{"id":7198,"date":"2021-01-02T18:48:13","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T23:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7198"},"modified":"2021-01-02T19:00:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T00:00:29","slug":"episode-215-yukon-story-part-4-ghost-towns-visited-on-keno-hill-in-1962-by-bill-dunn-and-alan-skeoch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7198","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 215 YUKON STORY PART 4: GHOST TOWNS VISITED ON KENO HILL IN 1962 BY BILL DUNN AND ALAN SKEOCH"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 215     YUKON STORY: PART 4  GHOST TOWNS VISTED ON KENO HILL IN 1962 BY BILL DUNN AND ALAN SKEOCH<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Jan. 2, 2021<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 215    GHOST TOWNS PART 4  \u2026KENO HILL AND WERNECKE CAMP<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Jan. 2, 2021<\/div>\n

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SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 1962<\/div>\n

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“THIS is our big day.  Bill Dunn and I are going to climb Keno Hill\u2026really a mountain\u2026in search of a ghost town we<\/div>\n
heard about.   We have no idea what it will look like or where it is.  We do know there is an old road up the mountain<\/div>\n
from Keno City which  is itself almost a ghost town.  Bill Scott with drive us to the base of the mountain in our bashed<\/div>\n
and beaten 1953 Power Wagon then he will backtrack and go to Mass at the Catholic  Church in  Elsa.  Given a choice<\/div>\n
between discovering  and exploring a ghost town and  going to mass, We chose the ghost town while Bill Scott chose<\/div>\n
Mass.  What choice would you make?<\/div>\n

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We climbed upwards  for two hours following the long abandoned  mining road which is now blocked with a small<\/div>\n
glacier partway up.  The melt water flows down the old track for a distance… impossible even for our power <\/div>\n
wagon to get through.”<\/div>\n

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ROAD TO KENO HILL CLOSED\u2026BARRIER OF RUBBLE<\/div>\n

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“About 2\/3 the way to the top we found an old mine entrance and a jumble of abandoned ore cars with their wheels<\/div>\n
gone.  Should we crawl  over the cars  and explore inside this mine?  We thought about it but decided  finding the<\/div>\n
ghost town came first since we only had a few hours to spend before Bill would return with the Power Wagon.<\/div>\n
Strange however that the mine would be part way down  the mountain yet the mine buildings would  be up top.<\/div>\n
(We did not know at the time that there were two mines here\u2026Keno Hill and Wernecke Camp.  Both very historic<\/div>\n
in the mining history of the Yukon.  More important than all of Dawson City.   To us, what we saw was just<\/div>\n
a gaping hole held open by timbers that seemed about to collapse.)”<\/div>\n

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\"\"chris-nicole.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Chris-and-Nicole-CNA-Photos-visit-keno-city-yukon-14-300×200.jpg<\/a> 300w, chris-nicole.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Chris-and-Nicole-CNA-Photos-visit-keno-city-yukon-14-768×513.jpg<\/a> 768w, chris-nicole.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Chris-and-Nicole-CNA-Photos-visit-keno-city-yukon-14.jpg<\/a> 1200w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”><\/div>\n

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“So we continued to climb.  Very steep road. Eventually we got above the tree line and there spread before us was what remained of  <\/div>\n
Keno Hill or Wernecke.  The two names were confusing.  But the vista was incredible.  We could see for miles  and  miles\u2026maybe<\/div>\n
50 to 100 mlles distant was the looming tower of snow clad  Mount Haldane\u2026due west of Keno Hill.   Really we  did not see<\/div>\n
this vista at first because our eyes were distracted by the more  or less parallel set of  railway tracks that curved  out from<\/div>\n
another  mine opening and ended abruptly at a  cliff face that went straight down for several hundred feet.  At the terminal<\/div>\n
end was a heavy wood platform built right to the edge of the  cliff.  This was where the waste  rock was dumped and fell<\/div>\n
far below along with other things  we could see among the fractured waste.”<\/div>\n

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“Our trip had all the trappings of home\u2026.frying pan  We borrowed a small orange crate <\/div>\n
table as we dined luxuriously on a platform built over the edge  of a cliff face.  When the mine operated<\/div>\n
the waste  rock and other things were dumped here and far below was a garbage  dump worth attention<\/div>\n
we could not give.”<\/div>\n

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I think this is Mount Haldane but cannot be  sure.  The picture was taken at lake level.  Not from top of Keno Hill<\/div>\n
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This shows what miners leave behind.<\/div>\n

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“I was reticent to sit on the platform but Bill was  insistent we sit there and  have our lunch with our knees on the edge of<\/div>\n
the precipice while we gazed  across the valley to Mount Haldane.  I suffered from a feeling of vertigo<\/div>\n
but at the  same time  a feeling of wonder.  NO mosquitoes or black flies  up here because the wind<\/div>\n
drove them to ground.  It was something out of this world.  We should have sat there longer but even<\/div>\n
our rapid lunch gave enough time for the vista to get locked into long term storage in my brain. Indelible.<\/div>\n
Keno Hill mine was built on a truncated Mountain valley that had convulsed long long ago\u2026and  a great <\/div>\n
swath of Keno Hill had been torn free and fallen straight down to the great valley below.<\/div>\n

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Several lakes glowed emerald green  here and there across the valley.  We thought we saw a moose in one\u2019<\/div>\n
the nearest lakes but could not be sure.  Nor  did we want to take the time to do much more.  We had<\/div>\n
the ghost town  to explore.  Dotted here and there across  the bare top of Keno Hill were many buildings\u2026most<\/div>\n
of them windowless.  But a couple looked like picture postcards from  gold rush days of the 1890\u2019s\u2026log buildings<\/div>\n
mostly but a few had shiplap lumber.  Unpainted.  The first one we reached even had old curtains hanging on<\/div>\n
the windows.   inside there were dishes and  pots and old kitchen stuff here and there along with tables<\/div>\n
and chairs.  Abandoned but done so in haste it seemed.  We had not idea when this mine was closed.<\/div>\n
We guessed turn of the century\u20261900.  (But we were wrong.  Keno Hill and  Wernecke were abandoned  <\/div>\n
between 1928 and  1932).   <\/div>\n

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My memory of this house was that he windows were  intact and there  were curtains.  Easy  to see the curtains. The rest is a shambles.<\/div>\n
Perhaps the picture is misplaced.<\/div>\n

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The  opening to the Wernicke mine adit is choked with ice.  Closed.<\/div>\n

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That home was hard  to forget.  We felt like intruders \u2026 maybe the owner would arrive any moment.  Outside, however,<\/div>\n
was silence only disrupted by gusts of cold wind. <\/div>\n

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I think these  are buildings that were constructed in 1921 by Livingston Wernicke as housing for his miners.<\/div>\n

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“Not far away from the house was a large log building.  Looked like a big log barn which is exactly what it turned  out<\/div>\n
to be.  Inside were horse stalls with horse collars and harness hanging on spikes;  No horses\u2026no sign of life at all.<\/div>\n
(It Turns out there were once 98 horses  up here.  Some pulled the mine cars from the stopes to the mill while others<\/div>\n
pulled the waste rock  to the dump at the cliff face where we had lunch.  Most of the horses were harnessed<\/div>\n
to heavy wagons  where the sacks  of  galena ore were placed  in route down the mountain road to <\/div>\n
Keno City and then forward all the way to Mayo Landing where stern wheeling steamships paddled<\/div>\n
the ore to Whitehorse where the White Pass Railway took over.   The  silver from Keno Hill dominated<\/div>\n
the world silver supply for many years. )”<\/div>\n

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“We expected to find piles of old machinery in abandoned  workshops but did not do so.  When the<\/div>\n
mine closed the crushing  machines and related  tooling was tool valuable tote discarded it seemed.<\/div>\n
Small tools like  pick heads and D handled shovels were laying about here and there which indicated<\/div>\n
the corpse of Keno Hill had been picked clean by previous explorers like Bill and me.<\/div>\n

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We had only a hour or two to explore.   Never got to see every building nor did we find<\/div>\n
an adit leading into the mine.  Adits are horizontal\u2026shafts are vertical.   We had no chance<\/div>\n
of getting deep in the bowels of  Keno Hill.<\/div>\n

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I took a  few pictures and  we headed  down the mountain to Keno City where Bill Scott was waiting.<\/div>\n
How were we able to get the time to do this?  I don\u2019t know.  Maybe we had finished one job and  were<\/div>\n
getting ready to start another.  Somehow we had a free Sunday.”<\/div>\n

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ONE of the horse stables on top of Keno Hill.  Once there were 98 horses up here.  Then Livingston Wernecke decided it was<\/div>\n
cheaper to use Holt Tractors to haul galena to Mayo Landing.  What happened to the horses?   I have no idea but even to this<\/div>\n
day there are wild  horses in the Yukon\u2026tough wild  horses that manage  to survive.  At least they were<\/div>\n
still there in 1962.  I do not know about today.<\/div>\n

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\"\"chris-nicole.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Chris-and-Nicole-CNA-Photos-visit-keno-city-yukon-4-300×200.jpg<\/a> 300w, chris-nicole.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Chris-and-Nicole-CNA-Photos-visit-keno-city-yukon-4-768×513.jpg<\/a> 768w, chris-nicole.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Chris-and-Nicole-CNA-Photos-visit-keno-city-yukon-4.jpg<\/a> 1200w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”><\/div>\n
Many of the Keno Hill miners homes must have looked like this.   Use your imagination  When it was lived in<\/div>\n
it may have been OK.  Small window openings were a blessing in a Yukon winter.<\/div>\n

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THE FACTS THAT BILL DUNN AND I DID NOT KNOW<\/div>\n

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Bill and I knew  nothing about either Keno Hill or Wernecke Camp.   All we knew  was that people once lived<\/div>\n
on the top of Keno Hill and no one lived there in 1962 but their homes were still there\u2026empty\u2026collapsing.<\/div>\n
A regular ghost town.  We were not sure we  had any right to climb Keno Hill (really a mountain).  But the<\/div>\n
lure of the mysterious Yukon was irresistible.<\/div>\n

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Now,  in 2021, I know  a lot more about what we saw that Sunday afternoon back in 1962.<\/div>\n
Sorting  out the owners of the mines near Keno Hill, their years of operation, their stories<\/div>\n
is  a task too big for this episode so  I have tried to pare it down  to something readers can<\/div>\n
understand.   What should  be written is  a great novel the likes of  Grapes of Wrath by<\/div>\n
Steinbeck.<\/div>\n

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\"Livingston<\/div>\n

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Livingson Wernecke (1883-1941)<\/div>\n

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In 1917 the huge Treadwell Mine on the coast of the Alaskan panhandle suddenly fill with water.  350 Miners fled<\/div>\n
up  the  shaft as fast as they could  The mine horses could not flee. The death of those horses broke the<\/div>\n
heart of the mine  population.   Millions of gallons of sea water  soon filled every<\/div>\n
corner of the mine.   Livingstone Wernecke  was a mine geologist here in 1917.  He moved to Keno Hill in 1921.<\/div>\n

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The easiest way to understand what happened on Keno Hill is to focus on one man,  Livingston<\/div>\n
Wernecke.   He was a big time miner.   A geologist who spent his early years working the<\/div>\n
Alaska Treadwell mine.  Incredibly dramatic life.  But I will hold the story of Treadwell back.<\/div>\n
It will take another whole episode.  Captivating is an understatement.<\/div>\n

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In  June, 1921, Wernecke came to Keno to check out the possibilities.  Much of Keno Hill had<\/div>\n
already been staked, and some silver ore had been extracted.  Rich ore\u2026lots of  silver, lead<\/div>\n
and zinc.  The market was good.  World War One was over and the 1920\u2019s were  booming.<\/div>\n

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So Livingston Wernecke thought Keno Hill had  great possibilities.  He bought a sawmill<\/div>\n
and set it up at Mayo Lake to get planks and timbers for the underground workings<\/div>\n
and the town site he needed for his miners.  From the Treadwell mine in Alaska he sent<\/div>\n
all that was needed to start mining\u2026steel  rails, drills, mine  cars, chain falls\u2026a165 diesel <\/div>\n
engine, a 150 kilowat generator\u2026picks, shovels, mine  paraphernalia.   <\/div>\n

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Access to Keno Hill in 1921 was not easy.  The best transport was by flat bottomed <\/div>\n
sternwheeler steamships which had come up the Yukon River and then up the Stewart River to<\/div>\n
Mayo Landing.  That was  only part way.  The rest of the way to Keno was overland<\/div>\n
on a bush road that was best in the winter..a muddy terror in the spring\u2026a fly infested<\/div>\n
hell in the summer.  Especially hard on the horses, all 98 of them.  But the job was <\/div>\n
underway and in May 1924 planning was made to reconstruct a flotation mill weighing<\/div>\n
100 tons.  By January 6, 1925 the mill was  in place.  (*There was no sign of<\/div>\n
the mill in 1962. It had been removed to Elsa, a few miles west of Keno)<\/div>\n

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Meanwhile his miners, he called them his \u2018boys\u2019 and tried to keep  them morally pure.<\/div>\n
..meanwhile Wernecke’s boys were digging, blasting\u2026.deep\u2026600 feet hollowed out<\/div>\n
and the galena was rich\u2026high concentrations of silver at 60 cents a pound.<\/div>\n
(*The first mine  entrance that Bill and  I found was a drainage  adit saving Wernecke<\/div>\n
the $200 a day costs of pumping water from the mine stopes and passageways,)<\/div>\n

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The estimated cost for the whole  project was $200,000 and the estimated profit<\/div>\n
was  $1,273 a day.   Every ton of  galena produced 64ounces of silver that was<\/div>\n
then worth 60 cents a pound.   Then there was the side profit selling lead<\/div>\n
at 6 cents a pound.   Wernecke processed over 244, thousand tons of ore<\/div>\n
containing nearly 13 million ounces silver along with lead and zinc.<\/div>\n

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Those were good times for everyone.  The miners, some of  whom got<\/div>\n
houses for their wives  and children.  Others  lived in fancy bunkhouses built<\/div>\n
with lumber from Mayo Lake saw mill and sheets of corrugated steel<\/div>\n
from United Staes steel  companies.<\/div>\n

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Then suddenly the price  of silver dropped.  By November 16, 1932, Keno Hill<\/div>\n
was no longer profitable.  Wernecke was killed in 1941\u2026killed  in an attempted<\/div>\n
airplane rescue of another downed pilot and crew.  His plane circled through fog<\/div>\n
and  hit an unseen immense tree on the Alaskan panhandle.  Killed all<\/div>\n
while those about to be rescued watched  helplessly<\/div>\n

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So in 1932,  Keno Hill and  Wernecke Camp became  ghost towns.<\/div>\n
Much of the machinery and even some of the buildings were<\/div>\n
packed up and moved to Elsa,<\/div>\n

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What we  saw in 1962 was a townsite and mine site that was slowly<\/div>\n
rotting into powder.  People visiting Wernecke today will only see<\/div>\n
the railway tracks and abandoned mine cars maybe.  Apparently the one<\/div>\n
house  that remains intact snd  livable is the house  that Livingston<\/div>\n
Wernecke built for his own family.  Some enterprising residents<\/div>\n
of Keno City would  like it preserved as an historic cite.  Is that<\/div>\n
likely? I am  not too sure.  Getting to the top of Keno Hill is not easy.<\/div>\n

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This is the short form history of Keno.  The full story will come later.<\/div>\n
Suffice it to say that Livingston Wernecke tried to keep his boys<\/div>\n
away from the hookers that took over Keno City in the 1920\u2019s, when the mines<\/div>\n
were flourishing.  He failed to do that.  Wernecke will be another secondary story. <\/div>\n

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When I read about that failure I remembered a miner I worked underground<\/div>\n
with at Elliott Lake.  He asked me if I knew how to tell that a mine<\/div>\n
was going to be successful.  I thought it must be the price of the raw<\/div>\n
minerals.  \u201cNo, you can tell when the hookers start to arrive.\u201d  Well,<\/div>\n
they sure began to arrive in  Keno City.  That will be another secondary story.<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n

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Jan. 2, 2021<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 215     YUKON STORY: PART 4  GHOST TOWNS VISTED ON KENO HILL IN 1962 BY BILL DUNN AND ALAN SKEOCH alan skeoch Jan. 2, 2021 EPISODE 215    GHOST TOWNS PART 4  \u2026KENO HILL AND WERNECKE CAMP alan skeoch Jan. 2, 2021 SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 1962 “THIS is our big day.  Bill Dunn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}