Dawson City's Westminster Hotel, the 'heart of the community,' takes stock of flood damage

It's arguably Dawson City, Yukon's most iconic and beloved old taverns, and in a town renowned for its watering holes — another bar famously serves drinks garnished with a desiccated human toe — that's saying something.

But now the future is uncertain for the Westminster Hotel, aka "the Pit," after a couple of major water main breaks last week in downtown Dawson flooded streets and buildings, including the Westminster, and left parts of town covered in ice.

"It's –11 in here right now," said Josée Montreuil, manager of the Pit, on Monday as she surveyed the damage inside the darkened bar. "The water is below the floor now, though it is still flowing into the building. They haven't located the break just yet."

Montreuil said at one point, the water was a metre deep inside the building.

"That was the high watermark," she said. "The artwork on the walls is intact. Unfortunately, the murals that reach the floor are going to be affected."

It's too soon to estimate the full extent of the damage and what might be required to reopen, Montreuil said. At the very least, she said, the floors will have to be replaced.

"The plan is ... assess the damage and then take a look at the foundation and how the building is sitting and work our way up," she said.

"We can't really take too many steps because we're just waiting for it to be safe to turn the power back on and see what the damage is like underneath the building."

The Westminster Hotel — a ramshackle, century-old, garish-pink building in downtown Dawson — is more than just a tavern. While many local businesses in the tourist town close for the winter months, the Pit is open year-round, with a stable of local musicians routinely taking to the not-quite-level stage.

Montreuil describes it as "the heart of the community."

"If you want companionship, if you want music, if you're having a birthday or a wake, or you need help with anything, this is where you come," she said. "So I think that's really destabilizing for a lot of people, that they don't have access to this place right now."

"Harmonica George" McConkey, one of the many local musicians who regularly haunt the Pit's stage, compares it to Tootsie's Orchid Lounge — the legendary Nashville honky-tonk behind the original home of the Grand Ole Opry.

"It's a very similar sort of feel. It's just one of those old what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of bars and it's always full of colourful characters," McConkey said.

He described how every Christmas, the Pit hosts a Christmas dinner "for everybody and anybody."