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Prince & Princess of Wales

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge make history in the Yukon

Yesterday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent the day in the Yukon.

Starting the day in Whitehorse, the capital of the Nothern Territory Yukon, the Duke and Duchess visited the MacBride Museum where they met the 90-year-old telegraph operator, Doug Bell. Prince William and Kate became the first to send a telegraph to tweet when they pressed a button on the Second World War machine after Bell tapped out a coded message reading ‘THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE, SEPTEMBER 2016, WHITEHORSE YUKON.’

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In 1959, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh visited the telegraph office which is now part of the museum.

Doug Bell has met most of the Royal Family, including Prince William’s parents in 1981 at a line up at a dinner in Ottawa.

“I asked your father if he’d been to Yukon and he said no, and I said we ought to do something about that so I called the Governor General and we made arrangements.

“Then I got a call saying ‘They can’t go, the Princess is pregnant’.”

William was surprised by hearing this, saying: “Wow, that must have been me, or Harry,”

From Whitehorse, the Duke and Duchess travelled to the community of Carcross where a warm welcome by Frist Nations dancers took place. William and Kate hopped aboard the historic White Pass steam train before they took the time to talk to First Nations organisers of Single Track to Success, a youth organisation that gives mountain bike training to youth.

Once on Montana Mountain the Duke and Duchess viewed a mountain bike demonstration.

One dancer, Carly Fredrickson from Whitehorse was one of the lucky few to perform at the cultural centre in front of the Duke and Duchess. The 22-year-old spoke to CTV News about her experience saying: “They were really impressed and they made jokes about how he’s a really good dancer and he wanted to get up and dance with us.

“He said he has some moves and she agreed. He said he did want to get up and dance while we were performing.”