Quick Facts
Name
Top of the World Highway Interpretive Plan
Type of Landscape
Ethnographic Landscape
Roadway (Yukon Highway 9) bordered by natural landscape/ settlements
Location
From Dawson, Yukon to (Poker Creek - Little Gold Creek Crossing) Tok, Alaska at the USA border
GPS 64° 4'12.22"N 139°26'9.95"W
Timeline
Canadian section of Highway completed in the 1930s
Interpretive plan completed 2019
Stewards
Government of Yukon in partnership with Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Government
Landscape Architects
Chris Grosset, Wendy Shearer and Naomi Ratte
Legacy
Indigenous Cultural Heritage landscape
Interpretive Planning with Indigenous Peoples
Master Planning
Introduction
The Top of the World Highway is as much a place of legend as it is a route of outstanding natural beauty. Open only from June to September, the Highway traverses the traditional territory of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people between the Yukon River at Dawson and the Yukon/Alaska border.
Along its 127 km length, the highway’s elevation changes dramatically, carrying travellers through stretches of enclosed forested slopes at its eastern approach, to wide open sub-alpine meadows in the west. Here, on these high elevations “at the top of the world,” panoramic views stretch to the horizon and distant Tombstone mountains. The road reaches its spectacular 1376 m. apex just before the Alaska border.
For millennia, the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in used this “ridge route” to trade and access the foods and medicines they hunted and gathered. The road itself was originally built as a pack trail during the Gold Rush (1897-99). Then, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Chief Isaac welcomed the Klondike gold seekers, the missionaries and the European fur traders as they established a presence in these lands, but he never failed to recognize the impact they would have on his community.
To protect Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in culture for future generations, Chief Isaac used the route to send precious songs and stories to ancestors in Alaska for safekeeping in the hope that they would be returned one day, to a strong Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people.
That day finally came when the Yukon Government commissioned a team of landscape architects to prepare an Interpretive Plan for the highway. The planning approach, however, would not begin with known written histories of the north. It would begin instead with the oral history, to be brought back to the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in elders in story and song.
The Stories We Tell
The Yukon’s notable northern highways have long been distinguished by the stories they tell. For decades, their interpretive sites have delighted travellers with the rugged history they bring to life, yet all of the tales have been rooted exclusively in the colonial history of the north.
The Top of the World Highway’s Interpretive Plan is unlike the others. The planners began instead with the oral history of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people. The 1100 Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people, who are primarily descendants of the Han-speaking First Nations people, had safely guarded their history for over a century, waiting for the time when they could be shared.
To honour the First Nations approach, landscape architects Chris Grosset, Wendy Shearer and Naomi Ratte, worked with Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in elders to capture the history and cultural knowledge they held, often in song. The collaboration continued as the planners explored the highway’s route. With the elders, they sought out locations that linked the stories to sites of significance in the landscape. Together they prepared an interpretive plan that honours the living culture and history of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, and shares their values with visitors to the Top of the World.
Connecting the past with the present
The Top of the World Highway offers travelers a great ride. Its season is short. The highway opens only in summer – dates dependent on the weather. Travel is rarely speedy. Yet many visitors opt to continue their journey, following the highway well into Alaska.
For visitors to the Top of the World, the Interpretive Plan adds a welcome new element to the thrill of the ride. The interpretive sites powerfully connect the past with present through the landscape, enhancing visitor’s appreciation of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in world. This sharing of heritage is supporting a resurgence of Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in pride.
For the Yukon government’s interpretive planners, too, the approach has marked a new starting point. Rather than depending solely on histories written from the colonial perspective, planners can begin with Indigenous story and song.
The Cultural Landscapes Legacy Collection highlights the achievements that have made a lasting impact within the field of landscape architecture and on communities across Canada.