History

If you ask Yukon First Nations Elders about their history they’ll tell you that they’ve always lived here, since the time Crow made the world. Around the Blue Fish Caves in the vicinity of Old Crow, archaeologists have discovered some of the oldest evidence of human habitation on the continent. Current estimates are that the first humans could have reached the Yukon as far back as 40,000 years ago.

The first white men who came to the Yukon were Hudson Bay Company explorers. Evidence of their early trading posts still exists at Fort Selkirk and on Francis Lake, north of Watson Lake. The fur traders were followed by the first prospectors who got wind of some of the rich gold deposits.

The population of the Yukon in 1898 was larger than it is today. Gold rush history hasn’t disappeared. Evidence of the stampede is everywhere: on the Chilkoot Pass, the narrow gauge White Pass & Yukon Route Railway, along the Yukon River, and of course, in Dawson City itself. Both the Yukon Territorial Archives in Whitehorse and the Dawson City Museum have old film footage, historical photographs, documents and mementos of the era available for filming right in the archives.