The Gold Range is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 hotel located in Yellowknife

Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Yellowknife is the capital and largest city of the Northwest Territories , Canada. It is located on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, approximately south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of the Yellowknife River...

, Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

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The Gold Range, on 50th Street, is a notorious location with a reputation stretching across the Canadian Arctic. It was built on the site of The Veterans Hotel, which was destroyed by fire in 1956. The Gold Range is commonly known as "The Strange Range", having housed a rough and tumble bar, strip joint, boarding house and cafe complex since it opened in 1958.

In 1977 entrepreneur Sam Yurkiw purchased The Gold Range. In 1988 The Gold Range sold more beer than any other bar in Canada, according to its former general manager, Harvey Bourgeois. In 2007 The Gold Range was sold to an Edmonton businessman named Jay Park. On April 16, 2009 Sam Yurkiw died at age 83, but the bar and the beer live on.

In 2011, the city announced that it was considering purchasing the building in which the Gold Range is housed. News articles began to appear about how this would put the bar at risk of closing.

In popular culture

In Mordecai Richler

Mordecai Richler

Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...

's 1989 novel Solomon Gursky Was Here

Solomon Gursky Was Here

Solomon Gursky Was Here is a novel by Canadian author Mordecai Richler first published by Viking Canada in 1989.-Summary:The novel tells of several generations of the fictional Gursky family, who are connected to several disparate events in the history of Canada, including the Franklin Expedition...

, the protagonist Moses Berger makes several visits to the Gold Range during his trips to Yellowknife. Aritha Van Herk's novel The Tent Peg also begins in a Yellowknife bar which, while not named, is believed to be the Gold Range.