has been marked with a sign indicating that the stands of spruce there have grown over the years to replace a forest that was burned in 1953.

Well, it's been burned again now, just

Locals weren’t about to let this bit of information remain uncorrected. Photo by Dan Davidson

last summer, as part of the Dominion Creek Fire that was one of the four big zones south of town.

It was this region that made the national news, since the flames were accessible from the highway and travellers were guided through the area's shroud of smoke by pilot cars. Some locals say that a big reason for the pilot cars was the number of tourists who were prepared to stop by the side of the road to take pictures and film video, but that may be apocryphal.

At any rate, the region will now need two signs, as some person has taken the time to note, crossing out the "1953" on the sign with electrician's tape and adding "2004" in thick felt marker just below it.