Y is for Yukon ...

You might have guessed I'd be doing Yukon for the 'Y' post ... and yes once again I'm learning ... 

Map of Yukon from Wiki

Its name comes from the Gwich'in word Yu-kun-ah meaning "white water river" - referencing the glacial runoff in the Yukon River. 

The river rises in British Columbia, runs through the Yukon and out into the Bering Sea.  It is the fifth-longest river in North America, with about a third running through the Yukon; and is 3,185 km /1,980 miles long ...

Municipalities of Yukon - with the river
running through Whitehorse, and on to Dawson

 The Yukon is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three federal territories ... and is 'sort of triangular' in shape ... bordering the Arctic Ocean to the north, Alaska to the west, Northern Territories to the east and British Columbia to the south ... it does not have a boundary with the Pacific.

Chilcoot Pass - c 1898

Geographically, as you might expect, it is a subarctic plateau interspersed by mountains ... the Arctic coastal plain has a tundra climate.

Historically though it is indelibly associated with the Klondike Gold Rush.

Showing route through from Skagway
up to the Klondike

Before we get there ... in other words long before the arrival of Europeans, central and southern Yukon was populated by First Nations people, as the area escaped glaciation. 

Archaeological sites for example those in the Old Crow basin, north of the Arctic Circle, place the arrival of humans at least as early as 10,000 BCE and possibly much earlier.

The volcanic eruption of Mount Churchill in approximately 800AD, in what is now Alaska, blanketed the southern Yukon with a layer of ash ... which apparently can still be seen along the Klondike Highway ... and which forms part of the oral tradition of the First Nations peoples in Yukon and further south in Canada.

 

Skookum Jim - worked as a
packer on the Chilcoot Pass

Coastal and inland First Nations had extensive trading networks ... European incursions only began in the 1700s/ early 1800s with the fur trade, followed by missionaries.  Then the Gold Rush ...

Downtown Whitehorse

The 'new' capital (1953) of Whitehorse has 70% of Yukon's  population living in it ... (25,085: year c 2016) ... its name deriving from the rapids resembling a horse's mane.

Dawson, the previous capital, was at the centre of the Klondike Gold Rush, and surprisingly for a short period was the largest city north of Seattle and west of Winnipeg.

Diamond Tooth Gergies - Gambling Hall
which will give you the experience!

It lies in traditional Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in territory being named after Canadian government geologist Dr GM Dawson.

Most of the 'gold rushing miners' travelled up via what I term as the Glacier Bay fjord area and Skagway ... though there was a secondary sea route around Alaska ...

Sea Route for prospectors, and various
entourages

The Gold Rush only lasted a couple of years (1897 - 1899) ... it was estimated that a migration of about 100,000 prospectors battled through ... just over a century later the population is about 1,375 ...

... yet Dawson City is still a gold mining centre ... but the main activity now is tourism, based on the area's colourful past and historical importance.

There's a lot more interesting history ... so there will be another Y for Yukon post at some stage ... as it'll be good to have it linked here ...

That is Y for Yukon ... from Aspects by a British 'girl' in Canada ...

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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