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© Yukon News • Reprinted with
permission.
On March 24,
1901, Joseph Ladue and James M. Wilson registered title to the north
half of Lot 14, Dawson City.
Ninety years later, Duncan Spriggs purchased the same property,
complete with improvements in the form of one cockeyed
conglomeration of buildings and additions known as the Westminster
Hotel, or more commonly, The Pit.
Born in Hertfordshire, England, Spriggs has been a Dawsonite since
1978. What made him want to own this crazy-quilt of a hotel?
"Have you ever read Carlos Castaneda?" he asks.
"There's that bit about where he crawls around on the porch, and
wherever he wakes up, that's his spot? Well, this is where I woke
up."
If Kelly Miller of the Klondike Centennial Society has her way, The
Pit will be the center of a huge celebration in the summer of 2002,
when Dawson celebrates 100 years as an incorporated community.
"That's our job here at the society, to celebrate the centennial of
the gold rush, and the buildings. The Westminster's been
around a long time. And we couldn't find a date when it was actually
opened. But I've found the date in a newspaper as far back as 1902."
The 'Pit' passed through the hands of eight different owners
beginning life as a grocery store, although it probably had rooms to
let upstairs from very early times.
In addition to store owner Fred P. Freeman, the 1903 Directory also
lists James H. Grant (engineer), Plin M. Madole (cook), Mrs. Cora
Renio (palmist) and Jesse O. Rust (electrician) as residents.
John Salois bought the hotel in 1938, and it remained in his
family's hands until Fabian Salois sold it to Spriggs.
Despite being almost across the road from the much bigger and
better-appointed Eldorado Hotel, the Westminster is the most
prominent feature on Dawson's Third Avenue. You can't miss its
high facade, painted bright pink, or the huge mural on the side of
the building declaring it to be, 'Mile Zero, Joe Henry Highway'.
Spriggs explains the reference to Joe Henry, the Hän elder who
celebrated his 100th birthday two years ago, and was a Westminster
regular for many of those years, "It's mile zero on Joe Henry's
map".
"They named the highway after a cop, and that starts 25 miles away,
at the Dempster Corner, but from (Joe's) perspective, it starts
right here. If he was going out to Engineer Creek, say, he
didn't measure the distance from there, he measured it from here."
Sometimes The Pit is also called the first and last bar, says
Spriggs--"because it's usually the first bar you have a beer in when
you get to town, and 10 years later or whatever, you have a beer
here and then you leave town."
Spriggs has tried to keep the ancient building as much like he found
it as possible.
"I haven't wrecked anything. Haven't ruined the atmosphere. I
haven't turned it into a disco bar".
"I've built upon its strengths and ignored its weaknesses. The whole
thing's floating on ice, you know. OK, permafrost. It rides like a
ship."
How long can it keep floating like that?
"Well, it's lasted longer than the Titanic."
Whether they come to the lounge and rock to The Pointer Brothers,
the Westminster's house band, or for an afternoon's socializing in
the beer parlour, Dawsonites have a strong loyalty to the
Westminster.
One of the things that keeps them coming back is that Duncan never
fails to give something back to the community. If he's not raising
money through auctions to help a local musher get to the Yukon
Quest, or to assist some unfortunate family who lost their house to
a fire, he's holding crazy Thawdi-Gras events (chicken bowling
springs to mind) to support the Dawson Day Care.
The rooms aren't a five-star rating, the floors slope in every
direction, the plaster walls are cracked and the furniture has to be
kept away from the walls. But they're the cheapest rooms in Dawson
and they fill up every summer. Rooms rent for $30 to $60 a night.
Some of the luxuries you might expect from grander establishments
are available at The Pit, though.
I asked
Duncan, "What makes the price difference?"
Spriggs grins. "Clean sheets," he says.
--
Greg Karais |
