The World's Smallest Desert

The "Carcross Desert" was originally covered by a large glacial lake. Sandy lake bottom material was
left when after the glaciers retreated. The prevailing winds off Lake Bennett have made it difficult for
vegetation, other than some lodgepole pine and kinnikinnick, to establish itself on the former lake bed.

The next day I was on my way to Carcross. On paved roads, the trip was not the arduous journey of my childhood memories. I finally got to see the world's smallest desert which I have often read about but I don't remember having seen as a child. Such things were not so well marked in those days. What were marked were the places where people had been killed in accidents along the highway. Such markers seemed to have disappeared with paving and highway realignments!

Matthew Watson's General store with its facade and metal siding typifies Yukon frontier architecture.

Modern locomotive and old fashioned mail coach meet in "Caribou Crossing" - Carcross.

The Venus Mill was built beside Lake Bennett in 1908. An aerial tramway carried the ore from
the mines to the mill. Up to 100 tons of ore could be processedper day by the gravity fed mill.
Concentrated ore was bagged and shipped by water to Carcross and then by rail to Skagway.
Despite its innovative technology the mill was not economical and it only operated for two years.

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© Grose Educational Media, 1998

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