The town takes its name from the White Horse Rapids on the Yukon River. These, together with Miles Canyon, were the biggest obstacle to be negotiated in this area by those following the 1898 Klondyke Goldrush. Two local entrepreneurs built horse drawn wooden tramways on either side of the river to enable the carriage of passengers, goods and small boats, for a fee of course, around the rapids. A tent city, named Canyon City, grew around the tramway terminus on the east side; this later became Whitehorse. The Yukon & White Pass Railroad from Skagway was driven to here and remains of this disused line can still be seen.

The town boasts an International Airport which has a few flights a day, mainly to Calgary in the south.

At the entrance to the airport is a Douglas DC3 which was built in 1942 and served as a transport plane during the war. Afterwards it became part of the newly formed Canadian Pacific Airways until modernization of the fleet in 1960. It was then used as a bush plane for 6 years, flying to the remotest parts of the north country, before being used on flights in and out of the Yukon. It was retired and restored in 1977 and mounted in its present location.

We drove past it one morning and we were confused. We were sure it was pointing the opposite way last night. Our host solved the problem; yes, it had moved. It's mount is moveable and this ensures that it always points into the wind. The "plane vane" as she called it. A plaque on the plinth contains all this.

Transport from Whitehorse upstream to the goldfields was mainly by river and an example of one of these river boats can be found at the transport museum by the airport.
 
 
 
 

When we arrived in town we had two important things to do:

• Wash the bus; the roads being very dusty meant that the bus was in a terrible state. Many of the kids took part in cleaning the bus both inside and outside.
• Haircuts; the kids hair needed cutting. I was going to ask Abraham to cut mine - until I saw what he had done to their hair... I kept quiet

Driving in these parts in winter has hazards that you wouldn't expect. With the temperature so cold the snow is generally very dry and powdery. Driving through it merely blows it off the road, it isn't very slippery. The problems happen at road junctions; the heat from the stationary cars engine melts the snow which refreezes as ice making the junctions very slippy.

The first few miles driving is not very smooth as the tyres will have frozen and will be flat on one side until they warm up and soften.

Houses
You can buy one, build your own from scratch, or buy readymade pieces and transport the to your desired location. Government land in general can be rented for $99 a quarter section (160 acres)
 
 

Recycling
Be glad you only have a few choices
at your local tip.