Beaumont's Dancing Sleds

Nestled among a grove of spruce trees in the valley sits Beaumont’s Dancing Sleds and the home of one Beaumont Bernard. A French citizen, Beaumont was known countrywide for being light on his feet and one of its best dancers, having mastered any styles that came is way. After years of dancing his way across France and Europe, he was in search of a new challenge and adventure. While news traveled slowly at the time, word of gold in the Klondike caught his attention and he decided to take a break to visit relatives across the ocean in Quebec on his way to find that adventure in the Yukon. Making the decision was easy for him, convincing his wife Marie, not as much.

For Beaumont, things did not go as planned almost from the beginning. He was ill prepared for the biting cold in his dinner jacket and had no clue the travel time involved in traversing an ocean and continent. The Bernard’s arrival in the Yukon Valley was a victory of sorts, if not an unfortunate one as the gold was long since gone and a brutal winter left them trapped in town. For locals though, Beaumont did bring a bit of excitement with his brightly colored clothing and propensity to entertain.

The area quickly grew on Beaumont as he came to appreciate the beauty of the area and thanks to his adeptness at picking up new skills, quickly became one of the best dogsledders in town, with an albeit different looking dinner jacket. His dancing skills and balance no doubt providing a huge leg up in this new passion of his. Deciding to stay in the Yukon Valley long term and wanting to bring a bit of fun to the otherwise low-key town, Beaumont and his engineering wife Marie came up with Beaumont’s Dancing Sleds. Incorporating age old sled design, Marie’s ingenuity, and his love of dance with the abundance of cold and ice around, the business was born.

Queue and Attraction

Guests arriving to this area of Yukon Valley are greeted by a large, wooden sign advertising Beaumont’s Dancing Sleds this way. The pathway itself, serving as the queue space, winds through a number of spruce trees, rock formations and smaller, fake snowbanks. Not far off, the light murmur of music can be heard echoing through the trees. Rounding a turn in the queue, the humble Bernard residence comes into full view. The quaint, log wood structure is accented with several unique items from ornate light fixtures to furniture, reminiscent of the Bernard’s French origins.

Nearing the end of the queue, another structure comes into view serving as the official business office for the attraction. Walking into the office, the bright candlelit space offers a myriad of items to look at before enjoying the attraction. Old sleds, maps of the Bernard’s travels (with photos) from France to the Yukon, items picked up on the journey, and even that old dinner jacket line the walls and floor space around. Having reached the end of the queue guests are now in full sight of the attraction.

Using similar technology to Disneyland’s Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, the dogsled like vehicles “dance” across an icelike surface. The sleds carry a similar 32” height requirement and are built for an easy entry/exit with bench seating in the cargo bed of the sled. A simple, single seat belt ensures no one makes any unintended departure from the sled.

With a good bit of, well mostly Marie's ideas, a small frame like structure is built over the rink with several pulleys and ropes, powered by an old train engine (minus the smoke). All this work gives the appearance that the sleds are being maneuvered around the ice. None of it though is connected to the sleds, or large enough to detract from views or the experience.

The surrounding space is very natural with a small bit of snow cleared up at the edges, mixed in with various brush and trees. Guests walking down the main path of land can catch glimpses of the attraction seamlessly blending in with the surroundings. Various dancing tunes picked by Beaumont himself and mixed in with a few local favorites provide background audio as the sleds glide and dance across the ice.

Next: Rivers of the North

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