Whitehorse may be a one-horse town, but it's got two papers Travel log Journal date: Dec. 1 Route: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory Miles today: 30 Total miles: 2,828 Weather: clear and cold

Lawrence, Jack, Leslie and the coat   FOLLOW THE JOURNEY Choose a day: Day 1 Day 2, 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Day 15     MESSAGE BOARD Share your observations and questions about the trip. Jack and Leslie periodically will post their responses.

December 8, 1999
Web posted at: 3:08 p.m. EST (2008 GMT)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Seattle-based correspondent Jack Hamann is nearing the end of another adventure, this one to just to the south of the Arctic Circle. He's driven through the Canadian Rockies, across the windswept northern plains, up the Inside Passage and along the northernmost section of the Alaska Highway. Follow here through Friday for his final dispatches.

By Jack Hamann and Leslie Hamann

Journal date: December 1
Installment #13

(CNN) -- "Was it musk ox or bear?"

Two ladies from the Yukon were asking us -- a couple of city dwellers from Seattle -- to identify a hulking pile of fur wrapped around a man walking down Main Street in Whitehorse. In this relaxed, surprisingly urbane city surrounded by endless miles of snow-covered wilderness, we had seen men and women in suits and dresses -- not in the wooly mountain-man getup that this guy on the sidewalk was parading.

"I think it might be bear," Jack offered. (As if a guy who sips lattes in Seattle would have even the slightest clue.)

Now hooked, we chased after the fellow as he lumbered into the Fireweed Bookstore. He said his name was Lawrence, a no he didn't mind our obvious lack of manners. Plenty of people had stared at his coat, and yes, it was musk ox.

"Just as I suspected," said Jack.

Why would otherwise smart, talented people live in a place where the temperatures can tumble to 40 below, where for six weeks there is little more than six hours of sunlight each day, where there are bears in the backyard, moose on the motorway and wolves in the wilderness?

Only 33,000 people live in the Yukon, in an area substantially larger than California. Seventy-five percent of Yukoners (Yukonites? Yukonians?) make Whitehorse their home. With a substantial infusion of federal money, Whitehorse has a concert hall, libraries, art galleries, five museums, a college and a full range of the sort of sports, business and service activities that make this little berg seem like a big town. We're told Whitehorse has a disproportionately high number of PhDs and artists. It has a disproportionately low number of tacky tourist attractions. In the summer, there are direct flights here from London and Zurich and Frankfurt. For an isolated community in the frozen Far North, Whitehorse is almost cosmopolitan.

We met Chinese and Czechs, Swiss and Scandinavians. We ate linguini and drank margaritas and snacked on hemp cookies. We sampled the java at several places that brew espresso, a couple of them pretty darned well. There are two daily newspapers in Whitehorse, the same as in Seattle (where there are rumors that one of them may go under). There are international music and storytelling festivals, academic conferences and gatherings of Arctic athletes from all around (the top) of the globe.

Yet Yukon is a land in limbo. It is one of three territories in a nation dominated by 10 powerful provinces. There are few people in the North but it is rich in resources, particularly oil, gas and water. Native peoples, known collectively as First Nations, are asserting their authority throughout the North. As such, there are a lot of people with a passionate interest in the Yukon, with little clue how it will be run in the next millennium.

But we digress.

Whitehorse was our first chance in two weeks to take enough time to shop for gifts for family and friends. We had decent luck checking items off our list for others -- and spectacularly good luck for ourselves. We bought an original painting from Anna Hawthorne, a local artist: a wonderful image of a First Nations woman spreading her arms in celebration. We hope we can get it home in one piece.

On the home front, remember the 99-year-old water pipe that broke a week ago at our Seattle house left our son stranded -- forcing him to haul water from a neighbor to wash dishes, flush toilets, just as they do here in large parts of the Yukon? We are happy to report that the house now has water again.

Also on the home front, WTO riots in Seattle dominated headlines around the world this week. The riots took place not too far from our neighborhood and just outside the Starbucks where our son works. Telling people in the Yukon that we're visiting from Seattle creates quite a stir and makes us minor celebrities. Now, if they'll only help us find a musk ox coat.

Jack Hamann is a correspondent with CNN's Environmental Unit and CNN NewsStand.

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Next: Day 14: Real mushers don't say "mush"

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