6/11/18 – Yukon Transportation Museum

I’d asked George if he wanted to go to on a hike, go to a wildlife preserve or a transportation museum. He opted for the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse.  We’d driven past it several times on the way between the RV park and Whitehorse.

There’s also a big airplane on a pedestal out front.  We parked near it and walked over—the sign says it’s the “World’s Largest Weather-vane”.  Seriously???

 

I got the Yukon Passport stamps inside, paid for discount tickets at the Transportation Museum and Beringia, and we wandered, sometimes together, sometimes not because when it comes to old vehicles, we simply aren't interested in the same things.  Often what George considers classic, I consider junk.  

This is definitely a trains, planes and automobiles kind of place.  Trains come in the model variety as well as passenger cars. Planes are suspended from the ceiling.  Automobiles are restored...sometimes.

There’s a seal skin qayaq (which I thought was spelled with k’s, not q’s) next to a birch bark canoe.

Since it’s snow country, there are sleighs and dogsleds.  (I remember when I was a kid watching a tv show called Sgt. Preston of the Yukon about a Canadian Mountie patrolling the Yukon with his dog King.)  

Back around a corner and in a big open room are some of the projects that aren’t quite completed.  Some are in pieces, and some are just rusty.  For some reason, I’ve noticed that men often have no problem with this. I tend to think that if it's in a museum, it should be at least cleaned up, and oxidized metal just doesn't do it for me.

 

 

I was surprised when we went back outside and the weather-vane plane had turned almost 90 degrees!  (Compare the direction of the plane in relation to our dirty blue truck.) The ball bearings in that pedestal must be very well balanced!  I was skeptical when we got here, but an hour later I’ve changed my mind--a DC-3 is the world's largest weather-vane!

More pictures here:  Yukon Transportation Museum