{"id":3910,"date":"2019-12-30T04:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T04:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/?p=3910"},"modified":"2019-11-04T19:55:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T19:55:40","slug":"yukon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/yukon\/","title":{"rendered":"Yukon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/h2>\n

Yukon<\/a> is the smallest and westernmost of Canada’s three territories (the other two are the Northwest Territories<\/a> and Nunavut<\/a>). It has the smallest population of any province or territory in Canada, with 35,874 people, although it has the largest city in any of the three territories. Whitehorse<\/a> is the territorial capital and Yukon’s only city.<\/p>\n

Yukon was split from the Northwest Territories in 1898 and was originally named the Yukon Territory. The federal government’s Yukon Act, which received royal assent on March 27, 2002, established Yukon as the territory’s official name, though Yukon Territory is also still popular in usage and Canada Post<\/a> continues to use the territory’s internationally approved postal abbreviation of YT. Though officially bilingual (English and French), the Yukon government also recognizes First Nations<\/a> languages.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yukon in Canada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 5,959 m (19,551 ft), Yukon’s Mount Logan<\/a>, in Kluane National Park and Reserve<\/a>, is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest on the North American continent (after Denali<\/a> in the U.S. state of Alaska<\/a>). Most of Yukon has a subarctic climate, characterized by long, cold winters and brief, warm summers. The Arctic Ocean<\/a> coast has a tundra climate.<\/p>\n

Notable rivers include the Yukon River<\/a> (after which the territory was named), as well as the Pelly<\/a>, Stewart<\/a>, Peel<\/a>, White<\/a>, and Tatshenshini<\/a> rivers.<\/p>\n

Etymology:<\/h2>\n

The territory is named after the Yukon River, the longest river in Yukon. The name itself is from a contraction of the words in the Gwich’in<\/a> phrase ch\u0173\u0173 g\u0105\u012f\u012f han, which means white water river and refers to “the pale color” of glacial runoff<\/a> in the Yukon River.<\/p>\n

Geography:<\/h2>\n

The territory is the approximate shape of a right triangle, bordering the U.S. state of Alaska to the west and northwest for 1,210 km (752 mi) mostly along longitude 141\u00b0 W, the Northwest Territories to the east and British Columbia<\/a> to the south. Its northern coast is on the Beaufort Sea<\/a>. Its ragged eastern boundary mostly follows the divide between the Yukon Basin and the Mackenzie River<\/a> drainage basin<\/a> to the east in the Mackenzie mountains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yukon River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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<\/a>, Atlin Lake<\/a>, Tagish Lake<\/a>, Marsh Lake<\/a>, Lake Laberge<\/a>, Kusawa Lake<\/a> and Kluane Lake<\/a>. Bennett Lake<\/a> on the Klondike Gold Rush trail<\/a> is a lake flowing into Nares Lake<\/a>, with the greater part of its area within Yukon.<\/p>\n

Other watersheds in the territory include the Mackenzie River, the Peel Watershed<\/a> and the Alsek<\/a>\u2013Tatshenshini, and 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<\/a> in the southeast and the Peel River and its tributaries in the northeast.<\/p>\n

Canada’s highest point, Mount Logan (5,959 m or 19,551 ft), is in the territory’s southwest. Mount Logan and a large part of Yukon’s southwest are in Kluane National Park and Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site<\/a>. Other national parks include Ivvavik National Park<\/a> and Vuntut National Park<\/a> in the north.<\/p>\n

History:<\/h2>\n

Long before the arrival of Europeans, central and southern Yukon was populated by First Nations people, and the area escaped glaciation. Sites of archaeological significance in Yukon hold some of the earliest evidence of the presence of human habitation in North America. The sites safeguard the history of the first people and the earliest First Nations of the Yukon.<\/p>\n

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

Coastal and inland First Nations had extensive trading networks. European incursions into the area began early in the 19th century with the fur trade, followed by missionaries. By the 1870s and 1880s gold miners began to arrive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Klondike Mining 1899<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This drove a population increase that justified the establishment of a police force, just in time for the start of the Klondike Gold Rush<\/a> in 1897. The increased population coming with the gold rush led to the separation of the Yukon district from the Northwest Territories and the formation of the separate Yukon Territory in 1898.<\/p>\n

A much more extensive history of the territory is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Economy:<\/h2>\n

Yukon’s historical major industry was mining (lead, zinc<\/a>, silver, gold, asbestos<\/a> and copper). The government acquired the land from the Hudson’s Bay Company<\/a> 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 moved to the territory, ushering a period of Yukon history recorded by authors such as Robert W. Service and Jack London<\/a>. The memory of this period and the early days of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police<\/a>, as well as the territory’s scenic wonders and outdoor recreation opportunities, makes tourism the second most important industry in the territory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Old Mine Works<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 labor force of 12,500, on a population of 36,500.<\/p>\n

Yukon’s tourism motto is “Larger than life”. Yukon’s tourism relies heavily on its natural environment, and there are many organized outfitters and guides available for activities such as but not limited to hunting, angling, canoeing\/kayaking, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, ice climbing and dog sledding. These activities are offered both in an organized setting or in the back-country, which is accessible by air or snowmobile. Yukon’s festivals and sporting events include the Ad\u00e4ka Cultural Festival<\/a>, Yukon International Storytelling Festival<\/a>, and the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous<\/a>. Yukon’s latitude enables the view of aurora borealis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ivvavik National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Government of Yukon maintains a series of territorial parks including, parks (Herschel Island<\/a> Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park<\/a>, including Tombstone Territorial Park<\/a>, and Fishing Branch Ni’iinlii’njik Park<\/a>. Coal River Springs Territorial Park<\/a>) Parks Canada<\/a>, a federal agency of the Government of Canada, also maintains three national parks and reserves within the territory, Kluane National Park and Reserve, Ivvavik National Park, and Vuntut National Park.<\/p>\n

Yukon is also home to 12<\/a> National Historic Sites of Canada<\/a>. The sites are also administered by Parks Canada, with five of the 12 sites being located within national parks. The territory is host to a number of museums, including the Copperbelt Railway & Mining Museum<\/a>, the SS Klondike boat museum<\/a>, the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre<\/a> in Whitehorse; as well as the Keno City Mining Museum<\/a> in Keno City<\/a>. The territory also holds a number of enterprises that allows tourists to experience pre-colonial and modern cultures of Yukon’s First Nations and Inuit peoples.<\/p>\n

Transportation:<\/h2>\n

Before modern forms of transportation, the rivers and mountain passes were the main transportation routes for the coastal Tlingit<\/a> people trading with the Athabascans<\/a> of which the Chilkoot Pass<\/a> and Dalton Trail<\/a>, as well as the first Europeans.<\/p>\n

Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport<\/a> serves as the air transport infrastructure hub, with scheduled direct flights to Vancouver<\/a>, Kelowna<\/a>, Calgary<\/a>, Edmonton<\/a>, Yellowknife<\/a>, Inuvik<\/a>, Ottawa<\/a>, Dawson City<\/a>, Old Crow<\/a> and Frankfurt<\/a>. Whitehorse International Airport is also the headquarters and primary hub for Air North<\/a>, Yukon’s Airline. Every Yukon community is served by an airport or community aerodrome. The communities of Dawson City and Old Crow have regularly scheduled service through Air North. Air charter businesses exist primarily to serve the tourism and mining exploration industries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The railway ceased operation in the 1980s with the first closure of the Faro mine<\/a>. It is now run during the summer months for the tourism season, with operations as far as Carcross<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, major land routes include the Alaska Highway<\/a>, the Klondike Highway<\/a> (between Skagway and Dawson City), the Haines Highway<\/a> (between Haines, Alaska<\/a>, and Haines Junction<\/a>), and the Dempster Highway<\/a> (linking Inuvik, Northwest Territories to the Klondike Highway, and the only road access route to the Arctic Ocean, in Canada), all paved except for the Dempster. Other highways with less traffic include the “Robert Campbell Highway”<\/a> linking Carmacks<\/a> (on the Klondike Highway) to Watson Lake<\/a> (Alaska Highway) via Faro and Ross River<\/a>, and the “Silver Trail”<\/a> linking the old silver mining communities of Mayo, Elsa<\/a> and Keno City to the Klondike Highway at the Stewart River bridge. Air travel is the only way to reach the far-north community of Old Crow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Klondike Highway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the Gold Rush until the 1950s, riverboats plied the Yukon River, mostly between Whitehorse and Dawson City, with some making their way further to Alaska and over to the Bering Sea, and other tributaries of the Yukon River such as the Stewart River. Most of the riverboats were owned by the British-Yukon Navigation Company, an arm of the White Pass and Yukon Route, which also operated a narrow gauge railway between Skagway, Alaska<\/a>, and Whitehorse.<\/p>\n

Flag of Yukon:<\/h2>\n

The flag of Yukon, is a green, white, and blue tricolor with the coat of arms of Yukon<\/a> at the center above a wreath of fireweed<\/a>, the territorial flower. An official flag for Yukon was created during the 1960s, a decade in which the national flag of Canada<\/a> was chosen as well as several other provincial flags<\/a> were created.<\/p>\n

The flag of Yukon was officially adopted on March 1, 1968.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Flag of Yukon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The flag was chosen from a territory-wide competition as part of Canada’s Centennial celebrations of 1967. The competition was sponsored by the Whitehorse<\/a> branch of the Royal Canadian Legion<\/a>. A C$100 prize was offered to the winning design. There were a total of 137 submissions with the winning design coming from Yukon College<\/a> graduate Lynn Lambert. Lambert submitted 10 designs of which one made the final three designs as selected by a committee, with his eventually being named the winner. A prototype design was sent to Ottawa<\/a> for suitable heraldic description. An expert in Ottawa sent back an amended version of the submitted flag design. The committee in Whitehorse however kept with the original design. The flag was adopted by the ‘Flag Act’ on December 1, 1967.<\/p>\n

The flag is divided into three colored panels:<\/p>\n

green representing Yukon’s forests
\nwhite representing snow
\nblue representing Yukon’s lakes and rivers<\/p>\n

In the center of the white panel is the Coat of Arms of Yukon above a wreath of fireweed, the floral emblem of the Yukon. The crest of the Coat of Arms is a Malamute<\/a> sled dog, a common work dog in the Yukon, standing on a mound of snow. The shield of the Coat of Arms contains at the top, a cross of St. George for England with a roundel<\/a> with a pattern of vair<\/a> (fur), called Roundel in Vair. Below in the middle of the shield are two wavy lines representing Yukon’s rivers on a blue background. Finally at the bottom of the shield are two red triangles representing Yukon’s mountains with gold circles in them representing the Yukon’s great mineral resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The flag of Yukon was officially adopted on March 1, 1968. The flag was chosen from a territory-wide competition as part of Canada’s Centennial celebrations of 1967. The competition was sponsored by the Whitehorse branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. A C$100 prize was offered to the winning design. There were a total of 137 submissions with the winning design coming from Yukon College graduate Lynn Lambert. Lambert submitted 10 designs of which one made the final three designs as selected by a committee, with his eventually being named the winner. A prototype design was sent to Ottawa for suitable heraldic description. An expert in Ottawa sent back an amended version of the submitted flag design. The committee in Whitehorse however kept with the original design. The flag was adopted by the ‘Flag Act’ on December 1, 1967.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[80,83,8,5,6,7,41],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}