About the Yukon

Location

Yukon is located in the remote north western corner of Canada.  It sits between British Columbia and the Arctic Ocean, with Alaska to the west and the Northwest Territories to the east.  The Territory’s landmass encompasses a total of 483 610 km2.   The unparalleled wilderness of the Yukon includes majestic mountain ranges, alpine valleys, tundra plains, boreal forests, non-polar ice fields, and over 70 wild mountain rivers.  It is home to more than 214 species of birds, 38 species of fish, and 7 species of large mammals including grizzly bears, caribou, and mountain sheep.  Many rare sub-arctic and alpine plants can be found in the Territory.  The Yukon also is very rich in minerals such as lead, zinc, gold, and copper.

Yukon Today

Yukoners are proud of their rich history, their breathtaking land, and their will to survive it.  Full of tremendous people, wild adventures and gold, the “spell of the Yukon” is mesmerizing to those who read about the area and those that visit.  Home to the northern lights, lofty Mount Logan, the beautiful Kluane National Park, named after the Gwich’in word meaning “Big River”; Yukon is naturally spectacular.  A diverse arts community, thriving tourism industry and unique heritage are all aspects of Yukon’s present.  It is our golden past that has afforded this northern territory a focus on a global stage: the Klondike gold rush piqued the interest of thousands of people searching for their chance for gold.

The Klondike Gold Rush

George Carmack, Skookum Jim and Tagish (Dawson) Charlie struck gold on Bonanza Creek in the Klondike in August 1896.  News spread down the Yukon River valley until the Bonanza, Eldorado and Hunker Creeks were rapidly staked by miners who had been previously working other creeks and sandbars in the area.

Word of the rich gold deposits in Yukon reached “the outside” when the 68 miners and over a ton of gold sailed into Seattle on July 17th, 1897.  The Klondike Gold Rush was on; as soon as news of gold reached a new town or continent hundreds of “stampeders” were raising money to buy gold pans, pick axes, tents and head north to the Klondike to make their fortunes.  Within two years of the Carmack’s discovery, the quiet and foreign land of the north filled with adventure, misadventure and gold fever.

Of the 100,000 stampeders that left for the gold fields, only 30,000 completed the trip.  Even fewer made the fortune they had dreamt of.  Those that were surviving off the last of their savings turned around in Dawson before even touching their pick axes to a creek bed, desperate for the comforts of southern homes and lifestyles.

Most prospectors landed at Skagway, Alaska and were required to carry one ton of supplies over the mountain passes and across the Canadian border. This regulation was put in place to avoid food shortages like those that had occurred in the previous two winters in Dawson City, and was enforced by Sam Steele’s Mounted Police at the tops of mountain passes.

The Chilkoot Pass which trailed from Alaska to Yukon was steep and hazardous, rising a thousand feet in the last half mile (300 m in 800 m).  It was too steep for pack animals, and prospectors had to carry their equipment and supplies to the top.  Conditions on White Pass were even worse, even though it was not as high.  The White Pass route was also known as the Dead Horse Trail with about 3,000 animals dying along the route.

Klondike Literature

From an estimated 30,000 stampeders in Dawson, 1898; the first census in 1901 showed a sharp decline to 9,000 people.  Among the many stampeders, writer Jack London, whose books White Fang and The Call of the Wild were influenced by his northern experiences; and Robert W. Service, whose short epics "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and other works describe the fierce grandeur of the north and the survival-ethic and gold fever of men and women in the frozen north.   Service's best-known line is the opening of "The Cremation of Sam McGee": "There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold"...

The best and most thorough popular history of the Klondike Gold Rush is titled "Klondike" by Canada's Pierre Berton, who was raised in the Yukon Territory.  Berton covers nearly every misadventure of the nightmarish and harrowing journeys taken by the many parties on different routes bound for Dawson City and their experiences once they arrived up to 1904.