Central to this joyous winter landscape is the Caribou Hotel in Carcross, Yukon. The hotel was originally built in 1898 in Bennett, British Columbia and then was floated down Bennett Lake to the village of Carcross about five years later. The hotel burned down in 1908 and rebuilt in 1910. The Caribou Hotel was home to a parrot named Polly, infamous in the area and beyond, the bird a resident of the hotel from 1918 to 1972. The colourful parrot’s passing in 1972 attracted national news coverage, the media reaching out to Ted Harrison for comment during one of his early exhibitions in Vancouver. The hotel is currently undergoing a major renovation, ensuring its continued legacy as one of the oldest hospitality establishments in the Yukon.
In classic compositional arrangement, Harrison layered the landscape in fluid order. The rolling organic sweeps of colour of the sky complement the background mountain range, mirroring the hotel, church and auxiliary structures and finally the viewers eye falls to the figures and animals in the foreground.
We extend our thanks to the family of Ted Harrison for providing details central to the preceding essay.
