Day 32 / Apr 6 – 4:46pm CST
3 OLD GUYS IN ALASKA!
Let me repeat… The 3 Old Guys are in Alaska! – onward to Fairbanks!
The 3 Old Guys crossed the line at Rampart House. The local name for Rampart House is Gindèh Chik and refers to the little creek that runs through the middle of the historic site; Gindèh Chik is the fish spear carried by a legendary person in a long ago story.
Rampart House, a Hudson’s Bay fur trading post, was re-located multiple times. Right next to the international boundary between Canada and the United States, Rampart House was home to several Gwich’in families and is visited regularly by Gwich’in living in Yukon and Alaska. This important gathering place for Gwich’in was one of the earliest Yukon places where the Gwich’in met and interacted with fur traders, missionaries, police and government officials.
The first fur traders at this site were employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The company moved from Fort Yukon after the United States purchased Alaska in 1867. Their second post, up the Porcupine River, was still inside American territory and so they moved again to occupy the current site between 1890 and 1893.
This is an important historical and archaeological site with many fragile remains – including a large monument that marks the approximate boundary line between Canada and the United States originally places by surveyors in 1889. The Rampart House Historic Site is protected under the Vuntut Gwitchin land claim agreement and the Historic Resources Act and jointly owned and managed by the Yukon and Vuntut Gwitchin governments.
