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Yukon
and Klondike Rivers
by
Jerry W. Bird
  While
most travelers approach the fabled 'Inside Passage'
from various points due south, my first experience
of this 1,200 mile Marine Highway, was from
Canada's Klondike, having plied the Yukon River for
four eventful days aboard the SS Casca, a classic
paddle-wheeler ; chugging and puffing our way
upstream from Dawson City to Whitehorse. After an
overnight at the Regina Hotel, with its ornate
lamps and Victorian furnishings, we boarded the
narrow-gauge White Pass & Yukon Railway for a
day trip, detraining on a wooden platform at
historic Skagway.
Skagway,
Alaska: This
sleepy little seaport on Alaska's Lynn Canal, came
to fame in the 1890s, during the Jefferson (Soapy)
Smith era, as a lawless, rough and ready frontier
town at the foot of the White Pass.Yes, the
Klondike Gold rush had its own Al Capone, and every
bit as ruthless. To all of us Yukoners headed for
what we call the "outside," this was where the
Inside Passage really began. So with eager
anticipation, we hustled up the wooden gangplank of
the Princess Norah, one of Canadian Pacific's
coastal armada. Vancouver, here we
come!
Today,
the Yukon paddle- wheelers Klondike and Keno are
all that's left of the British
Yukon Navigation Company's proud fleet; both are
tourist museums.
Photos: (1) Author's father and mother in Dawson
City. (2) SS Keno ashore at Dawson City (3) SS Keno
with barges at Stewart Crossing. Author spent two
seasons as a crew member aboad the Keno.
 I
recently heard from Len Brown, one of our
readers who attended a "Last Spike" ceremony on
July 29, 2000. Here is an excerpt from his letter:
" Al York & I do contract work for the Yukon
Government, and I was up there working and took in
the celebration. It was fantastic - up to an
estimated 5000 people were there during the day -
steam rides some 5 miles alongside Lake Bennett and
back .. and a Steam Meet of 73 and 40. I am a steam
nut (co-owner of 30053 - an M7 tank engine that
runs on the Swanage Railway in Dorset, England), so
have availed myself of many steam rides on the
WP&YR - I even appeared in a video
White
Pass & Yukon Route -
the Railway Built of Gold.
As a Yukoner by birth, I
hope someday there will be an extension of this
historic rail line at least as far as Carcross,
Yukon ... short for 'Cariboo Crossing, ' a common
sight at one time. The Manager of WP&YR in
Skagway is Tina Cyr, whose aunt Gloria Cyr of
Whitehorse was my mother's best friend for many
years.
More sweet music was the
Yukon Government's decision to restore the Steamer
Keno,now beached at Dawson. I was a crew member on
the Keno for two summers, as it toted ore-laden
barges from Mayo on the Stewart River, to the Yukon
River junction. There's nothing like the whoosh of
giant steam driven pistons, as the bright orange
paddle wheels kick up a spray that kisses your face
with an icy cool, refreshing shower of river water.
As Grant MacConachie's newly formed CPA, the
world's Air Highway and an improved Alaska Highway
brought the "outside" in, a romantic era of river
travel came to a close.
Down to
the sea in ships:
While protected by outer islands, pristine in its
beauty and a marvel to behold, the Inside Passage
is a treacherous route, shrouded in fog much of the
year, laden with booby traps and submerged rock
ledges. During the Klondike Gold Rush, the Inside
Passage witnessed numerous shipwrecks, some
rivaling the Titanic in their impact at the time.
Aside from reading about such events in Pierre
Berton's "Klondike" and similar volumes, I found a
record of numerous sinkings on the Inside Passage
at a Nautical Museum, near my Grandparents home at
Palos Verdes, California.
The Yukon River fleet
suffered its own disasters; even our sturdy
Steamer Keno cracked up against the rock walls at
Five Finger Rapids, near Carmacks. As a result,
myself and the other deck hands spent a week ashore
attending to repairs. Ports of call: South of
Skagway are a number of unique ports: Juneau,
Alaska's Capital with its Imperial Russian
heritage; Ketchikan, home of Alaska's main fishing
fleet and Prince Rupert, which played a key role
during the Gold Rush and the dark days of '42, with
the war on our doorstep and the Alaska Highway a do
or die project.
While the sea voyage was
smooth, a few bouts of seasickness occurred
crossing Millbank and Queen Charlotte Sounds. The
final port o'call for Canadian Pacific Steamships
was Alert Bay, a quaint native village
south of
Port Hardy. Entering Vancouver harbor under the
Lions Gate Bridge was a magnificent sight, as it is
for today's cruise passengers. If you have an item
on the Inside Passage or any of the places
mentioned, let's hear from you
[Send
mail]
.
Beringia:
The
Yukon's First Nations made their home in Beringia
during the last Ice Age, some 24,000 years ago,
when the Yukon, Aaska, Siberia and much of Canada
was covered in massive sheets of ice. Because of
its climate Beringia was basicially untouched by
the spreading glaciers; the landscape consisted
mainly of vast steppes, tundra that could support a
broad variety of flora and fauna. Interpretive
Centre in Whitehorse, Yukon
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