Last May, ice and water that had jammed up in nearby rivers as winter tuned to spring tore through the Ch’ëdähdëk (Forty Mile) Historic Site. Some of the historic buildings there are gone completely. Destroyed bridges and trails have halted access. Work has begun to fix the damage at the site which is important to the past, present and future of the Klondike region.
The site is located at the confluence of the of the Fortymile and Yukon Rivers. Officials from the Yukon and Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation governments surveyed the site last summer after flooding had receded and found that ice and water had taken a significant toll on historic and modern buildings as well as the land around the site.
Forty Mile is often referred to as the Yukon’s first town with its settlement as a small trading post preceding the Klondike Gold Rush. The site was used as an important seasonal camp for the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people long before the gold seekers arrived.
The site, about 88 kilometres downstream from Dawson City, is one of eight sites making up the larger Tr’ondëk-Klondike UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A portion of the site’s history was completely washed away in last year’s flooding. A survey by territorial and Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in officials found that three of the 11 historic buildings still on the site are gone, with the other eight all sustaining some damage. There are also downed trees, destroyed trails and modern work camp buildings shifted off their foundations to reckon with. Last summer’s work also included the stabilization of buildings to hold off further damage.
For those who have worked on the maintenance of the site or camped out there, the damage came as quite a blow.
“We do get attached to all the buildings, you know, because it’s at a location that’s just unbelievable, it’s just so beautiful down there,” said Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in heritage director Debbie Nagano.
She added that the site has been an important camp for the harvest of fish, game and berries since time immemorial. Nagano said the area is often used by Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in for camps with youth and elders.
Rebecca Jansen, historic sites manager for the territorial government, was among the government staff working on the preservation of the historic site prior to the damage in 2023. She will be engaged in planning for the restoration work going forward.
Jansen said she was able to visit Ch’ëdähdëk (Forty Mile) prior to the damage a few times including with her children.
“It’s a great site, it has kind of a wonderful sense of place and understanding and just, you know, was a great tranquil setting where you could just go and kind of be at peace. I definitely do have have a strong emotional connection to the site as well as professional,” she said.
Jansen added that the damage was pretty troubling to a lot of people who have put work into preserving the site in the past.
Nagano said the name Ch’ëdähdëk means means “leaves are flowing on the river” for all the big cottonwood trees along the river that get their bright leaves in the fall. The trees that give the area its name suffered as badly as the structures when the ice jam forced through.
“The trees are twisted. These are big trees, big cottonwood trees to poplars to large spruce trees, probably 100-year-old spruce trees, that were just moved and twisted, and it formed almost like a wall,” she said.
Nagano added that there were other major changes to the land, eroded riverbanks, new lakes and ponds alongside the rivers and treasured berry bushes swept away.
Damaged trails and bridges, downed trees and unstable structures have rendered the area unsafe and so it is closed to the public.
The next step of the work at the site is the drafting of a conservation plan exploring repair and interpretation options for the damaged buildings as well as the mitigation of damage from future flooding.
“The purpose of the conservation plan is just to help us prioritize the work ahead, try and determine what intervention should take place, considering the potential for these types of large flooding events to occur in the future,” Jansen said.
She said it will be important to engage Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in citizens on the planning and there will also be open houses held in Dawson.
The government is accepting bids for a contractor to draw up the plan. Jansen said it is hoped that a final plan could be in place by December.
The conservation plan focuses mainly on the heritage value of the site. Further work will be needed to plan for the future of the modern buildings.
Jansen said the modern work camp buildings will be lifted and stabilized. Equipment will be repaired and access to the site via a bridge will be restored. She said efforts will be made to locate any artifacts that might have been displaced and to do an assessment of any damage to the campground infrastructure.
Nagano noted that the site has significant archaeological values with items like beads, arrowheads and hearths located a few inches below the surface. She said that burial sites, both Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and settler, were far enough from the rivers to not be disturbed.
Jansen said more studies would be needed to determine whether similar ice jam and flooding events can be expected in the future and what needs to be done to protect the site. She said there are discussions about moving buildings out of the flood zone but questions abound about whether this impacts their historic value.
Nagano said Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in elders have told stories warning against building permanent structures in the Forty Mile area as it is prone to flooding.
“It doesn’t happen every year. Slowly, we move down and we adapt and then all of a sudden, maybe, you know, 50 or 70 years it comes again. In different forms, in different ways, you know. You know Mother Nature is in control when something like this happens, that’s for sure,” she said.
Contact Jim Elliot at jim.elliot@yukon-news.com