YELLOWKNIFE - The Gold Range bar and hotel is easily Yellowknife's most famous landmark.

Its actual name or its moniker by reputation - "the Strange Range" - has graced the lips of many, whether in Toronto or Vancouver or elsewhere, who find themselves bound for Yellowknife with little more than a plan of where they'll hang out come Friday night.

Richard Yurkiw points to wall memorabilia behind the Gold Range bar on Wednesday. His agreement to sell the historic landmark comes into effect today. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo 'Strange' Range History 1958 -- Construction of Gold Range Hotel is complete. The establishment was built by Yellowknife businessman Jacob Glick. It replaced the Veterans Hotel, which burned down in 1956. 1977 -- Gold Range bought by Sam Yurkiw. He owned the bakery next door, site of the present Diner eatery. 1988 -- Best year of sales, according to former general manager Harvey Bourgeois. The bar was reported to have sold more than any other bar in Canada. Feb, 26, 2007 -- Gold Range sold to Jay Park of Edmonton.

The Range even has an entry on the online information resource, Wikipedia. There it is described as a "rough and tumble bar" and a "must-see for tourists." The bar features prominently in a novel by Canadian literary icon, Mordecai Richler. Moses Berger, the protagonist of Solomon Gursky Was Here, made more than a couple of stops at the Range.

Today, however, an era comes to an end and a new one begins.

After 30 years in the hands of Sam Yurkiw and son Richard, a new owner is set to take over. Richard Yurkiw has sold the bar and hotel to Jay Park and his two sons, Joel and Sam, from Edmonton. He wouldn't say how much he sold it for, but added that he but $200,000 into renovating the building over the last five years.

Last week, his time at the Range winding down, Yurkiw took some time to reflect on what he calls "the lunacy" of what once was, and what he expects will never come again.

"You didn't know what to expect here," recalled Yurkiw, of the bar's heyday from the late 1970s through to the early 1990s.

"You could be having a beer, and these two are fighting, these two are necking, those two are dancing, and this one has just gone berserk.

"This whole bar was like a sideshow. That's where the 'Strange Range' comes from."

The Gold Range was built in 1958 by Jacob Glick. It was the first non-government facility in Yellowknife to boast long-distance phone service.

The bar and hotel changed hands several times until Sam Yurkiw bought it in 1977, after the establishment's two previous owners got into a fistfight and decided it was time to end their partnership.

The elder Yurkiw, who had been in Yellowknife about four years at the time, owned a bakery next door (which later became The Diner), where Richard and his brother David worked.

For the next 25 some-odd years, Sam Yurkiw would be a Range fixture, sitting 12 hours a day on his stool behind the bar, watching the crowds and their money roll in night after night, year after year.

"It was sort of a gathering spot," said Les Rocher.

"It was a real melting spot. I guess you could classify it as a United Nations."

Legend has it that by the late 1980s, the Range was selling more beer than any other bar in the country.

"At that time the Range was the place to go," said Harvey Bourgeois, who worked there for 11 years, eventually becoming the bar's general manager.

"I think what made the Range was that it was a place that everybody could feel comfortable, from high rollers to the simple guy on the street. There were no class divisions there.

"Everybody was there for one reason - to get drunk."

It was also the place to go dancing and hear some live music. While the live music scene came and went at other city watering holes, the Range has always had a two-stepping country band on stage.

"It was the Wild West here," said Yurkiw.

Former mayor Pat McMahon, who in 1968 spent her first six weeks in Yellowknife at the Gold Range Hotel, says visiting dignitaries were always keen to check out the action.

She said Sam was always sure to warn her when a fight was about to break out lest any of her VIP entourage found themselves surrounded by flying fists.

"I remember taking the Swiss ambassador in there and he just loved it," said McMahon.

"Most people we took to the Range did. It just has that atmosphere. It just had that casual, Northern-style friendliness."

Around 2002, family and friends started noticing some alarming changes in Sam's behaviour. He didn't seem himself and the bar was in decline. Sam was soon diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. The 81-year-old now resides at the extended care unit of Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Richard, who had left Yellowknife in the early 1980s, returned to take the mantle.

It wasn't easy. The crack-cocaine trade had infiltrated 50th Street, including the Gold Range. The no-smoking bylaw, which took effect in October 2003, further decimated its business.

"There are things that happen when the city grows, and this was an area that was ignored," said Yurkiw.

Yurkiw has been trying to sell the bar and hotel ever since. At one time, he was in negotiations to sell the property to the NWT Worker's Compensation board, but Yurkiw said the deal fell through.

"They should've bought it," said Yurkiw.

"They would've torn it down but in that case they would've improved downtown Yellowknife. They would've cleaned downtown completely up."

But then the Park family expressed interest in the establishment, and Yurkiw was impressed with their resolve to take over.

He said after a targeted effort to get rid of the drug dealers, bar sales are starting to improve again. He expects the bar to stay profitable although he strongly doubts sales will ever again approach the heights of 20 years ago.

The town has changed, along with its appetite for drink, he said.

Yurkiw said the sale agreement comes with a five-year contract that forbids the new owners from making any drastic changes.

That includes allowing the Range's hotel residents to stay. Many of them have been living in the 40-room hotel for five years or more. The rent averages $450 a month.

"The deal is nobody changes the Gold Range for the life of my agreement - five years," said Yurkiw. "I'll be back every three or four months. It's not going to be torn down."

The Range is the last piece of the Yurkiw dynasty to be sold. Their local empire once included The Diner next door, the Gallery Bar, a bakery, and Sam's Monkey Tree Pub, among several other properties.

Yurkiw, who is nearly 60, said if he were younger, he would be staying on. But he isn't, and that's why he feels it's simply time to go.

"I've already spent my time in the North and I have a home in Salmon Arm, (B.C.)" said Yurkiw.

"I have 13 gorgeous nieces there. My home's there."

The Park family was not available for an interview at press time.