Shorty’s family was evicted in the mid-1970s. They moved to Lake Marsh, 50 kilometers south of the city. Today is a quick trip to work, but for a 13-year-old it could be another planet.
“We’ve moved away from what we grew up in, knowing the community, knowing the kids, being close to school, all that,” she said. “When the town of Whitehorse moved us, we felt uprooted.
At the same time, the city demolished dozens of homes that sprang up on land owned by White Pass and the Yukon Route Railway. Much of this land includes what the city now calls Downtown South, and much of it is close to the cliffs.
Today, the slopes of the city do not allow human habitation, but only lower risk uses, such as paths. The rocks are dotted with paved and unpaved formal paths and many other footpaths that connect the paths, or sometimes lead to a dead end of dumped garbage or empty beer cans.
The future of many of these paths is now uncertain. Many of them remained closed after the slides this spring. Whitehorse Mayor Laura Cabot says the city is looking for ways to fortify the rocks.
“One of the things we may have to do is temporarily close down parts of the slope and paths every year,” she said.
“The big drain for us will be … All this moisture is saturated in the ground and then it seeps in and creates all these streams coming out of the side. [of the cliffs]. And that’s the reason for the instability. ”
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