Dawson City toasts Klondike TV miniseries

You don't need a prospector's sharp eyesto spotinaccuracies in Klondike.

But residents say it's a fun adventure seriesand a finereason to throw a costume party.

Last night Dawsonites packed the KIAC ballroom to watch the first episode of the new Discovery Channel miniseries.

Rian Lougheed-Smith was working the bar at the event.

You know what,I think it was entertaining, she says. The sets are really incredible, the storefronts, the mud...

Lougheed-Smith says it doesnt really take away from the seriesbut there are more than a few inaccurate details. One example:Snow and darkness in Dawson in July.

And then there are the man-eating wolves.

I hesitate to be overly critical because I think we all take great pride in living up here and knowing about this place but I think there are very few television programs, books, articles that are able to capture everything of any place, of any town, she says

Curtis Collins says one mistake came at the expense of the local first nation.

The most inaccurate part was in reference to the Tlingit being in the Dawson City area and as you know it's the Tr'ondk Hwch'in."

Factual mistakes aside, the crowd in Dawson City will likely be tuning in for more.

It might be true of many others too. Last night on Twitterhashtag #Klondike was trending around the world.

The 'Americangun slinging myth' comes North

Michael Gates is a Yukon author and historian. Hesays the series is especially notable for its cowboygun culture. Call it a Northern Western:A man is shot dead in a saloonright in theseries' trailer.

"They portray the Yukon as a wild and lawless placebutlaw and order and British justice had been well established in the Klondike before the gold rush started," he says.

"To suggest that it was a lawless place is totally inaccurate but it conforms with the American expectation of the western gun-slinging myth."

As was the case in 1898, it seems, tales about the Klondike have a way of turning from history to myth, changing from person to person as they get retold.

The Discovery channel show has two more episodes airing tonight and tomorrow night.