Late Arriving Cards from Our Yukon and Alaska Trip

Hello again, it's the end of August and time to get one more update in before September. Well, the last of the cards from our recent Yukon and Alaska road trip have finally arrived back home. Today the cards are from Dawson Creek, Mayerthorpe , Atlin and a special place Old Crow.

Let's start with the Dawson Creek cards. Dawson Creek is a small city of around 12,000 people in northeastern British Columbia. Nicknamed Capital of the Peace or Mile 0 City, it derives its name from the creek that runs through the community.  The city is also the starting point for the 1500 mile World Famous Alaska Highway, hence the Mile 0 City moniker.
This first card is from My Lovely Teena, who always manages to pick up a card from our travels and send to me. It's a Mile 0 card  and shows a few of the touristy related sights in the city.

Teena used a In Flanders Fields stamp from 2015.

This next card , also from Dawson Creek, possibly shows a few of the local residents, however I didn't see any dressed like this on my visit. These warriors actually are from a posed photograph re-enacting a hunt or maybe a battle.

The stamp on this one is one of the Star Trek set issued this year. Here we have Mr Spock. Nice Capital of Peace cancellation.

One more card from Dawson Creek. This one is made from Eastern Red Ceder. I have a couple of these wooden cards in my collection now. On this one is a Bighorn Sheep. Bighorn Sheep are best known for the head to head combat between males, at speeds up to 30 km.h. Good thing their skulls are double layered, don't even mention the headaches.

Here's another of the Star Trek stamps. This time it's Commander Kor of the Klingon Empire.

Mayerthorpe, Alberta is featured on my next card. Mayerthorpe , a town of 1,400 is located in central Alberta, 120 km northwest of Edmonton. northwest . Sadly the town will forever be known for the Mayerthorpe tragedy, in which 4 officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were killed there on March 3, 2005.
The picture on the card is a 2014 contest winner for photographer Marion Claybrook .

This one arrived with a stamp from the Dinos of Canada set issued in May of this year. You can see the boneheaded Acrotholus audeti from Alberta on the stamp.

While in Mayerthorpe, in the Fallen Four Memorial Park, I happened upon this card, entitled Fallen Comrades : Task Force Afghanistan. Even though our Canadian Forces are no longer in Afghanistan in a combat situation, I thought it appropriate to have the card in my collection.

The stamp is from the Canadian Country Artists set of 2014 and features the beautiful Renee Martel.

One more from Mayerthorpe. This one is a painting of the Fallen Four Memorial Park by Rosemary Luksha.

We have another of the Dinosaur stamps on this card. This time it's the Comox Valley Elasmosaur.

Atlin, B.C. cards are next. Atlin is a small town in northwestern British Columbia, located on the eastern shore of Atlin Lake. The name Atlin comes from the Tlingit language word for " big body of water " .  Atlin is a tourist destination for fishing, hiking and heli-skiing. Back in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush days, Atlin had a population of 10,000, but now it stands at around 500. According to the website Discoveratlin.com  Atlin is the Most Beautiful Place on Earth, in any season , in any weather. Their words, not mine.

This first card shows a couple of old log cabins. It is generally held, that these are the original homes of the first settlers of Atlin, built around 1898. The beached boat in the picture is named " The Gladys " .

I'll get to the stamp on this one , after we look at the next card from Atlin. Here we see St. Martin's Anglican Church which was built in 1900.

Now the stamps on these 2 cards make up a set of 2 domestic rate stamps celebrating the discovery of long lost HMS Erebus.  The left stamp shows HMS Erebus and the right stamp shows a map of the Arctic region that Franklin explored and used Inuktut to locations on the map.

They are a little hard to see due to the light colors  used . The prospectors tools show up good though in the cancellation.


The last card for today is from Old Crow. I didn't get to visit Old Crow - it is the only Yukon community that cannot be accessed by road. Old Crow is the most northerly community in the Yukon Territory. The town of 245 persons is situated on the banks of the Porcupine River, near to the Vuntut National Park and is home to the self-governing Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation.

On the card you can see Fireweed. Fireweed was chosen as Yukon's floral emblem in 1957. It is a hardy plant and grows along Yukon roadsides and river banks. Its blooms are a bright magenta and it is one of the the first plants to appear after a forest fire.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't actually get to Old Crow, what with no road access, so I did the next best thing. I contacted the Chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, Chief Bruce Charlie and he was kind enough to drop this card in the mail to me.
The stamps are 3 of 5 in the Birds of Canada series issued on July 12th. The birds are all official birds of areas of Canada. Shown on the card are , left to right - the sharp tailed grouse of Saskatchewan, the common raven of Yukon and the great horned owl of Alberta.

Well there , our road trip is now completed. I owe thanks for a couple of cards to  My Lovely Teena and to Chief Bruce Charlie.
Thanks for reading and do come by again soon.