Jack London landmark
Plaque describing discovery of Jack London’s cabin in Alaska and its ties to Oakland, California ©Author Adventures

Jack London

Few writers have packed as much into one short lifetime as Jack London (1876-1916). A visit to the Jack London Museum in Dawson City will help you re-live parts of the author’s life in the rugged “Paris of the North.” It includes half of London’s cabin. (The other half is in Jack London Square of Oakland, California.)

The Place

We include a description of this excellent museum high in the Yukon, even though the Canadian locale is normally beyond the boundaries of this website’s scope, because of the shared connection of two locations with the author. Read more at: http://jacklondonmuseum.ca or https://dawsoncity.ca/listing/jack-london-museum.

More Reading

For the Alaska Author Adventures Trail, be sure to read The Call of the Wild in advance. The classic by Jack London is available for free through https://www.gutenberg.org. A feature film based on the book, starring Harrison Ford, was released for US theaters nationwide in 2020.

A vivid story about a pilgrimage of iconic actor and environmentalist Eddie Albert to the Jack London cabin in the Yukon was published in 1969. Read about it here: The Free Lance-Star (1969).

Robert W. Service

Less than a mile from Jack London’s cabin in Dawson City sits the cabin of another major writer, British-born poet Robert W. Service, known since the early 20th century as “The Bard of the Yukon.” It is open to the public and tour-able spring and summer weekday afternoons. Read about the poet and another landmark that honors him here: https://authoradventures.org/service-robert. Read about the cabin here: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/yt/klondike/activ/robert-service.

Also See

If you are traveling to Alaska by way of California, consider seeing Jack London’s cabin (partly recreated) in Oakland (see http://jacklondonsquare.com/). Or, visit his final homestead in northern California. Read more at Jack London homestead in Glen Ellen and at California.

These stops are the final destinations on our Alaska Author Adventures Trail.

Patricia Smart