Keno City

Silver was found at Keno Hill in 1919 and the district became one of the richest silver producers in Canada, working intermittently for decades; Keno City was its centre and now has about twenty year-round residents. The mining museum in the former dance hall is run by volunteers and holds the district's equipment and photographs. On the summit of Keno Hill, at about one thousand eight hundred metres and reached by a rough road, stands a wooden signpost put up in 1955 pointing to cities around the world with distances, which has become the district's emblem. The alpine tundra on the summit flowers in July.

History

Rich silver and lead ore was found on Keno Hill in 1919, and the town, named after the gambling game keno popular in mining camps at the turn of the 20th century, rose and fell with the mines; when United Keno Hill closed them literally overnight in 1989, the people who stayed turned to tourism, with the Keno Mining Museum and the signpost on Keno Hill. The district's sternwheeler, the SS Keno, is preserved at Dawson City as a National Historic Site (Wikipedia, Keno City).

The main sights

• The Keno Hill signpost - a 1955 marker on the summit pointing worldwide.
• The mining museum - the silver district's equipment in a former dance hall.
• The end-of-road hamlet - about twenty residents at the road's end.
• The alpine tundra - flowering summit ground in July.

When to go

June to September; the summit road is snowbound otherwise and the hamlet largely closes. The museum keeps volunteer hours. Autumn colour on the tundra is striking in late August.

What to expect

The summit road is rough and often needs high clearance. The museum opens on volunteer availability. There are essentially no services beyond a cafe that may or may not be open.

Nearby

Mayo lies southwest; Dawson City is west.

Key facts