Ghost of the Sternwheeler Graveyard - June 18, 2023

[Martin Hash]

While sightseeing, the most interesting things are the least expected. My wife, Gwynne, and I were hanging around the campsite relaxing while all of our companions were in Dawson City, across the Yukon River, Gwynne saw something called “sternwheeler graveyard” on Google Maps nearby; whatever that was, we had to go see it. We walked along the river shore for about half a mile before catching sight of one of the most satisfying lucky catches of all time! Sometime in the past, perhaps a century, wornout river boats were abandoned on the bank. Over the decades, they have been reduced to jumbled piles of wood & steel by the elements, hardly recognizable of their former purpose but still impressive.

Sternwheller Hulk.jpg

Sternwheeler Graveyard

As we initially approached the area, Gwynne was just out of sight ahead of me. Walking up, in awe of the dilapidated hulks, I noticed 3 song books, volumes 1 through 3, laid out in a line on an old plank. They were dry and intact, obviously recently displayed there; so in congruent with everything else around them that I took a picture before taking plenty of pictures of everything else. After investigating, we started back when Gwynne stopped next to the line of books.
“Did you move one of the books she asked?”
“Is one of them missing?” I asked, unsure what she meant.
“No,” she replied. “But one had slipped down the plank when I walked by the first time, and now it’s lined up.”
Surprised, I said, “AIl were even when I walked by.”
I got my camera out to show her the picture I’d taken. After looking at it, Gwynne showed me a picture she’d taken of two books in a line with one not. “There was less than half a minute that you were ahead of me?” I said, somewhat confounded.
Gwynne and I stared at each other.
“Ghost?” I suggested.
Gwynne shrugged her shoulders, at a loss for another explanation.

Ghostly Songbooks.jpg

Ghostly Song Books