In a twist of historical fate, the Trump family empire—now at the heart of a U.S. trade war and annexation threats against Canada—traces its origins to a rough-and-tumble brothel-hotel in British Columbia. A replica of Friedrich Trump’s Arctic Restaurant & Hotel, built by the U.S. president’s grandfather during the Klondike Gold Rush, stands today as a quirky monument to the seed money of a dynasty.
Tucked near the Yukon border on the Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site, the wooden facade—rebuilt by Parks Canada in 2017—echoes the false-fronted boomtown shacks of Bennett, B.C. Friedrich, a German immigrant, slung roadkill stew and booze to gold-crazed prospectors in the 1890s, laying the groundwork for the Trump fortune. “It’s representative of that era’s hustle,” says Parks Canada spokesperson Megan Hope.
The story starts with a teenage Friedrich fleeing Germany for New York, then hopping to Seattle to run an eatery. A 1897 headline screaming “Gold! Gold! Gold!” lured him north. Landing in B.C., he and a partner opened the Arctic, a gritty joint serving food, liquor, and “private suites for ladies”—complete with gold-weighing scales for creative payments. “For single men, it’s tops,” winked a Yukon Sun writer, “but respectable women, steer clear.”
By 1900, Friedrich moved the operation to Whitehorse, raking in cash until Mounties cracked down on vice in 1901. He sold out, bounced to Germany, then settled in New York with a pregnant wife and a nest egg. That stash fueled his son Fred’s real estate ventures—and later, Donald’s glitzy empire. A 1905 fire razed the original hotel, and Friedrich died in 1917, but his legacy lived on in Trump Tower fonts eerily similar to his Arctic signage.
Yukon author Pat Ellis, 90, chuckles at the irony. Her booklet, Financial Sourdough Starter Stories, chronicles Friedrich’s rise—and she’s got a bone to pick with his grandson. “Donald’s got some nerve eyeing Canada after his kin got rich here,” she says from Whitehorse. “His granddad cooked, boozed, and cashed out—now it’s all ‘annex this’? That’s gratitude for you!”
For Ellis, whose own grandfather downed drinks at the Arctic as a Mountie, the replica facade isn’t just history—it’s a jab at a president who owes Canada more than he’ll admit.