(Newser) – At the end of the 19th century in a booming Canadian gold rush town, patrons of the Arctic Restaurant and Hotel could buy moose, cranberries, caribou, and even swan meat. And, of course, sex. The Arctic in Bennett, British Columbia, is the surprising place where "the Trump empire began," and now Parks Canada and a local First Nation tribe is restoring it for tours, Maclean's reports. Bennett became a major hub of the Klondike Gold Rush and got the attention of Friedrich Trump, who was cutting hair in Manhattan after arriving in the US from Germany in 1885. The president's grandfather traveled to British Columbia and opened the Arctic in 1897.

Trump's biggest profits by far came from alcohol and prostitution. "I would not advise respectable women to go there to sleep as they are liable to hear that which would be repugnant to their feelings," a Yukon Sun reporter wrote in 1900. That wouldn't be too big a problem, as a woman-run hotel in Bennett was fancier than the Arctic. Tourists who come to Bennett today are surprised to find a piece of President Trump's family history. "I think he’s lost touch with his roots," says one tourist visiting from Delaware. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)

