Yukon: Essence of the Gold Rush

1. Yukon

The Yukon, most robust, low population density tract of land situated above the 60th parallel north and west of Canada, which shares a border with Alaska and gain self-proclaimed motto accuracy of "greater than life ", is a diversified topography, the serene beauty and intoxicating appeal of sterile territory, treeless plains, boreal forests, rugged mountains, glaciers and lakes and rivers reflecting mirror inhabited by First Nations of Canada and abundant wildlife. Due to high latitudes will experience more than 20 hours of sunlight during the summer, but less than five in winter, replaced, however, the northern lights known as aurora borealis. "Apart from the big" cities, " most communities are accessible only by floatplane or sled dog.

The history of the Yukon is, in essence, that the gold rush. Powered by 16 August 1896 the discovery of a gold nugget in northwestern Canada in the confluence of the Yukon River and Klondike, began when some 100,000 seeking wealth and adventure, go on what had been designated later, the Klondike Gold Rush Trail between 1897 and 1898. The event, which produces an immediate population explosion, and finally as the country marks on his way to five key locations, both in the U.S. and Canada.

First of them, Seattle, Wash., serves as gateway to the Yukon. Presented as the supplier of "Fields of Gold", which sold supplies and rolling three feet deep in the showcase sidewalks stock, raising $ 25 million in sales in early 1898, and was the starting point for the sea route through the Gulf of Alaska in Saint-Michel, then the Yukon River Dawson City. Despite high tariffs, which could afford a few, all steps had been sold.

Dyea and the Chilkoot route, the second place, has provided slower, more treacherous, alternate route, through the 33-mile Chilkoot trail that connects Alaska with the tidal headwaters of Canada Yukon River.

Skagway, Alaska, the third location, quickly replaced Dyea gateway "to the Klondike" because of its waterway White Pass route that, despite ten miles longer than the Chilkoot Trail, had resulted in an increase of 600 feet below. The road quickly destroyed due to over exploitation finally been replaced by the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, whose construction is financed by British investors, began in May 1898 and extended White Pass Summit, in February 1899 Lake Bennett in July 1899, Whitehorse, in July next year. Skagway itself had been transformed from a clear, in the ground trying to walk the streets of points, lined with wooden buildings with 80 rooms sport within four months between August and December 1897.

At Lake Bennett, fourth location, 30,000 prospectors to await the spring thaw, the 7124 Building Green whipsawn wooden boats and set up its fleet, 29 May 1898, fighting Whitehorse Rapids before going on the Yukon River to Dawson City.

Dawson himself, the location of the fifth, was the discovery site the first nugget of gold and started as a small island between the Yukon and Klondike rivers previously occupied by First Nations people of Han, but triggered in Canada's westernmost city of Winnipeg and north of Vancouver, with a maximum of 40,000 gold seekers covering an area of ten miles along the coast. Thirty cords of wood used to burn the trees in the permafrost in the mines. Among the 4,000 who actually discovered the gold, only a few hundred in the final eventually led to "rich."

2. Whitehorse

Whitehorse, Yukon's capital city on the shores of the Yukon River Wild, with a population of 23,000, which in turn had been formed by the gold rush and the means of transport to be developed to facilitate this. Named for the rapid Yukon River which resembled the manes of charging white horses, the area was first used fishing camp Kwanlin Dun First Nation's peoples. In 1987, the tent compound Canyon City was the basis of an operating horse-drawn tram, for a fee, transport people and goods, including search engines gold on the treacherous White Horse Rapids on the rails for registration.

Three years later, in 1900, traces the shift from white and Yukon Railway route came to town, now the only international narrow-gauge railroad still operating in North America, and the passengers transferred to serve as major rivers, ended the trip to Dawson City in the Yukon River.

In 1942, the U.S. military completed the 1534-mile Alaska Highway, in a record eight months 23 and Whitehorse was incorporated as a city in 1950. Three years later, replaced Dawson as the capital of Yukon.

It is accessible Whitehorse by multiple modes of transport. The paving of Alaska, Haines and Klondike Highway to provide access road inside and Alaska, while the gravel Dempster Highway to connects Dawson City to Inuvik, above the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories Northwest. The Alaska Marine Highway and several cruise ships daily Skagway and Haines, Alaska, during the summer. The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad Skagway and Bennett to Fraser Lake, British Columbia, with a service that will soon be extended to Whitehorse. And Whitehorse Airport offers daily service via Northern Air, Air Canada Jazz, First Air and Condor, in Yellowknife, Dawson, Fairbanks, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Frankfurt, Germany. Seaplane facilitate community access remotely.

Whitehorse's history can be traced by its many sites and places of interest.

MacBride Museum, for example, toted as "the first museum in the Yukon boasts a round wooden structure with a roof grass, was created in 1951 by historian Bill MacBride to explore the history of the Yukon. Wildlife has plush its upper gallery, "Rivers of Gold ", an exhibition that illustrates the exploration and Yukon Placer mining since 1883, and the people of Yukon First United Nations in its gallery low, and the team at the beginning of copper mining, blacksmithing, and original of Sam McGee, 1899 in a cabin two outdoor exhibition spaces. The other contains the earth steps used by the White Pass & Yukon Route between Whitehorse and Dawson, 1895 patrol cars Northwest Mounted Police and the engine number 51, built in 1881 and used in the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad seven years later 1898.

The Old Log Church Museum, an Anglican cathedral built in 1900, is a of the oldest buildings in Whitehorse and has missionaries in the early history of the Yukon, including the priest who survived a winter expedition by consumption of their boots for their livelihood.

Perhaps the most popular Show and is the symbol of the city itself, is the SS Klondike National Historic Site of Canada. The Most of the 250 paddle steamers have carried up the Yukon River up to 64 meters long and 12.5 meters wide, was built in 1920 by the British Yukon Navigation Company, a subsidiary of White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, in the city of Whitehorse himself, and was an integral part of the waterway connecting transport with the rest of the Whitehorse, which was the driving force of its own growth.

The design, which traced its lineage to 1866 when the first river steamer reached such Selkirk, the SS Klondike I, weighing 1362.5-GT and powered by two engines of 525 horsepower condenser compound reaction was characterized by a revolutionary hull enabling it to offer a load volume of 50 percent over the previous settings without sacrificing instability of shallow draft, allowing it to accommodate more load of 300 tons for the first time, along with 75 passengers, the first and second class. In its three bridges, the deck of the first or principal place of engines, boilers and goods, the second room, communications office, dining room, kitchen and terrace, and the third deck and crew quarters.

Follow the same size as Klondike II after Initial the ship grounded in 1936, completed his own 460-mile downstream from Whitehorse to Dawson in 36 hours with only one or two cases of wood recovery, there has been and ship goods between 1937 and 1952 and eventually became a small cruise to the service until 1955.

The pier is located in its current form in 1930.

The Whitehorse Train Depot, which replaced the originally built, but later, the fire-eaten structure reflects the architecture typical of western Canada from the early 20th century, although the changes were made during the Second World War and during the Alaska Highway project. After service Regular trains are suspended in 1982, the Yukon government had bought the building and the room was restored, his passenger waiting now to his legacy of the 1950s.

The car Whitehorse waterfront, using the narrow gauge White Pass and Yukon Road train tracks parallel to the Yukon River, with stops in Peace Park Rotary Center tourist information, the White Pass Train Depot, Wood Street, Park and the station yard Kishwoot and Maroon Creek, provides an excellent introduction to city, using a single tram, number 531, for its return service every hour.

The car itself, in its original colors of yellow, had been partially built by JG Brill Company of Philadelphia in 1925 for the Society of Electrical Lisbon then mounted the kit in his studio Santo Amaro. Of the 202 cars built there, 24 were 531 type of car.

531 Trolley worked in Lisbon until 1976, when it was purchased for the Museum of Transport in Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota, where he remained until the Yukon government had purchased in 1999. surface transport, cold and ice, allowed to reach the White Pass & Yukon restoration motor traffic delivery in Whitehorse, January 6, 2000.

The tram double-ended, with controls at each end, two 25-HP General Electric engines K.3 and two drivers and was designed to operate on high voltage lines with a stick to, but the lack of such facilities in Whitehorse need for the provision an electric generator installed temporary trailer. This 600-volt operation replaces its originally planned 550-volt outlet, and the installation of train wheels allows you to operate the White Pass and Yukon Railway runs 36 inches of the route, although it was designed, with its wheelbase wagon home, use more runway narrow width of 34.5 inches.

Because the body is also measured standard allows four deep, two-two seats, on a sheet of oak mahogany and cherry interior with original signs still in Portuguese.

The scale of Whitehorse Rapids fish and livestock, located five minutes from the city, resulted in the construction of the 1950 Whitehorse Rapids Hydroelectric Fund by the Energy Commission of Canada in the North. Alaska and the Klondike Highway, which links many communities and eliminating the need for river transport system and finally Vital sternwheeler Yukon's capital moved from Dawson to Whitehorse, and the expansion of the population could be supported by the method of generating electricity from diesel center. The construction of large hydroelectric capacity from 1956 Schwatka formed lake, and generates electricity primarily to the city two years later, in 1958.

Although the installation of improved quality of life human population, which was, to the detriment of the species of salmon in the River. Salmon has recovered the Yukon River to spawn thousands of years, put their eggs in the sand after the winter period of gestation, the first born fry the spring and feeds and grows in cold waters and clear a period not exceeding two years. Swim in the sea, became a few years later in the exact place of birth to lay their own eggs and start the process over time.

To circumvent the new dam Hydroelectric and allow them to continue their life cycle, the world's longest wooden fish ladder, at 366 meters was Built in 1959. Decreased gradually, in stages of 15 meters from the Yukon River to Lake Schwatka, allows salmon safely bypass the dam and continue their migration process.

A cruise on Lake hour and two Schwatka the appropriate name for m / v Schwatka, a 28-ton, two-story vessel Passenger 40, provides an excellent introduction to Whitehorse wild side and navigate through Miles Canyon, the turbulent "Devil's Punchbowl, and Yukon River itself.

Many attractions are along the road from Alaska to Two Mile Hill Road.

Copperbelt Mining Railway and Museum, the first of them gives a figure of eight loop 1.8 km of Red McIntyre station building through the thin pine forest, with an abandoned spur White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad located in historic Whitehorse Copper Belt mining. It has two motors, 10 – and 20-HP diesel Loke, were manufactured by the Jenacher Werks in Austria in 1969 and 1967, respectively.

The Yukon Transportation Museum reflects the heritage of the Gold Rush territory of transport, unusual modes of transport sample associated with the North, the sled dog paddle in the air sample. Include a Canadian Pacific DC-3 mounted on a pedestal outside a ship full of size, "Neecheah, and a steam locomotive. Within the exhibition is a petrol Casey, carrying workers on the rails of a car used by the White Pass & Yukon Railroad route, a White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad model train, a Ryan B-1 Bougham called "Queen of the Yukon, a sister ship of Lindbergh's" Spirit of St. Louis, who served as the first commercial aircraft have been operated in the Yukon after its acquisition of San Diego plant Yukon Airways and Exploration, Ltd., in 1927 for $ 10200.00, sled dogs, a 1927 Chevrolet convertible, a five-cylinder Kinner engine, a Lycoming R-680 engine, an ambulance International Travelall 1965 a welded steel frame of a Fairchild FC-2W2, a mini-med Smith DGA-1 "Construction of houses and a bus bus BYN, military vehicles, including a seven-passenger Dodge Carryall used by the American military command northwest of service during the construction of Alcan Highway, railway and tramway newspaper that newspapers use parallel "tracks."

The Center examines Beringia Beringia, a sub-continent the last Ice Age which was in the Strait Bering, covering Siberia, Alaska and the Yukon. Although the rest of Canada had submitted on sheets of ice mass Beringia was outside the glaciers due to reduced 125 meters from sea level, the production of the tundra is so hard, dry grasses supported a wide range of herbivores and carnivores.

Mammoth Shaggy, among them was the forerunner of the modern Asian elephant and the museum sports a size distribution of the largest example ever found. The short-faced bear, which had been a foot higher than the brown bear has today, was the largest terrestrial carnivore stronger in North America during the last glacial period. The museum also features a reconstruction of the Cave Archaeological Site Bluefish 24,000 years.

The first inhabitants of man, following the herds of bison and mammoths 24,000 years ago, had migrated from western Beringia aware of Canada.

3. Kluane National Park

One of the four contiguous national and provincial parks, including 21,980 kilometers square Yukon Kluane National Park, Alaska 52,600 km square Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska 13,360 km square of Glacier Bay National Park, British Columbia and 9580 km square Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, Park Kluane National Park is in itself diverse topography, with the massive participation of mountains, valleys, lakes, boreal forests, the valley glaciers and ice fields. Two Mountains and Kluane Icefield-sports-following the highest peak in Canada, Mount Logan, at 19,545 feet. The largest non-polar icefield in the world, a remnant of the last glacial period, is also here.

Of the two types of populations, human and animal, the first includes Tutchone South, who had lived a nomadic life, but continue the practice of a culture which is closely revolves around the natural world, and includes the grizzly bear, lynx, mountain goats, moose, wolves, black bears, caribou, coyotes, 180 species birds, and the world's largest concentration Dall sheep.

Haines Junction, located two hours from Whitehorse via the Alaska Highway and is the basis National Park, is one year, a town full of services that modern history began in 1942 with the completion of the Alaska Highway to milepost in 1016. A year Later, a branch, by the passage of Chilkat, linked to Haines, Alaska, and Kluane National Park was designated a reserve in 1972.

Its small samples, flanked by impressive purple-colored St. Elias Mountains, the monument of the town, a statue of the local fauna, the record eight sides of San Cristobal "The Anglican Church, and Our Lady of the Way Catholic Church, which was built in 1954 of a hut, the old army remains the road project in Alaska.

The ubiquitous thin, dark green fir, we found during the visit itself to the national park, bordered on each side of the Haines deserted road, the edge vertical St. Elias Mountains, Kluane National Park in the shadows right in purple, chocolate brown and green velvet base. The silver surface of the lake Kathleen reflects them.

Kluane National Park and adjacent to Wrangell-St. Elias National Monument to the U.S. border have been jointly appointed to the World Heritage List World 1979. Overall, the properties show a continuous and intact natural system, with a rich variety of patterns of vegetation and ecosystems.

The first step record found of my own pebble beach, which, as a threshold, addressed to the emerald green waters of Lake Kathleen, hooks on each side by tall, silent, fragrant fir, water same interface with the mountain through a green carpet smooth transition, taking the eye until browned, without higher vegetation, of which thin "s" of snow still writhing, a remnant of the long winter and short summer "break" between the next glacial cycle. As it was August, the beginning of the course was not much in these northern latitudes.

The kokanee, which live in freshwater lake for the first three years of his life by swimming the short distance Lake Sockeye fourth year, when he dies. In the 1700s, appeared in Lowell Glacier Alaska river blocking your drain into the Pacific Ocean and creating and a huge lake. When the dam broke suddenly in 1856, the waters had published in torrential floods, draining the pond.

Kluane Park Two national sports of ice and rock glaciers, it was cold, alpine environments on mountain slopes. During the past 8000 years, the substrate rock fragments, breaking the freezing and thawing action of winter-summer cycle. lubricated by meltwater, and riding an ice core from the glacier, a mass of rock steady slowly accumulating the land below the mountain, forming the rock glaciers.

The huge A deep blue lake Dezadeash found otherwise had surrounded considerably distant mountains whose peaks and gentle curve inverted bowl had been reduced to gray and green silhouettes almost indistinguishable from the early afternoon loud and clear, the bright sun. The sky was a flawless blue.

Klukshu village, dotted with small wooden cabins and a gift shop, has been an important place for many Cafn families, especially during salmon spawning season between June and September, when the king, sockeye, silver and migrate into the river. "

4. Conclusion

The Yukon, with its capital, Whitehorse and Kluane National Park desert, in fact, provides an interesting tour of his estate fever Gold and means of transport which has been developed to facilitate this.

About the Author

A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.

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