By the mid-1950s, a growing Whitehorse apparently needed more electrical power than could be provided by the Fish Lake power plant operated by Yukon Electric. But what to do? At the time, two parallel systems were operating. The Read more
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To understand the Distant Early Warning line, you first have to understand the dawn of the nuclear age and the phrase "mutually assured destruction." In the early fifties, both the U.S. and Russia could deliver nuclear warheads to each other’s…
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"Containerization." Today it is as commonplace as crocuses on the clay cliffs in the spring. Ports around the world are bustling with huge machinery loading and unloading goods. It wasn't always so.
Everything you buy today probably arrived from some…
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It wasn't the Yukon's first pipeline. The Canol line had been built in 1942, and included a line from Whitehorse to Skagway.
The eight-inch pipe-line, built in 1954 from Haines to Fairbanks, was a symbol, not of WWII, but of…
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If there ever was a cowboy town in the Yukon, Champagne was it. After all, the community had horses, fences, log buildings like the American west had in the movies - and most importantly - a rodeo.
In the 1950s,…
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I didn't really know the elderly gentleman who spent his days in the back room of the little Yukon Electrical clapboard office on Main Street, except that my school chum, Willard, enjoyed stopping there to say hello. To me, he…
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Today, the SS Keno sits high and dry near Front Street overlooking the Yukon river in Dawson.
She was built in Whitehorse in 1922, this little jewel in the crown of Yukon riverboats. The SS Keno was built to…
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At the beginning of World War Two, the importance of Whitehorse as a transportation hub grew when a fully operational airport was built as part of the Northwest Staging Route. The Canadian and American military made their headquarters in Whitehorse,…
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In today’s throw-away-world not much is permanent. Any publication that does survive needs a lot of useful information between the pages. Such is the Milepost Magazine, the bible for travellers in the great Pacific Northwest. The magazine is a must…
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If anyone knew the Alaska Highway better than Jimmy Quong, I would like to meet him. For most his adult life, this unassuming gentleman worked on and for the highway.
A Vancouver native, Jim Quong started working on the Alaska…
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The bitter memory of World War II was fading by 1947. North Americans were optimistic. TIME magazine carried a special feature on a new land of adventure and promise. The far north was on everyone's mind.
The magazine reported that…
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For many, it's the most spectacular feature of the Yukon river. It is a canyon carved by thousands of centuries of swift-moving water. At one time, it was considered the most dangerous obstacle on the way to the Klondike…
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April 3rd, 1946. It was plus 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0° Celsius on today’s thermometers. The afternoon sun shone brightly, and nearly 300 Whitehorse residents were there to witness history in the making. On the gravel road between the Two…
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When the Canadian military took over the operation of the Northwest Highway System in 1946, a new era began in Whitehorse. The town became the headquarters for a substantial military presence in the Yukon. As many as two thousand Army…
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When the American Army built the Alaska Highway temporary camps were set up at about 100 mile intervalls. These quickly built accommodations were not meant to survive for very long. After the war ended and the rest of the…
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Over the past one hundred years, McCrae has played many roles. It began in 1899 as a flagstop station on the White Pass railway. It was named for Colin McCrae, one of the company directors. The wagon road between Read more
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Most Canadians didn’t know what was going on. It wasn’t exactly a top-secret military project, but the Americans were playing it pretty close to the vest. Hardly anyone in the Yukon knew about this massive construction project.
On June 4th,…
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Today, the Alaska Highway is considered the main street of the Yukon and Alaska. Easy to drive and quick to get there. It wasn't always so. Back in the early 40s, there was no highway. In the late 40s you…
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The first overland, motorized mail service into the Yukon was delivered by the American military. Like almost everything else during World War II, the Americans ran the show in the Northwest. So it's not surprising that they ran the mail.
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