British Columbia Whitehorse to Haida Gwaii - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 218

and over the mountains from Alaska; the same mountains that we travelled the other side
of when we were driving between Whitehorse and Skagway earlier in this trip.
The town of Atlin exists because of the 1898 gold rush but its dramatic scenery and access-
ibility via the interconnected lakes system turned it into a tourist destination for the well-
heeled travelers of the 1920s and 30s. The MV Tarahane was built in 1916 to service this
industry. You'll find it beached on the shoreline, now under restoration by local volunteers.
Atlin is a real funky little town. The civic website says there are restaurants but when we
arrived on a Friday afternoon they were closed. In lieu of a café, we were invited to the
Friday night pot luck at the recreation centre.
There are several RV/campgrounds in the area. We settled in at the Norseman RV Park and
Marina because it is right on the lake. It's owned by an old geezer from Abbotsford, BC
who comes up every spring to run it. He's not much on fixing things up - the restroom is a
Johnny-on-the-Spot. But he has location, location, location. And he's not expensive - $18
per night and that included electricity.
A Beaver floatplane was tied up in front - although not tied up so much as on the fly. The
pilot was up and down all day, contracted to fly in tub after tub of salmon from the abori-
ginal fisheries up the river. On the “out” trip he strapped 2x4s and sheets of plywood to the
struts for somebody's project somewhere.
“ Our tax dollars at work ,” the geezer mumbled out the side of his mouth. Apparently you
could also rent the plane/pilot for a flight-seeing trip over the glaciers; $600 for an hour.
We've seen glaciers. But sunset over the lake that night was exquisite.