Yukon and Alaska Bound, Part 41. Visiting Keno City and Keno Hill Again

Keno City

On the road to Keno

August 6th we all piled into our truck and headed on the 70 km gravel road toward Keno City, Yukon Territory. The road is good and well grated. There are a few narrow spots, but no problems. In dry weather one could take the RV all the way to Keno. There is a no service campground in town.

Walking around Keno City

Like the time before when we visited, we enjoyed just walking around the old mining town. The museum is very interesting.

Visiting the Museum can be stressful

We drove on all the way to Keno Hill. 

Signpost on Keno Hill with Christian, Lisbeth, Hansuli, Annemarie and Liz

We were so exited to show the Swiss team the beautiful flowers on the hill. Well, the spring was over and most of the flowers were gone. Up here the frost comes early.

Keno Hill with old mining scars

The views from Keno Hill with its sign post are amazing Here on Keno Hill or "Sheep Mountain" as it was first called Louis Bouvette in 1919 found a rich silver ore deposit. Some of the old mining sheds are still visible up there.

So this area is famous for its silver mines, even though there were gold prospectors combing this Stewart River area already in the 1898s when the big Yukon gold rush came through.

Even today, there are active mines for silver and gold in this area. When we look carefully into the beautiful hills, we can spot mining going on all over the place. 

Views from Keno Hill

Alexco Resources opened the Bellekeno Mine a little more than a year ago, but mining in the hills surrounding Keno City has occurred for almost a century. And the landscape has the scars to prove it.
But the hay days of Keno City as a mining town are over. 

Keno is a sleepy little town. But the few people living here are genuine Yukoners. We had lunch at Mike's Snack Bar. His pizzas were again super yummy.

Waiting for Mike's Pizza at his Snack Bar in Keno City

On the way back we visited the Binet House in Mayo. This is well worth a stop. It shows the history of the area on nice old photographs. There is also an interesting hospital museum with the first Iron Lung on display

Back at the campground on 5 Mile Lake we had a great outdoor supper and had good stories to tell from our trip to Keno Hill.

Liz and I visited Keno City 4 week prior to this visit. It was then more spring colours. Have a look at post number 24 and 25.

Here are some more pictures from this trip.

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