Inside an Epic Floating Cabin: One Captain’s Extraordinary Story

I like creating places, extraordinary places. This is a dream for all my life, to have a little place on the water. That it happens in the middle of the Yukon was a bit unexpected. Prepare to see inside the most unique, creative, and unusual vessel you will probably ever step aboard. The wooden pearl is exactly what she looks like, a rustic cabin meets pirate ship. Her creator and captain is just about as interesting as she is, and he has songs to sing and stories to tell. Then there was a bit of a storm and there was a sailboat that was out of control with two rookies and it rammed my boat during the show. But that was this moose, beautiful. Fed a family of four for one year. Yeah she got away on me twice because of a storm once where she wound up her own anchor. It's not not dangerous but it's like well worth it. Today we take you to tour the wooden pearl and then we invite you to take a ride with us up to a special place here in Dawson City, Yukon and get a little taste of what community means out here in remote northern Canada. Jump on in and let us introduce you to Driftwood Holly and the wooden pearl. Let's first orient you to where we are and why it's so impressive the places this little boat has gone. We are here in Dawson City, a remote Canadian town tucked up against one of mother nature's great wonders. The Yukon River is the third longest river in North America, flowing 2,000 miles across Canada and the U.S. before emptying into the Bering Sea. It is a wide powerful river that courses through some of the most untouched remote terrain of the north. It's no wonder then that the Yukon has long called to pioneers and adventurers, dreamers and artists. One of them is Driftwood Holly. We met Holly during our time here in Dawson City. When he told us about the pearl we knew we just had to see her. The thing is she's currently anchored off an island in the middle of the Yukon. So a little ride on the old laughing lady is in store. Welcome to the wooden pearl. Step on board. Okay so there's a story. There's got to be a story. Now before we go any further there is something you need to understand about what happened here in this part of the world in the late 1800s. Gold discovered in a nearby creek sparks one of the most explosive gold rushes the world has ever seen. In the span of a few short years 100,000 people descend on the Yukon and Dawson City bursts into existence built on a flat patch of swamp right where the Klondike River empties into the Yukon. A young man joins the stampede during the height of the gold rush. He returns home empty-handed but rich in something infinitely more valuable. The rawness of the Yukon inspires him to write a series of stories destined to become classics. Fast forward 86 years and another young man this time in East Germany witnesses the fall of the Berlin Wall. Stories are powerful things and the works of Jack London still capture the imagination of many even far across the globe in very different times. So enduring are stories they can change the trajectory of a lifetime. I came from a strict German society. We had lost all our culture when the wall fell and you know everybody was just running and I needed to leave that territory and then I thought there was always this call of the wild thing from Jack London in my mind I don't even know how it entered my life maybe my father read that book to me or we read it in school by Jack London and there was this Dawson City place and it it seemed so magic so far out from where I was and then I got a book and I saw there was a picture book about a river trip down the Yukon River and I used to be a competitive ski jumper and I can move my body so I thought I can canoe as well you know so I can learn to canoe and I saw that normal people in canoes did did this trip from Whitehorse to Dawson and they all made it kind of like oh maybe I can do this so it was still pretty big for me to be like my first two weeks alone alone in my life and back then I was so scared of the place and I was you know had a big spear for the bears and stuff and then you just have to keep the nerves and get on and then it it's beautiful it's still frightening but it's like and then I came to Dawson and I stepped out of this canoe five minutes later I was in the Westminster Hotel in the pit and I thought I entered the Muppet Show there was not a normal character in there it was hell the bend was on fire everybody was drunk out of their minds it looked really weird and I thought this is great I stood in there like I never felt anything like that so I stayed and then I thought wow like what if I move here what would happen like can I do this so then we did it we just came here and never left we have all heard a calling at some point in our lives a dream a person or a place that pulls in the time of the gold rush that pull was the faintest glimmering possibility of finding great wealth it drove thousands to set out for the gold fields over grueling mountain passes and then down the Yukon River in makeshift boats and rafts the journey from Whitehorse to Dawson is about 500 miles on the Yukon and more than a hundred years later the route is still wild and not without its fair share of risk we wonder if Holly's younger self ever imagined that years after that maiden voyage by canoe he would repeat the journey in a floating cabin she had a real adventure about three four years ago when Shekhat Media asked me to bring the boat to Lake LaBarge in Whitehorse and do 700 kilometers on the Yukon River it'll be a film and it was a trip of a lifetime there was a lot of challenges and the Five Finger Rapids and wind was a big issue on the lake and I cried when I came in that the trip was over I was like I just don't want to step off that boat anymore you know something Holly just said requires a little explanation Five Finger Rapids is one of the most formidable obstacles on the Yukon River almost halfway between Whitehorse and Dawson four massive pillars of rock split the Yukon into five rushing channels no matter which channel you choose strong currents and standing waves threaten to knock you off course and directly into the sheer cliffs on either side with boats like this you have one shot I remember Ruby going in the house ducking under the bed because she saw the waves coming up there's like a standing wave about like three feet high and it came in over the porch into the house and flooded the house and we were quite fast quite fast but it was fun yeah tremendous footage like going through this pristine wilderness and then if you zoom out you see how small it is how vast the land is how wide everything is and like there you are and I mean 100 years ago these people who came down this river they had no return ticket they didn't even know what we did was was extremely adventurous but it's nothing compared to what the old timers did a lot less equipment and a lot more risk that they must have had like two hearts or so after hearing of these adventures we are now bursting with questions about the pearl and eager to bring you along for the tour so this is the heart of the boat for me because every place I have needs to be warmed it doesn't make any sense if it's cold and drafty out here that's why we have this hippie killer here it's called it's one of the fastest warming tin stoves in the world and you got to take care of it a little bit otherwise it takes off and you burns your wall tent down but uh makes it very sauna like in here if you like it and like when we come from the river fishing or when we hunt or do whatever on the river it's pretty chilly up here in the subarctic so it's good to have a warm place and then I like big beds and comfortable interiors I like the red velvet it keeps the draft out and it makes it really luxurious in here from the outside it looks like a slept shed you know but from the inside it's pretty royal with some local art I know all these artists this up there is a Jim Robb painting and so I collect these things here to be inspired because I also come here to play music and write music I've been here with Sylvia Messi recording a song she worked with Johnny Cash and Tom Petty and so she's been here we played the whole boat because everything here has a sound it's got a beautiful portal here where in the summer through the glass it projects all the waves up onto the ceiling the boat floats on 10 drums so one of these drums can carry about 200 kilos and then you have a walkway around it you need that in every boat that you can get around and run the ropes this is the engine room it's a little 9.9 Yamaha four-stroke with a high thrust uh lower unit so it pushes quite a bit I can't really go upriver too far she's built for downriver she's not built for going to Whitehorse it's a stationary boat but once in a while it tours a little yeah and then I have a solar panel that recharges the battery if you want to charge your phone we have an outdoor fireplace which is a an old Hilts Brother coffee container they're used for everything in the Yukon for everything you know some people made like roof shingles from it and these these houses still exist from the gold rush it's a really good material yeah this is our outdoor fireplace almost burned the boat down once old tin gold rush stuff yeah this is the wheelhouse of the ship so these cables actually steer this motor in the back this is all the controls for the motor throttle and choke and stuff and we have a depth sounder because the Yukon river is really milky and you never really see the bottom so reading the water is the main skill and uh because the bottom of the river changes constantly sometimes you're wrong and that was almost the whole building we toured but what do you think about the yard what's the um the moose uh this moose actually was um shot from here we uh me and the lady we had a night out in the slough one of the films the northern lights and uh I just called the call and the moose came like straight to the boat swimming to the boat and I'm like oh my god I have to redirect that moose around it and I I kind of pushed him away again and then I got on land and then we had a successful hunt and uh the evening was postponed but that was this moose beautiful fed a family of four for one year I guess we shouldn't be surprised to hear that the pearl is not only a tiny home but also a creative space we are surprised to hear however that the pearl has a sister ship in Germany with an equally creative mission and well that is a story unto itself the sister ship is the dream catcher and it happened about three or four years ago in the pandemic I'm a touring musician and I'm a commercial fisherman there was no fishing that year because there was no salmon and all the stages were closed so I was like double unemployed and since I'm so much on the river I thought what if I built a boat like this in Europe put a solar panel on have a PA installed and have a tiny stage in front and then go to the shores and people can come with their little stools and their little picnic baskets and sit down and space out accordingly to the law and we play concerts so I flew over there and I got a team of other adventure specialists together and within seven weeks we built the dream catcher and towards the Elbe river from the Czech Republic through Germany in the direction of Hamburg and we played like 40 shows in complete lockdown and it saved my musician life and I think it kept a lot of people sane who were able to listen with a little you know glass of red wine in their hand in the lawn chair and there's this weirdo coming in whatever this is but it's cool we played a show in Berlin and then there was a bit of a storm and there was a sailboat that was out of control with two rookies and it rammed my boat during the show and I didn't see them coming because they came from behind but I saw the audience going like oh and we're like okay and then boom they hit and I told the band to keep playing I'll deal with this they didn't stop the song the boat around you ripped the sails down they had way too much sails up and uh send them away again and then said so it's ---- like this that makes the shows I'm a storyteller I'm an adventurer I'm not a you know limitless musician I'm just a songwriter when you see the pearl a barely visible dot against the wide powerful waters of the Yukon it's hard not to wonder what are the risks so it was always a challenge to be out here it's not an easy thing she got away on me twice because of a storm once where she wound up her own anchor and then the other time I don't know there was a broken anchor chain which is probably a huge piece of driftwood that just came by and sheared it off you are on one of the largest arctic rivers and you wouldn't want to fall in or take off with this overnight and then wake up in Alaska and think like so where am I and now what you know it's not not dangerous but it's like well worth it just imagining waking up here so you remember like when you wake up you have this first like 20 seconds you don't know where you are just open your eyes like okay especially happens to nomads like us you know like where am I ah on the pearl and the stove is warm and your bed is warm and you know with our technology today turn on your favorite music and just look at the water I don't know what could be better she's truly a pearl it's also a dream that materialized you know like if you have dreams and they're a little far out most of them don't happen you know or some of them don't happen but this is one fulfilled dream dreams are hard things to shake one of mine is to bring artists from different musical backgrounds together on recordings a slow but steady collaborative that now includes juniper sage solar gain and the anguiac dancers all in alaska today holly and even the pearl herself are adding their own sounds to the mix we are the people we are the we are the footsteps on the stone the beat that runs this whole damn steps on the stone the beat that runs the show it is a special gift to be invited inside an artist's creative space the place they go to cocoon away tune out the noise and find inspiration always i'm searching for a long lost piece of heart i sort of found like a fire in the deepest part it is also a special gift to be part of the moment that an artist shares one of their creations with the world see holly isn't just a musical artist he also works with wood we are driving up the midnight dome a graceful mountain towering over town 20 years ago when holly and his buddies built a bench and stealthily installed it up here in the middle of the night they never expected it to take on a but it did the bench on the dome has been splashed across travel articles social media and brochures ever since but the climate of northern canada hasn't been kind to the bench and now it's time for a new one to take its place this is the good stuff of life we are a hodgepodge group of locals and visitors brought together by chance and happenstance among our number are local business owners seasonal workers and year-round dawsonites and also us travelers welcomed in like we always belong there's us a pair of pan-american bus lifers and a couple up from vancouver themselves originally from mexico and lithuania a lot of different paths came together today here atop the dome well you're gonna burn if only the old bench could talk how many people from so many places and so many walks of life rested there to take in the beauty of the yukon actually among our number tonight is a local who proposed to his wife on the old bench it has seen a lot of happy moments for sure and now it's time for this ragamuffin crew to assemble its successor down the steward world begins and the problem ends lily loves me very much my duct tape pants and my loner touch good done yay there you go something i always wanted to tell you thanks to jonathan dowdell for donating the tree he he did that that was amazing and uh thanks to all the supporters now also once in the future and to this awesome gang for setting it up for artists there is a critical moment when you let go of your work understanding that it is no longer yours whether it's a song a book or a giant driftwood bench there comes the moment when it leaves your hands and now belongs to everyone else and now for a piece of art that has become part of so many stories it's actually quite unique for the artist to have the chance to reconnect with their work at the end of its time and to send it off with a ceremonial bang cheers cheers goodbye my friend welcome to the new organ for being here pretending i'm working let her rip let her rip yvonne farewell well yvonne had a wish and now the wish is gonna fly you know she feel a little hot stack it stack it like you need it like you mean it this is how you burn a bench i don't know like i don't remember all of it but i i remember having two carpenter friends on my property that night and i said let's get all the force we have we're gonna build it overnight and then it's gonna be on top of the dome the next day and that's what happened what was the reaction when everybody woke up the next day and saw a bench up here what this bench was like instantly iconically loved like everybody loved it you know you up here you want to sit down you know during our time here in dawson we did a lot but this experience tops them all because at the heart of it is people friends old and new just enjoying being on this planet together after all that's the whole point right it's funny isn't it how inspiration is passed like a torch from one person to another from one generation to the next jack london wasn't the only literary giant to gain such inspiration from this land as to pen works that drew others here even across time and great distances the writings of robert service and pierre burton have reached across the world in equal measure and we can't help but think what future works might come to us all by some inspired artist sitting here atop the dome looking out across this view the yukon river goes somewhere into these mountains you don't know what's back there but you wonder there are mothers holding hands with the sisters of the northern land we take in our last view of this magnificent place because today we depart to take you on and where are we taking you next well there is a road that follows the path of the stampeders that journeyed to dawson during the klondike gold rush of 1898 it runs from dawson all the way to skyway alaska 440 miles away it is a route full of history legends and striking natural beauty hang tight because that's where we're taking you next time on art we there yet it could be shining on the other side no point in hiding and the time is right you