Escape to (and from) a national historic site
PHOTOS: Courtesy of Parks Canada, P. Gowdie
The timer starts as the door clicks shut behind you. Your palms start to sweat as your eyes dart around the room trying to take it all in. A pair of old spectacles, blacksmith-forged handcuffs, padlocked wooden boxes and cryptic handwritten notes. Your mission? Solve a true-crime murder mystery from 1902, before your time is up.
This is Catching the Klondike Killers, an escape room hosted by Parks Canada in the historic Commissioner’s Residence in Dawson City, part of Klondike National Historic Sites.
An escape room is an immersive experience where a group of people attempt to solve a series of puzzles contained in a carefully constructed room, within a certain timeframe, using only the clues provided and the wits of the group to “escape.”
Parks Canada escape rooms in the Yukon are based on unique themes related to a place’s cultural significance. Staff monitor the group’s progress and can provide a limited number of hints, if requested, though there is a time penalty.
At the stately Commissioner’s Residence, you and your team are retracing the steps of Officer Welsh, a North-West Mounted Police officer who, in real life, followed a trail of clues from Dawson City to Nevada, to capture a murder suspect. While Officer Welsh travelled over 2,000 miles during this mission, guided by information he learned from interviewing dozens of people along the way, you’re attempting to solve the mystery without leaving the building and with only 60 minutes to do it.
Will you crumble under the pressure or triumphantly solve the case before the timer runs out? Whether it takes you one try or multiple attempts to catch the Klondike Killers, this is just the beginning of a journey you can take to challenge your puzzle-solving abilities.
Just across town, in Dawson, sits Lowe’s Mortuary, home to a second escape room, Memento Mori, at Klondike National Historic Sites. This room focuses on the common experience of surviving in an isolated northern community. Many businesses flourished in Dawson City during and after the gold rush, and the business of death was no exception. Using the historic mortuary as a backdrop, this escape room puts your group to work finding a gold poke and a ticket for the last steamship out of Dawson, which were left behind by one of the mortuary’s latest “customers.” Solve the clues to find the items within the 60-minute time limit, to make it out of town before you are stuck for another long, cold, dark winter.
In Whitehorse, housed in one of the new buildings on the grounds of the S.S. Klondike National Historic Site, challenge yourself to S.S. Klondike escape room, Escape the Sinking of the S.S. Klondike, a 60-minute escape room that takes you back to June 1936 when disaster struck.
The S.S. Klondike I, the largest steamship in the British Yukon Navigation Company fleet, hit a rock wall along the mighty Yukon River. The boat started to float aimlessly downstream, ultimately succumbing to the river’s icy waters and a submerged gravel bar. (True story!). Your team must race against the clock—navigating through the room to escape the sinking vessel. In a 30-minute version, Journey to Dawson, challenge your cunning and reason with puzzles and clues based on what it was like to be a steamship passenger from Whitehorse to Dawson in the days of the riverboats.
Parks Canada escape rooms in the Yukon open in mid-to-late June, with options for those eight years old and up and for groups of two to six people. For the Dawson City experiences, visitors can sign up at the Parks Canada desk in the Visitor Information Centre on Front Street, or by calling 867-993-2315 to reserve a room in advance.
The Journey to Dawson 30-minute escape room at the S.S. Klondike National Historic Site is now available on a first-come, first-served basis, twice daily, at 10:30 a.m. and at 3 p.m. Visitors can check-in at the on-site Visitor Information Centre, open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (closed from noon to 1 p.m.).
National historic sites reflect the rich and varied heritage of Canada and provide an opportunity for Canadians to learn more about our diverse history—one heart-pounding, sweaty-palmed minute at a time.
