1871

An Immigrant’s Story

A few men made millions in the early days of the Klondike gold rush. Thousands, it is said, left the Klondike with nothing but memories.

This story is about a poor immigrant named John, who was born in Sweden in…

1896

Herschel Island

Herschel Island was named, in 1826, by the British Arctic explorer, Sir John Franklin, after the famous English astronomer William Herschel, who studied the planets and the stars in the 17th century. He was the first to spot the far-off…

1930

Gene Allen - Newspaperman

He was a salesman, from the American Midwest, who moved to Seattle to sell goods for a local printing company. In 1897, when he saw miners coming off a ship on the Seattle waterfront carrying their life's possessions and wealth…

1930

The Story of Stroller White

The Yukon has had more than its share of characters. But perhaps the most observant was a lifelong newspaper man who covered the Yukon for 17 years, and whose columns depicted a slice of life which would otherwise be forgotten.

1931

Lucky Lippy

When he quit his job as a physical education instructor for the YMCA in Seattle, in 1896, Tom Lippy had a hunch. He could not pin it down, but something in his muscular body told him to head north. He…

1932

SS Baychimo

Al Oster has written a lot of story songs about the Yukon. One that doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves is about the Ghost ship of the Arctic. It was called the SS Baychimo.

Back in the…

1932

The Mad Trapper

He was called the Mad Trapper of Rat River. There is no compelling evidence that he was mad. There is plenty of evidence that he wanted to be left alone. But when he wounded a Mountie, his days as a…

1933

Ghost on the Third Floor - Caribou Hotel in Carcross

"It’s haunting and haunting and luring me on as of old". So said the poet, Robert Service. Was he talking about the Yukon’s most famous hotel located in Carcross? Maybe! Because it is haunted. The hotel had been…

1933

Robert Henderson, Prospector

He was born in Nova Scotia, born with a passion for gold. He had looked all over the world for gold, financing his lonely journeys from Australia to Colorado by taking paid jobs as a sailor. He had never struck…

1935

Ephraim J. Hamacher

Most of the photographers who took the Klondike challenge of 1898 travelled all the way to Dawson City. When the rush was over, most left the land of gold forever. Ephraim Hamacher did neither.

He was born in Kitchener, Ontario,…

1935

Post and Rogers

The news spread around the world with the speed of a lightning bolt. Two of America's most beloved citizens were dead. In the wilds of Alaska, the picture of their crumpled aircraft was a sad sight, indeed.

Will Rogers was…

1935

Swiftwater Bill Gates (No. 2)

In Dawson City they called him Swiftwater Bill. He liked that. You see, Bill Gates was a little man with a big ego. He told everyone who’d listen that he earned his nickname because of his prowess in steering boats…

1936

Faith Fenton, Journalist

Though much has been written over the years, the first news accounts from the Klondike came from a pioneering journalist. In the spring of 1898, the Toronto Globe newspaper got caught up in the incredible story unfolding in the Yukon…

1936

Legends

Robert Service always said all of the characters in his poems were fictional. Well, we know now that this is not quite true when it comes to Sam McGee. There was a Sam McGee in the Yukon…

1936

Riverboats as Archaeology

You wouldn’t think the Yukon river-boat days are gone long enough to attract the attention of archeologists. Nevertheless, a British Columbia archaeologist, sponsored by the Institute of nautical archeology at Texas A & M University, is conducting a…

1936

Sinking of the first SS Klondike

Once in the mid 70’s I took a boat trip on the Yukon River with G.I. Cameron. The former mountie who had been stationed for many years at Fort Selkirk was a wealth of knowledge about the…

1936

The Gleaner

The sternwheeler, the Gleaner, a three decked boat more than one hundred feet long, could carry 150 passengers and a lot of freight. Yet the river boat never ran the Yukon River. Instead, she operated in the Yukon southern…

1937

Grant McConachie

It was the most powerful aircraft in Canada flying on floats. The visionary pilot at the controls was man who would make trans - Pacific flying commonplace in years to come. But on July 5, 1937, he was flying his…

1937

Pattullo annexes the Yukon

In my search for Yukon Nuggets, stories from our fabled past, I have often come across strange - sometimes bizarre - tales.

Most recently, a story surfaced for which I have no explanation, nor could I find anything to prove…

1937

The Whitehorse Star in the 30s and 40s

Times were tough in the Yukon just before the outbreak of World War II. The territory had become a backwater, out of sight and out of mind, especially by the Federal Government. In 1937 the feds gleefully agreed to allow…

1938

Sourdough Reunions

Sourdough Reunions have been going on for a long time. I remember attending one in Reno, Nevada in the seventies and meeting Alan Fraser, who had worked on the river boats in the twenties and thirties. He was a great…