{"id":7402,"date":"2021-01-25T10:17:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T15:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7402"},"modified":"2021-01-25T10:19:23","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T15:19:23","slug":"episode-235-yukon-diary-keno-city-where-is-it-at-the-end-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7402","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 235 YUKON DIARY KENO CITY: WHERE IS IT? “AT THE END OF THE WORLD”"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE  235    YUKON DIARY    KENO CITY:  WHERE IS IT? \u201cAT THE END  OF THE WORLD\u201d<\/p>\n
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      <\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
      \u201cThat was one hell of  a fire.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
      \u201cWhat fire?\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cThe night not so long ago that the Keno City Hotel burned to the ground.\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cHow did it happen?\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cNo one knows for sure\u2026but there is a police investigation.\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cHow  has he fire affected  Keno City?\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cWell, there was never much to see in the City\u2026now there is even less.\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cWas it ever s city?\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cNever.\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cIs it worth the trip?\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cYes..for sure\u2026if you like mystery\u2026if you like  places that time has forgotten.\u201d<\/div>\n
      \u201cWhat about the \u2018sporting girls\u2019?<\/div>\n
      \u201cOnce upon a time the sporting girls were here but that was long ago.\u201d<\/div>\n

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      <\/p>\n

      <\/div>\n
      Too  bad.  The Keno  City hotel burned to the ground recently which means there <\/div>\n
      is even less of  Keno City to find.  Mysterious circumstance fire.  Now there is only<\/div>\n
      one place to buy beer in Keno City.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      Main Street in Keno  City.  The Museum has gathered together bits and  pieces of Keno City and  Keno Hill history.<\/div>\n
      Worth a visit?   I love adventure so  I would  without hesitation  say yes.  But if you are seeking the hurly burly days<\/div>\n
      of the rush for silver,  then you will be disappointed.<\/div>\n

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

      <\/div>\n
      KENO CITY<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      \n
      How  do i give you a short impression of Keno City?  Not very udiffcult.  \u201cIf  you are looking<\/div>\n
      for a place at the very end of the civilized world, then take a drive to Keno City.\u201d Drive slowly<\/div>\n
      otherwise  you might miss the  metropolis.   There is not much left to see now that the<\/div>\n
      Keno Hotel has burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
       A couple of years ago  Keno City had two bars facing each other; Competing with each other<\/div>\n
      for the trade from the population of the city.  Population?  Are there 12 or 20 residents?  No more<\/div>\n
      than that.  If you are wanting  women  as well as  booze you will be very disappointed because<\/div>\n
      the \u2018sporting girls\u2019 have long since departed.  <\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      I have come to the conclusion that rumours  of good  time girls were… like the rumour of Mark Twain\u2019s <\/div>\n
      death \u2026 grossly exagerrated.  That conclusion was  made after listening to story after story of rampant prostituion in <\/div>\n
      Dawson City then Keno City. Stories magnified by men  who had  never been  in the Yukon in<\/div>\n
      those bawdy house years.  Stories around a smoky campfire.  Storie told to distract from the millions<\/div>\n
      of blood sucking bastards hovering on the smoke periphery.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      After more than three months working and drinking in and around Keno City, we never<\/div>\n
      set our glasses down in a Keno City bar.  Was that a mistake, an accident or just good luck?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
      The city was dead.  The city could not be found except in the imagination.  The closest I came<\/div>\n
      to meeting a  Yukon prostitute was the woman  in Mayo Landing bar who offered to take<\/div>\n
      me to her room to cut my hair.  She was about 60 years old, very large, very drunk\u2026very sad.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      Keno City was never ever a City.  Nor will it ever become a city.  When  I passed through Keno City<\/div>\n
      in 1962, I was  stunned.   What city?  In1962 there were still some  reminders of better times.  Houses<\/div>\n
      and buildings in need of paint and attention to detail   Some boarded up.  No real main street. I do not<\/div>\n
      even remember any sign that there had ever been a main street except for a large false fronted<\/div>\n
      commercial building that could have once been store.   In 1962 there were only 20 people living<\/div>\n
      in Keno City.  Today, in 2021, I noted the population had fallen to 12.   Today they cannot even drink <\/div>\n
      the water in the  town because it is loaded with arsenic which has percolated down from the<\/div>\n
      Keno Hill silver mine at the top of Keno Hill and the Wernecke Camp mine halfway up.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      Stories told of the boom times in Keno City usually spent a lot of print on the \u2018sporting girls\u2019\u2026the<\/div>\n
      hookers (prostitutes)  that migrated from Dawson City to Keno City in the 1920\u2019s and 1930\u2019s.<\/div>\n
      Dozens of them apparently organized and  housed by famous madams like Bombay Peggy, Ruby Scott and Tiger Lil\u2026women<\/div>\n
      who had done well in the skin trade of Dawson.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      Most stories I heard over campfires at night were  lurid enough to make me believe that Keno City<\/div>\n
      was once devoted only to prostitution.  Servicing the 800 or so men who got every second Sunday<\/div>\n
      off and had no place to spend their money except Keno City which was a bit of a boom town down at <\/div>\n
      the bottom of  Keno Hill  in the 1920\u2019s and 1930\u2019s.  To stop fights for access to women and liquor the mine<\/div>\n
      owners made sure that the day off Sundays were  staggered.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      In truth Keno Hill was never a place where there was no law and order.  Eventually an RCMP detachment<\/div>\n
      was stationed in Keno but the officers seemed to spend most of their time trying to find illegal makers of<\/div>\n
      moonshine\u2026bootleggers in other words.  And they failed at that job since there were lots  of  places<\/div>\n
      to hide stills.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      There was no need for a jail in Keno City.  Instead there was the flagpole.  Residents that needed police<\/div>\n
      discipline were simply handcuffed to the flagpole as a feast for mosqitoes in the summer time and near<\/div>\n
      frozen to death in the winter time where temperatures could get as low as 50 below zero.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      If  you thirst for adventure then Keno City is the place to visit.  I mean it.  A city that never <\/div>\n
      existed really.   Worth the drive?  I would say yes\u2026for sure.   If  you want to find a city at<\/div>\n
      the end of  our civilized world.<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
       NEXT  EPISODE:  KENO CITY\u2019S \u2018SPORTING GIRLS\u2019 (PROSTITUTES)<\/div>\n

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      <\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      This is the famous  street of prostitutes  in Dawson City.  When the gold was gone they moved<\/div>\n
      to Keno City where silver had  been  found in the 1920\u2019s and 1930\u2019s.   Being a sporting girl<\/div>\n
      was never glorious or very profitable for most of the girls.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n
      next EPISODE \u2026 SPORTING GIRLS AS TOLD BY DR. AHO<\/div>\n

      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      EPISODE  235    YUKON DIARY    KENO CITY:  WHERE IS IT? \u201cAT THE END  OF THE WORLD\u201d \u201cThat was one hell of  a fire.\u201d \u201cWhat fire?\u201d \u201cThe night not so long ago that the Keno City Hotel burned to the ground.\u201d \u201cHow did it happen?\u201d \u201cNo one knows for sure\u2026but there is a police investigation.\u201d […]<\/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-7402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7402","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=7402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}