Atlin BC

After leaving Whitehorse, we headed briefly south again, back into British Columbia, to visit the town of Atlin. It sounded like an interesting place, the most northwesterly town in BC, located on BC's largest, natural, freshwater lake, Atlin Lake, 145km long. Atlin was founded as a Gold Rush town in 1898 and is still producing a small amount of gold today. From a boomtown of 5,000 residents in 1898 it has shrunk now to about 350 residents. Today, it's accessed by a 95km dead-end road which is shared between Yukon and BC. There was no road until 1950. Before that, the town was accessed from the Inside Passage and from there through a series of lakes and rivers. The MV Tarahne brought visitors across the lake for the final leg, from Tagish Lake.

Tagish Lake was joined to Atlin Lake by a mini railway. One of the engines, the Duchess, on this line known as the Taku Tramway, is on display in Carcross, Yukon.

Atlin was intriguing for more than history. Today, it's a community entirely run by volunteers. It is an unorganized town, so, there is no local government, no mayor, no town council, no bylaws and no rules. Somehow, it seems to work! There are a couple of glaring examples where town planning and zoning rules would have helped the town, but, overall, it's a very enticing and different place, devoid of the suburban sterility and sameness of most of BC's northern mill towns. The residents come from all corners of the world, some are wealthy summer residents, others are wealthy only in life experience. The people we talked to had led the most interesting lives and ended up in Atlin for one reason or another. There are many artists and there is a cooperative gallery in town, located in the old courthouse building, right next to the volunteer library, not part of BC libraries, run independently and full of the latest titles. Fundraisers are held regularly for various community needs. They raised $25k recently in a plant sale, unbelievable for a community of just 350 people.

You can see vestiges of the past in the historic main street. We toured the restored (all by volunteers) Globe Theatre. Films are held regularly there and the stage acts as the main venue for the annual music festival.

A few other historic buildings were dotted around town. This was the old Nurse's Residence.

As nice as the historic buildings were, the star of the show is really Atlin Lake. It was spectacular, with stunning views of mountain peaks, islands and glaciers. We spent two nights camped on its shores. There is a large, water access only, provincial park at the south end of the lake which leads to a large icefield.

Another star was this unassuming little forest pond, outside town. The bubbles gave it away, it was a warm spring, 85F, about a metre deep and we had a long soak in its waters. It was magical, just what you'd want a natural spring to look like and we had it all to ourselves.

On the way back into town, we visited the Atlin cemetery.

The grave markers were fascinating as they marked not only a life, but how each person had died as well. The gold miners came from absolutely everywhere and many died far from home.