Welcome to Yukon, Canada
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Yukon summary
Yukon still commonly referred to as "The Yukon Territory", is the westernmost of Canada's three northern territories. It was named after the
Yukon River, Yukon meaning "Great River" in Gwich’in. A person from Yukon is called a Yukoner.
At 5,959 m (19,551 ft), Yukon's Mount Logan, in Kluane National Park and Reserve, is the highest mountain in Canada and the second highest of
North America (after Mount McKinley).
The very sparsely populated territory abounds with snow-melt lakes and perennial white-capped mountains. Although the climate is Arctic and subarctic
and very dry, with long, cold winters, the long sunshine hours in short summer allow hardy crops and vegetables, along with a profusion of flowers
and fruit to blossom.
The territory is the approximate shape of a right triangle, bordering the American state of Alaska to the west, the Northwest Territories to the east
and British Columbia to the south. Its northern coast is on the Beaufort Sea. Its ragged eastern boundary mostly follows the divide between the Yukon
Basin and the Mackenzie River drainage basin to the east in the Mackenzie mountains.
Canada's highest point, Mount Logan (5959 m), is found in the territory's southwest. Mount Logan and a large part of the Yukon's southwest are in
Kluane National Park and Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other National Parks include Ivvavik National Park and Vuntut National Park in the
north.
Most of the territory is in the watershed of its namesake, the Yukon River. The southern Yukon is dotted with a large number of large, long and
narrow glacier-fed alpine lakes, most of which flow into the Yukon River system. The larger lakes include Teslin Lake, Atlin Lake, Tagish Lake,
Marsh Lake, Lake Laberge, Kusawa Lake, and Kluane Lake. Lake Bennett, B.C., on the Klondike Gold Rush trail is a smaller lake flowing into Tagish
Lake. Other watersheds include the Mackenzie River and the Alsek-Tatshenshini, as well as a number of rivers flowing directly into the Beaufort Sea. The
two main Yukon rivers flowing into the Mackenzie in the Northwest Territories are the Liard River in the southeast and the Peel River and its
tributaries in the northeast.
The capital, Whitehorse, is also the largest city, with about two-thirds of the population; the second largest is Dawson City, (pop. 1,250) which
was the capital until 1952.
Yukon economy
The Yukon's historical major industry has been mining (lead, zinc, silver, gold, asbestos and copper). The government acquired the land from the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1870 and split it from the Northwest Territories in 1898 to fill the need for local government created by the population
influx of the Gold Rush.
Thousands of these prospectors flooded the territory, creating a colourful period recorded by authors such as Robert W. Service and Jack London.
The memory of this period and the early days of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as the territory's scenic wonders and outdoor recreation
opportunities, makes tourism the second most important industry.
Manufacturing, including furniture, clothing, and handicrafts, follows in importance, along with hydroelectricity. The traditional industries of
trapping and fishing have declined. Today, the government sector is by far the biggest employer in the territory, directly employing approximately
5,000 out of a labour force of 12,500.
Yukon photos
Text & photo credits
The text contained in 'Yukon Summary,' and 'Yukon economy' above is courtesy of
Wikipedia.com.
The articles ('Yukon Summary,' and 'Yukon economy') are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
(See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.)
They use material from the Wikipedia article "Yukon".
The Yukon images on this page are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Images:
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one,
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three,
four.