Description of Historic Place

The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 faces a large, open yard in a historic, non-operating, placer gold mining facility in the Klondike River valley. The building is a T-shaped, wood-frame structure clad in horizontal wood siding and topped by a metal covered gable roof with a gabled rooftop ventilator. The building’s front gable has a single pair of large equipment doors, built of diagonal boards and with large horseshoe hinges. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.

Historical Value
The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 is closely associated with the corporate phase of Yukon’s gold mining history. The building’s role in the maintenance and repair of heavy crawler tractors demonstrates one of the key functions of the site. The construction of the building in the 1940s, replacing an earlier repair shop, confirms the necessity to ensure that repair and maintenance shops were kept up-to-date as new dredging equipment was introduced.

Architectural Value
The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 is valued for its good, simple and utilitarian aesthetic. The functional nature of its design consists of a T-shaped structure with two interconnecting open workshop spaces lined with shiplap siding, and equipped with an overhead traveling crane. The building’s good workmanship is demonstrated in its wood-frame construction clad in appropriate materials such as the horizontal wood siding and the metal, gable roof.

Environmental Value
The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 maintains an unchanged relationship to its site and reinforces the character of its industrial setting at the Bear Creek Compound. The structure is familiar to those within the immediate area.

Sources:
Joan Mattie, Bear Creek Industrial Complex, Bear Creek, Yukon Federal Heritage Building Review Office Building Report 89-008; Cat Repair Shop (Building #8), Bear Creek Compound, Yukon, Heritage Character Statement, 89-008.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 should be respected. the simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of materials;
-the features of its form, construction, and materials that unite it with the site’s other buildings, including its simple shape, its gable roof, its horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim, and its rooftop ventilator; the arrangement and detailing of windows and doors, and its double doors with diagonal boards and large horseshoe hinges; the functional configuration of its open work areas; the interior details that testify to its function as a repair and maintenance shop
for heavy equipment, such as its reinforced concrete floor and its travelling crane; its comfortable relationship – due to its form, materials, detailing, and colour scheme – with the other structures and landscape features of the site, in particular the other trade buildings nearby such as the Auto Repair Shop (Building #7).

Heritage Character Statement

Disclaimer - The heritage character statement was developed by FHBRO to explain the reasons for the designation of a federal heritage building and what it is about the building that makes it significant (the heritage character). It is a key reference document for anyone involved in planning interventions to federal heritage buildings and is used by FHBRO in their review of interventions.

The Cat Repair Shop (Building #8) was constructed in 1949 by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation (YCGC) to replace an earlier repair shop at the Bear Creek industrial complex, a service facility for the YCGC's gold mining operations. It provided space for the maintenance and repair of heavy crawler tractors known as 'cats' (from Caterpillar, the name of the most common fabricator of such vehicles). Operations at the Bear Creek complex ceased in 1966, and the property was acquired by Parks Canada, the present custodian, in 1975.

Reasons for designation

The Cat Repair Shop is a 'Recognized' Federal Heritage Building because of its historical, architectural, and environmental values:

As part of the Bear Creek complex, the Cat Repair Shop is associated with the corporate phase of Yukon's gold mining history. Its role in the maintenance and repair of heavy crawler tractors demonstrates one of the key functions of the site, and its construction in the 1940s, replacing an earlier repair shop, confirms the necessity to ensure that repair and maintenance shops were kept up-to-date as new dredging equipment was introduced.

The Cat Repair Shop is simple and functional in design, and exhibits good workmanship and appropriate use of materials. Its T-shaped, one-storey form is clad with horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim, and surmounted by a gable roof with a boxed ventilator. Its front gable has a single pair of large equipment doors with diagonal boards, and its rear gable, which is wider, has three pairs of similar doors. There are two windows on the front gable, and additional windows on the side elevations. The shop has a wood-frame structure and a reinforced concrete slab. Its interior, made up of two interconnecting open workshop spaces, is lined with shiplap boarding, and equipped with an overhead travelling crane.

The Cat Repair Shop reinforces the industrial character of this functionally obsolete but remarkably intact village-like mining service facility, with its 80 structures and several landscape features relating to large-scale mechanical placer mining. Like the site's other main buildings, it faces the open yard. It is located on the south side, along with most of the other trade buildings, and enjoys a visual and functional link with the neighbouring Auto Repair Shop (Building #7).

Character-defining elements

The following character-defining elements of the Cat Repair Shop should be respected:
- The simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of materials.
- The features of its form, construction, and materials that unite it with the site's other buildings, including its simple shape, its gable roof, its horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim, and its rooftop ventilator.
- The arrangement and detailing of windows and doors, and its double doors with diagonal boards and large horseshoe hinges.
- The functional configuration of its open work areas.
-The interior details that testify to its function as a repair and maintenance shop for heavy equipment, such as its reinforced concrete floor and its travelling crane.
- Its comfortable relationship due to its form, materials, detailing, and colour scheme with the other structures and landscape features of the site, in particular the other trade buildings nearby such as the Auto Repair Shop (Building #7).