Westminster Hotel - The Snake Pit - open 9 am to 11 pm daily

The BEER PARLOUR a.k.a. The Snake Pit or The Tavern opens daily at 9:00am, one of the two bars left in the Yukon that open at this time. This Tavern is decorated with original oil paintings and murals depicting local life both past and present in Dawson City. A hand-made birch bark canoe hangs over the bar. The building is original and the materials used in construction are of the gold rush era. Due to permafrost and shifting foundations the floor has a certain lean to it and you are never sure if it is the libation or the building that makes you stagger on the way out the door. A selection of liquor is now available. In the afternoon (with luck and a following wind) the honky-tonk piano player should show up around 4:00pm.

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Part of the 2008 Thaw di Gras "Pit Games" is the Chili Cook Off next to the Pit.

Spring time in the Tavern, with the returning warmth comes the music. Sunday afternoon in the sunlight at the tavern, Willie Gordon is on the fiddle, Gil T Benoit, the banjo and George McConkey on the acoustic guitar filling the tavern with a joyful noise.

Celebrating the return of spring during the Thaw di Gras carnival is the Hat Toss event where three tries to hang a ball cap on a bulls horn can earn you a title.