Yukon

—Yukoner, n.

/yooh"kon/, n.

1. a river flowing NW and then SW from NW Canada through Alaska to the Bering Sea. ab. 2000 mi. (3220 km) long.

2. a territory in NW Canada. 21,392; 207,076 sq. mi. (536,325 sq. km). Cap.: Whitehorse.

3. a town in central Oklahoma. 17,112.

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or Yukon Territory

Territory (pop., 2001 est.: 30,000), northwestern Canada.

Bounded by Alaska, U.S., to the west, and the Canadian Northwest Territories to the east and British Columbia to the south, its capital is Whitehorse. Drained by the Yukon River system, it has some of the highest mountains in North America, notably the Saint Elias Mountains and Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak. It was originally settled by American Indians and the Inuit (Eskimo). The first European visitor (1825) was British explorer John Franklin, who was seeking the Northwest Passage. Sporadic settlement occurred thereafter. The discovery of gold in the 1870s later resulted in the Klondike gold rush. In 1898 it was separated from the Northwest Territories and given territorial status. The economic boost from the gold rush soon abated, and the exploitation of other minerals expanded and continued throughout the 20th century. Its economic mainstays, though, are government services and tourism.

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▪ territory, Canada

Introduction

formerly  Yukon Territory 

Yukon, flag of territory of northwestern Canada, an area of rugged mountains and high plateaus. It is bounded by the U.S. state of Alaska to the west, the Northwest Territories to the east, and British Columbia to the south, and it extends northward above the Arctic Circle to the Beaufort Sea. It has an area of 186,661 square miles (483,450 square kilometres). The capital is Whitehorse.

      The mineral wealth of the Yukon territory has long been known, but the combination of an Arctic climate with remoteness from markets has minimized the economic exploitation of such resources and the development of modern settlement. Instead, the territory remains among the few frontiers on the North American continent, a sparsely populated and largely unspoiled wilderness.

Physical and human geography

The land

  The territory lies within the mountainous cordilleran region of western North America. The more settled areas lie in a large central plateau surrounded by mountains and drained by the Yukon River system flowing northwestward into Alaska. Some of the surrounding mountains are spectacular, especially the St. Elias Mountains (Saint Elias Mountains) in the southwest, which have some of the highest peaks in North America, including Mount Logan (Logan, Mount) at 19,524 feet (5,951 metres).

      The northern stretches of flat and poorly drained tundra have widespread permafrost, a permanently frozen ground that makes construction of most kinds difficult. Although temperatures vary, sometimes reaching summer highs of 95° F (35° C) and winter lows below −60° F (−51° C), the monthly average readings are not unlike those found in some Canadian cities farther east and south. Summers are short but the days are long, especially in the northern part of the territory lying above the Arctic Circle. Precipitation is light, averaging only 10 inches (250 millimetres) annually at Whitehorse.

      Vegetation is sparse in many regions because of the dry, cool climate and poor soils, but some of the southern valleys are heavily forested. Animal life, on the other hand, abounds in Yukon. Large game animals and smaller fur-bearing mammals are native to the area, as are waterfowl and other common North American birds. Common species of fish include the arctic grayling, lake trout, and northern pike. Much of the territory remains unspoiled wilderness, but the impact of people on the environment is apparent. Near the settlements, reliance on wood for fuel has destroyed timber, and in more remote places forest fires caused by humans have often gone uncontrolled. In addition, surface mining has scarred the landscape near Dawson and Whitehorse.

 The city of Dawson and some older Indian villages such as Old Crow, situated well above the Arctic Circle, are set in locations of great natural beauty and retain a picturesque appearance. More modern centres of mining and transportation, such as Whitehorse, Watson Lake, and Mayo, resemble towns of like size elsewhere in western North America. On the fringes of some of these, rude settlements provide shelter for people forced from their more remote habitations by the decline of trapping as an economically viable activity and attracted by the social services available in the more urban areas. Some two-thirds of the total population of Yukon live in Whitehorse.

The people

      About one-fifth of the people are native American Indians (Native American); most belong to the Athabascan language family, of which the Gwich'in (Kutchin) group is the largest. Although registered Indians in the territory are a federal responsibility, there are few occupied Indian reservations. In 1973 the Canadian government recognized the validity of Indian territorial claims based on past treaties, thereby rendering the first official recognition of such rights. The rest of the population comprises people of European descent or of mixed Indian and European stock.

      Health and welfare services have been greatly improved in recent decades, contributing to a decline in the total mortality rate. A high infant mortality remains a serious problem, but fertility rates are above the Canadian average, giving the territory a high rate of natural increase in population. The ability of the economy to absorb this increase has become a matter of increasing concern.

      Few people continue to make their living by hunting, fishing, or trapping, and, except for some isolated groups, most of the people are now dependent upon wage employment. Wages and salaries are unusually high in most occupations. Since nearly all food, fuel, building materials, and manufactured goods are imported over considerable distances, the cost of living is also high. Marked differences in living standards exist between those who find employment in mining, transportation, and public service and those who lack the education required for such employment.

The economy

      Since the late 19th century, mining has been Yukon's most important industry, although market fluctuations can cause sharp variations in production. The extensive and varied mineral resources include large deposits of combined silver-lead and lead-zinc ores and of copper, coal, iron, and some petroleum and natural gas. Commercial production of silver-lead-zinc and of copper concentrates has been accomplished, but the economic feasibility of developing other known mineral deposits is not established.

      Forest resources are limited, but commercial logging is carried out in some southern areas. Small sawmills produce some of the lumber required for local building, for mining timbers, and for fuel, although imported fuel oil is replacing both wood and locally mined coal as the principal fuel. Farming is possible, but climate and soil conditions make it so unprofitable that virtually no settlement is undertaken for agricultural purposes. Trapping is still important despite its decline, and fox, beaver, wolf, and lynx are caught for their pelts.

      Tourism is a rapidly expanding industry and is now a mainstay of the territorial economy. In addition, both federal and territorial governments play an important role in the economy. Since the end of World War II, government has assumed major responsibility for building roads, airfields, and electric power facilities, as well as for providing incentives to private companies interested in developing resources in the area. Exploration for oil and gas began in the 1950s. Commercially significant gas reserves were discovered in the 1960s, and there was subsequently extensive exploration throughout the territory for petroleum resources.

      Modern transportation facilities link Yukon to the outside world. Scheduled jet air services operate between Whitehorse and Edmonton, Alta., and Vancouver, B.C. Until the White Pass and Yukon railway closed in 1982, it carried freight and passengers between Whitehorse and Skagway, Alaska, from which point ocean services to other west coast ports were available. The Alaska Highway connects the territory to the North American highway system and serves as the backbone for a limited network of roads within the territory. In the late 1970s an important highway link was provided between a point on the Klondike Highway near Dawson to Inuvik in the Mackenzie delta (the Dempster Highway). Helicopters and light aircraft are the normal means of travel to more remote areas. The Whitehorse airport is the most important in Yukon.

Administration and social conditions

      With the exception of natural resources, which remain a federal responsibility, most administrative and legislative matters normally under the jurisdiction of Canadian provinces are dealt with by the territorial administration. An appointed resident commissioner oversees the interests of the federal government, but the day-to-day governmental operations are the responsibility of the Executive Council. The council is composed of five members selected from the Legislative Assembly (Yukon Council): the elected leader (or the government leader) of the majority party in the Legislative Assembly, and four others nominated by the government leader and appointed by the commissioner. Each member of the Executive Council acts as a Cabinet minister responsible for a specific department of the territorial government. The members of the Legislative Assembly are elected to four-year terms, and the membership of the assembly may be expanded to 25 representatives. Residents of the territory are represented in the federal Parliament by one member of the House of Commons.

      Educational, health, and welfare services are administered by the territorial government with financial assistance from the federal government. Primary and secondary education are provided by a territorial school system, and Yukon College, with its main campus at Whitehorse and a network of community branches, provides two years of university-level courses and a number of vocational and adult-education programs. Comprehensive medical and hospital services are provided on the same publicly financed basis as elsewhere in Canada, with the major hospital facilities located in Whitehorse and a system of nursing stations serving more remote centres. Police services are provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Cultural life

      Cultural life is dominated by modern media. Satellite communication has made North American television available throughout the territory. Publicly operated radio stations serve the region, and Whitehorse and some communities have local newspapers. There has been a revival of interest in native cultural activities. Promotions keep alive the romanticized image of the Klondike gold-rush era as embodied in the poems of the English-born writer Robert Service, who lived in Yukon, and more recent writers. Reminders of the gold-rush days are preserved in museums and displays in Whitehorse and Dawson. Some historical sites, notably the Palace Grand Theatre in Dawson, have been restored.

History

      Yukon was among the last areas of North America to be explored by nonnatives. Two explorers for the Hudson's Bay Company first entered the region around 1840. John Bell came by way of the Peel River from the north, Robert Campbell by the difficult Liard River route from British Columbia. The company subsequently built trading posts in the south, but Indian hostility soon forced them to be abandoned. Farther north, Fort Yukon (in contemporary Alaska) was established in 1847 on the Yukon River in what was then Russian territory. Relocated after the U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, and again in 1890, Fort Yukon remained a centre for a small fur trade. During the early 1870s, gold discoveries on tributaries of the Yukon River attracted prospectors to the area.

      Only small amounts of gold had been mined before Aug. 17, 1896, when a pioneer and his two Indian companions found rich deposits in Bonanza Creek, a small tributary of the Klondike River near its confluence with the Yukon. The discovery led to the great gold rush of 1898, at the peak of which the nearby settlement of Dawson grew into a city of some 25,000. Access to the area was quickly improved by construction of a 110-mile (177-kilometre) narrow-gauge railway, the White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR), extending from the port of Skagway, Alaska, to Whitehorse on the upper reaches of the Yukon River. In 1898 the Canadian Parliament separated the rapidly growing area from the Northwest Territories and gave it separate territorial status.

      The Klondike boom lasted only a few years. By 1900 many of the individual miners had given up and were leaving Yukon. The gold-mining industry was subsequently reorganized by companies that brought in large-scale mechanical mining techniques. The population fell from 27,219 in 1901 to 8,512 in 1911, and finally to a low of 4,157 in 1921. Although no new gold deposits were located, other minerals were discovered. Copper ore was mined near Whitehorse during World War I, and during the 1920s and 1930s ores containing silver and lead were mined in the Mayo district in the central plateau. Development of these and other resources, however, was hindered by high operating and transportation costs, and in 1941 only 4,914 persons were counted in the census.

      During World War II such military projects as the Alaska Highway, a part of the Pan-American Highway system, brought a second boom to the territory. Improvements in transportation and communications helped open the territory to greater exploration and development, while increased public interest in the area prompted a great expansion of government services and an increased influx of tourists. Most of this activity centred on Whitehorse, which replaced Dawson as the territorial capital in 1953. Despite such diversification, however, the economy has remained heavily dependent on the mining industry and consequently has been highly unstable. For several years in the mid-1980s, for example, poor market conditions caused every producing mine in the territory to close. In 2003 the Yukon Territory's name was officially changed to Yukon.

Kenneth John Rea

Additional Reading

Morris Zaslow, The Opening of the Canadian North, 1870–1914 (1971), and The Northward Expansion of Canada, 1914–1967 (1988), provide a comprehensive general history of the territories. Ken Coates, Canada's Colonies: A History of the Yukon and Northwest Territories (1985), includes a critical analysis of government policies. Economic history to the early 1960s is treated in K.J. Rea, The Political Economy of the Canadian North (1968). Ken Coates and William R. Morrison, Land of the Midnight Sun: A History of the Yukon (1988), describes the gold rush. Diamond Jenness, Eskimo Administration II: Canada (1964), remains a standard historical account of government policy toward the native population. Shelagh D. Grant, Sovereignty or Security: Government Policy in the Canadian North, 1936–1950 (1988), examines important changes brought about by World War II. The political development of the territories is treated in Gurston Dacks, A Choice of Futures: Politics in the Canadian North (1981); and William R. Morrison, A Survey of the History and Claims of the Native Peoples of Northern Canada (1983).Kenneth John Rea

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