Watson Lake Yukon, Halloween

FTLComm - Watson Lake Yukon - October 31, 1998

These images only tell a bit of the story but hint at the atmosphere. They were taken on the second Halloween we spent in the Yukon, 1981 as you can see this was a particularly odd fall with no snow on October 31.

In the Yukon where we lived for six years there is no darkness at night in the summer and our national holiday is of course July 1. So our Yukon town always got its quota of July 1 fireworks and then used them on halloween night. The snow comes there in mid September so by Halloween it pretty wintery. so a typical halloween night in Watson Lake Yukon involves the little children going door to door right after school before it gets dark. Then toward 8:00 everyone, adults, children, teenagers all converge on the a little sand spit by the lake in the middle of town. Many people dress up or just put on makeup, but the atmosphere is festive. The Elks club has a booth where their members serve up free hot dogs and hot chocolate and by ten there can be close to a thousand people gathered around a bonfire that is usually about thirty feet across and about ten feet tall. Then the fireworks begin. This tradition has been in the town for a very long time and it is the only place I ever really enjoyed halloween.


FTLComm - Watson Lake Yukon - October 31, 1998
These images only tell a bit of the story but hint at the atmosphere. They were taken on the second Halloween we spent in the Yukon, 1981 as you can see this was a particularly odd fall with no snow on October 31. In the Yukon where we lived for six years there is no darkness at night in the summer and our national holiday is of course July 1. So our Yukon town always got its quota of July 1 fireworks and then used them on halloween night. The snow comes there in mid September so by Halloween it pretty wintery. so a typical halloween night in Watson Lake Yukon involves the little children going door to door right after school before it gets dark. Then toward 8:00 everyone, adults, children, teenagers all converge on the a little sand spit by the lake in the middle of town. Many people dress up or just put on makeup, but the atmosphere is festive. The Elks club has a booth where their members serve up free hot dogs and hot chocolate and by ten there can be close to a thousand people gathered around a bonfire that is usually about thirty feet across and about ten feet tall. Then the fireworks begin. This tradition has been in the town for a very long time and it is the only place I ever really enjoyed halloween.