By Daniel Francis, editorial director, Encyclopedia of British Columbia

The egg tumbled high through the air and landed with a soft plop in my wife's hands. I saw the shell crack and raw yolk begin to seep through her fingers down onto the pavement. It was the Fourth of July on the main street of Skagway, Alaska, and for us the game was over. We had been two of more than a thousand participants in the largest egg toss ever held, but that dripping yolk meant we were eliminated, forced to watch the final outcome from the sidelines. Never mind. We could console ourselves with the fact that we had been a part of history and would soon be mentioned (anonymously) in the Guiness Book of World Records.

	To learn more about Atlin consult the Encyclopedia of British Columbia or visit the community website at www.atlin.net For more about BC150 celebrations, visit www.bc150.gov.bc.ca

The egg toss was just one highlight of a trip I took this summer through Alaska to Atlin, British Columbia. One hundred and ten years ago, tens of thousands of adventurous spirits had arrived in Skagway on their way to the Klondike gold rush in the Yukon Territory. Among them was the grandmother of my sister-in-law, Daphne. Granny, then just a teenager, travelled with her parents on foot across the White Pass toward the gold fields. But instead of continuing on to Dawson City, she and her parents took a sharp right turn and made their way to Atlin Lake where another strike had been reported in the territory of the Taku River Tlingit people. Eventually Granny married Atlin's handsome young provincial police officer and started a family. We were retracing her footsteps as a sort of BC150 project of our own, seeking to understand what it was like for the pioneers who "moiled for gold in the midnight sun".

Atlin lies on the shores of Atlin Lake, the largest natural lake in the province. On 27 July 1898, Fritz Miller, a German immigrant, and Ken McLaren, a Nova Scotian by birth, struck gold at a place they called Discovery, a short distance up Pine Creek from the lakefront. Suddenly the flow of prospectors into the Klondike was redirected westward across Tagish Lake to the east side of Atlin Lake where in short order a raucous tent city of 10,000 eager fortune hunters sprang into existence. The community of Atlin was born.

If Atlin's first boom was based on gold, the second relied on tourism. In 1917 the same company that owned the White Pass and Yukon Railway between Skagway and Whitehorse built the Atlin Hotel and launched a steamboat service on the lake. Its vessel was the 78-foot (23.7 metres) gas-powered Tarahne. The vessel carried supplies for the miners and toured sightseers around the lake. One highlight was the Llewellyn Glacier which descends out of the mountains at the south end of the lake. Today it is part of Atlin Provincial Park.

The Tarahne plied the waters of Atlin Lake between 1917 and 1936. The vessel, the centrepiece of Atlin's waterfront, has been restored to its former glories. Photo by Quita Francis

Atlin and its spectacular scenery became so popular with visitors that in 1927 the Tarahne was sawn in half and lengthened by thirty feet (almost ten metres) to handle all the traffic. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the tourist boom collapsed, wiped out by the Depression of the 1930s. In 1936 the company pulled the Tarahne ashore in front of the town where it remains today. A dedicated group of volunteers have been restoring the old vessel and it is open for tours and events.

Among Atlin's historic buildings is this brothel. Known as Aurora House, it was owned by Carrie Walker, who was a "notorious madame of early Discovery fame" according to the historic plaque affixed to the house. Photo by Quita Francis

We discovered that the community is full of original old buildings, several of which, like the Tarahne, are being rescued and refurbished. We were lucky enough to look inside a few of them during a walking tour conducted by a volunteer guide from the local museum. My favourite was the Globe Theatre, an original silent movie house dating back to the World War One era, beautifully restored to host live events today.

Mining is still going on in the Atlin area but the basis of what locals like to think of as the community's third "boom" is the arts. Many painters, potters, photographers and other creative types have been attracted to the community, which now numbers about 350-400 people, many more in the summer. The former courthouse, built in 1900, has been reborn as a gallery to display this work and since 2003, on the second weekend of July, the town has staged the Atlin Arts and Music Festival, welcoming performers from across the North and across Canada.

When we weren't admiring the heritage buildings and digging into family history we were off hiking in the hills. My favourite hike was up Monarch Mountain south of town. The path carried us high onto a spectacular viewpoint from which we could look down on the lake and across at the snow-covered mountains and sparkling snowfields on the other side. It was as beautiful as anything the Rockies have to offer!

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In 1949 a road connected Atlin north to the Alaska Highway. It is now a comfortable two-and-a-half-hour drive from Whitehorse. It is daylight until past 11 p.m. which is a good thing because even if you are not into panning for gold, there is a lot to do. Houseboats are available for touring the lake. Local guides were taking out anglers from the marina right in front of our motel, while float planes and helicopters offer sightseeing charters to the glaciers and the town is a jumping-off spot for backcountry fishing and hunting.

And for my sister-in-law, it was a special opportunity to immerse herself in the place and the culture that had brought her own family to British Columbia more than a century ago.