Klondike dredgewood finds new purpose in Whitehorse art studio

The owners of a new artists' studio being built in Whitehorse say timbers from an old mining dredge near Dawson City are a welcome addition to their project.

Luann Baker-Johnson and her husband Mel are opening a glass blowing studio on the waterfront in Whitehorse.

A trailer load of timbers from Dredge #10 in the Klondike arrived in Whitehorse, Thursday.Baker-Johnson played on the Klondike dredges as a child.

"Now, I know as a kid I used to crawl over those dredges because my dad was a weekend prospector up here and when I heard Iain was taking apart timber by timber the dredges, we talked about getting timbers for the studio," she said.

Iain is Iain Weatherston, the owner of Dawson City-based Klondike Dredgewood. He's purchased three of the old dredges for salvage.

The dredges worked the gold creeks in the Dawson City areafrom around 1900 to the early1960s.

Weatherston is pleased Baker-Johnson and her husband are using some of the wood in their studio.

"They have an appreciation and a love for the Yukon history, I guess, and where this wood comes from, it's part of Luann's life and you know, it's just, for me it's the perfect use," he said.

Weatherston says the beams can be stripped and the natural fir will look beautiful, but he hopes people who use them won't do much more than give the wood a light once over with a wire brush.

Baker-Johnson says the pieces will have a prominent place in the studio.

"Any person from the Yukon will be able to walk by our studio, and they'll be able to identify, 'heywait a minute, that's dredgewood, that's the fir from Dawson'." she said.