In the early 1950s, Dawson was linked by road to Alaska, and in fall 1955, with Whitehorse along a road that now forms part of the Klondike Highway. The high price of gold has made modern placer mining operations profitable, and the growth of the tourism industry has encouraged development of facilities. Dawson City's population languished around the 600–900 mark through the 1960s and 1970s, but has risen and held stable since then. The economic damage to Dawson City was such that Whitehorse, the highway's hub, replaced it as territorial capital in 1953. The population dropped after World War II when the Alaska Highway bypassed it 518 kilometres (322 mi) to the south. Paul's Anglican Church, also built that same year, is a National Historic Site. When Dawson was incorporated as a city in 1902, the population was under 5,000. By 1899, the gold rush had ended and the town's population plummeted as all but 8,000 people left. It began in 1896 and changed the First Nations camp into a thriving city of 16,000–17,000 by 1898. Heggĭawson City was the centre of the Klondike Gold Rush.
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