Yukon's historic Fort Selkirk comes alive on Parks Day

Marlene Drapeau(Blanchard)was born in wall tent at Fort Selkirk, Yukon, in 1939. She grew up between the fort and her grandfather's upriverwood camp. Ralph Blanchard chopped wood and sold it to the steamboats thatonce served the community nearthe confluence of the Pelly and Yukon Rivers.

Fort Selkirk was vacated in the 1950's, after the road to Mayo was built. At that time, Drapeau's family moved to Minto.

Today, the historic site remains accessible only by boat,which ishow several people, including Drapeau, arrived to celebrate Parks Day on July 18.

She says it's nice seeing so many people visiting.

"I hope they would look at the buildings and see how hard it was for the people, because they had to build their own furniture beds, the table and the stove and everything like that," she said.

The hardships of fort life were not lost on RobertPritchardfrom Whitehorse, who noted the lack of insulation in the houses.

"You get to see how people lived when this fort was operating and, frankly, it makes you wonderhow they survived," he said."It's interesting to think that they did those winters in those cabins."

Yukon's first almost-capital

The area that was to become Fort Selkirk was a First Nation gathering spot before it was established as a trading post by the Hudson Bay Company in 1848.

It had a rough start.Chilkats, upset at trade disruption the fort was causing, pillaged it in 1852.Anglican missionaries arrived in the late 19th century and eventually built the church whereDrapeau was baptized.

"The community grew quickly as thousands of stampeders headed for Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896," says the Yukon Register of Historic Places.

The RCMPand about 200 Yukon Field Force solders arrived in 1898 and Fort Selkik was almost namedYukon's first capital. The soldiers stayed less than two yearsand many of their buildings were dismantled and repurposed for other buildings and cabins, including the Anglican church.

When the road was built to Mayo in 1950, steamboats stopped running on the upper Yukon River and most families left town.

Fort Selkirk is managed bySelkirk First Nation and the Yukon government. They provided free boat trips to the site on Parks Day.