Alaska Route 98 Yukon Highway 2 | ||||
Route information | ||||
Maintained by Alaska DOT&PF, Yukon DOH&PW | ||||
Length | 440.2 mi [1] (708.4 km) AK-98: 14.4 mi (23.2 km) YT-2: 685.4 km (425.9 mi) | |||
Component highways | Alaska Route 98 in Alaska and Yukon Highway 2 in both British Columbia and Yukon | |||
Major junctions | ||||
South end | Broadway in Skagway, AK | |||
Hwy 8 in Carcross, YT Hwy 1 (Alaska Highway) in Carcross Cutoff, YT and Whitehorse, YT Hwy 4 in Carmacks, YT Hwy 11 in Stewart Crossing, YT Hwy 5 in near Dawson City, YT | ||||
North end | To Hwy 9 at the Dawson City Ferry Landing in Dawson City, YT | |||
Location | ||||
Country | United States | |||
State | Alaska | |||
Highway system | ||||
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The Klondike Highway is a highway that runs from the Alaska Panhandle through the province of British Columbia and the territory of Yukon in Canada, linking the coastal town of Skagway, Alaska, to Dawson City, Yukon. Its route somewhat parallels the route used by prospectors in the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush.
In both British Columbia and Yukon, the highway is marked as Yukon Highway 2. In Alaska, the Highway is marked as Alaska Route 98 (as in "route of 1898"). [2] Until 1978, the unopened section between the Yukon–BC border and Carcross had no official highway number, while the section north of Carcross to the Alaska Highway was Highway 5, and the section from Stewart Crossing to Dawson was Highway 3. The BC section is now maintained by the Yukon government as a natural extension of Highway 2.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2012) |
The Klondike Highway winds in the state of Alaska for 24 km (15 miles), up through the White Pass in the Coast Mountains where it crosses the Canada–US border to British Columbia (BC) for 56 km (35 miles), then enters Yukon where it reaches the Alaska Highway near Whitehorse and shares a short section with that highway until north of Whitehorse, where it diverges once more to Dawson City. The highway is 709 km (441 miles) long.
The original 53 km (33 mi) section known locally as the Carcross Road was actually made into a part of the Alaska Highway in 1942, until the Marsh Lake route was opened the next year. As Yukon Highway 5, it formed a loop road with Highway 6, the Tagish Road (now numbered as 8). It was renumbered as Highway 2 in 1978, being incorporated into the Klondike Highway designation. The road underwent alignment improvements during the 1980s. Residents living as far south as 25 km (16 miles) from the Alaska Highway still give their residential addresses as historic mile measurements that start at zero at the Alaska Highway, even though the distances are no longer accurate, and kilometre posts count distance from Skagway's ferry terminal.
Construction of the "Carcross-Skagway Road" began in the 1950s, was abandoned partway up a mountain from Skagway, and resumed in 1976-1977 when the Captain William Moore Bridge was constructed. The entire road was completed between Skagway and Carcross in August 1978. It was only open for a few weeks before seasonal closure. The first full summer season of use was in 1979.
The highway originally was built for tourist traffic, but in 1986 became important as a commercial transportation route, coincident with what seemed to be inevitable abandonment of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway (WP&YR). The new owners of the Faro mine secured government agreement to open the highway for trucking. The last winter closure ended in the spring of 1986.
The Carcross-Skagway Road portion of the highway underwent substantial rerouting, widening and (cold mix) paving in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mining ore trucks and fuel tankers are the primary current (2013) commercial users of the highway, which also remains a popular tourist route (cars, RVs, buses), and provides a means for the WP&YR to offer economically-priced train excursions connecting at Fraser to buses based at Skagway for the cruise ship industry, or to/from Carcross and Whitehorse to the north.
The quality of roads from Whitehorse to Dawson City prior to 1950 was poor and only for the hardiest of travelers and motorized vehicles. The "Whitehorse-Mayo Road," Yukon's original Highway 2, extended along today's route from Whitehorse to Stewart Crossing, then turned northeast to Mayo, Elsa and Keno City. The last of three bridges was finished in 1960 to replace ferries at Carmacks, Pelly Crossing and Stewart Crossing.
Yukon's original Highway 3, the Dawson-Mayo Road, was opened in September 1955 between Stewart Crossing and Dawson City. The Dawson-Mayo Road became part of Highway 2 in 1978 and was named the Klondike Highway, while the road northeast from Stewart Crossing became Highway 11, and was later named the Silver Trail.
Even as of 1979, the entire Klondike Highway was gravel, but by 1982, some paving had been laid down as far north as Carmacks. Rebuilding and some rerouting was completed in the late 1980s.
Approximately, the first 30 km (19 mi) of the North Klondike Highway are still often known as the Mayo Road to the residents of Whitehorse. Although kilometric distance markers have been in place since the early 1980s, residents in this area still identify their residential address as a mile measurement along the Mayo Road.
State / Province / Territory | Location | km [1] | mi | Destinations | Notes | |||
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Alaska | Skagway | 0.0 | 0.0 | First Street – Skagway Ferry Terminal | Alaska Marine Highway; AK-98 southern terminus | |||
Canada–United States border | 23.1 | 14.4 | Skagway - Fraser Border Crossing AK-98 northern terminus • Hwy 2 southern terminus | |||||
White Pass – 874 m (2,867 ft) | ||||||||
British Columbia | No major junctions | |||||||
Yukon | | 79.8 | 49.6 | British Columbia – Yukon border | ||||
Carcross | 106.0 | 65.9 | Hwy 8 east (Tagish Road) – Tagish, Alaska Highway, Atlin | |||||
Carcross Cutoff | 157.2 | 97.7 | Hwy 1 east (Alaska Highway) – Teslin, Watson Lake | South end of Hwy 1 (Alaska Highway) concurrency | ||||
Whitehorse | 172.0 | 106.9 | Robert Service Way (South Access Road) | |||||
177.8 | 110.5 | Hamilton Boulevard, Two Mile Hill Road | ||||||
189.5 | 117.7 | Hwy 1 west (Alaska Highway) – Haines Junction | North end of Hwy 1 (Alaska Highway) concurrency | |||||
Carmacks | 355.4 | 220.8 | Hwy 4 east (Robert Campbell Highway) – Faro, Ross River | |||||
Stewart Crossing | 534.0 | 331.8 | Hwy 11 east (Silver Trail) – Mayo, Keno City | |||||
| 667.7 | 414.9 | Hwy 5 north (Dempster Highway) – Fort McPherson, Inuvik | |||||
Dawson City | 708.5 | 440.2 | To Hwy 9 (Top of the World Highway) / Dawson City Ferry Terminal | Ferry across the Yukon River to Hwy 9; Hwy 2 northern terminus | ||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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Yukon is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It is the most densely populated territory in Canada, with an estimated population of 46,704 as of 2024, though it has a smaller population than all provinces. Whitehorse, the territorial capital, is the largest settlement in any of the three territories.
The Municipality and Borough of Skagway is a first-class borough in Alaska on the Alaska Panhandle. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,240, up from 968 in 2010. The population doubles in the summer tourist season in order to deal with the large number of summer tourists each year. Incorporated as a borough on June 25, 2007, it was previously a city in the Skagway-Yakutat-Angoon Census Area. The most populated community is the census-designated place of Skagway.
The Alaska Highway was constructed during World War II to connect the contiguous United States to Alaska across Canada. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. When it was completed in 1942, it was about 2,700 kilometres (1,700 mi) long, but in 2012, it was only 2,232 km (1,387 mi). This is due to the realignments of the highway over the years, which has rerouted and straightened many sections. The highway opened to the public in 1948. Once legendary for being a rough, challenging drive, the highway is now paved over its entire length. Its component highways are British Columbia Highway 97, Yukon Highway 1, and Alaska Route 2.
The White Pass and Yukon Route is a Canadian and U.S. Class III 3 ft narrow-gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railroad. Equipment, freight and passengers are ferried by ship through the Port of Skagway, and via road through a few of the stops along its route.
Bennett Lake is a lake in the Province of British Columbia and Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada, at an elevation of 656 m (2,152 ft). It is just north of the border with the United States state of Alaska, near the Alaskan port of Skagway. The lake has an area of either 90.68 or 96.8 km2. The average depth is 61.9 m (203 ft) and the maximum depth is 123 m (404 ft).
Carcross, originally known as Caribou Crossing, is an unincorporated community in Yukon, Canada, on Bennett Lake and Nares Lake. It is home to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation.
The Haines Highway or Haines Cut-Off is a highway that connects Haines, Alaska, in the United States, with Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada, passing through the province of British Columbia. It follows the route of the old Dalton Trail from the port of Haines inland for about 180 km (110 mi) to Klukshu, Yukon, and then continues to Haines Junction. The highway is about 244 km (152 mi) long, of which 72 km (45 mi) is in Alaska.
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park is a national historical park operated by the National Park Service that seeks to commemorate the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s. Though the gold fields that were the ultimate goal of the stampeders lay in the Yukon Territory, the park comprises staging areas for the trek there and the routes leading in its direction. There are four units, including three in Municipality of Skagway Borough, Alaska and a fourth in the Pioneer Square National Historic District in Seattle, Washington.
The Yukon Quest, formally the Yukon Quest 1,000-mile International Sled Dog Race, is a sled dog race scheduled every February since 1984 between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon, switching directions each year. Because of the harsh winter conditions, difficult trail, and the limited support that competitors are allowed, it is considered the "most difficult sled dog race in the world", or even the "toughest race in the world"—"even tougher, more selective and less attention-seeking than the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race." The originator envisioned it as "a race so rugged that only purists would participate."
Keish, also known as James Mason and by the nickname Skookum Jim Mason, was a member of the Tagish First Nation in what became the Yukon Territory of Canada. He was born near Bennett Lake, on what is now the Yukon–British Columbia border. He lived in Caribou Crossing, now Carcross, Yukon.
Dawson Charlie or K̲áa Goox̱ [qʰáː kuːχ] was a Canadian Tagish/Tlingit First Nation prospector and one of the co-discoverers of gold at Discovery Claim that led to the Klondike Gold Rush located in the Yukon territory of Northwest Canada. He was the nephew of Keish, also known as Skookum Jim Mason, and accompanied him on his search for his aunt, Kate Carmack. He staked one of the first three claims in the Klondike, along with his uncle and George Carmack. Storyteller Angela Sidney was a niece.
Yukon Highway 4, also known as the Robert Campbell Highway or Campbell Highway, is a road between Watson Lake, Yukon on the Alaska Highway to Carmacks, Yukon on the Klondike Highway. It is 583 km (362 mi) long and mostly gravel-surfaced. It serves the communities of Faro and Ross River and intersects the Canol Road near Ross River. The highway is named for Robert Campbell, a nineteenth century Hudson's Bay Company fur trader and explorer.
Yukon Energy Corporation is a Crown corporation that is the primary producer of electricity in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It also distributes electricity to a small number of locations not served by the privately-owned ATCO Electric Yukon. YEC was established in 1987 to take over the Yukon assets of the Northern Canada Power Commission and is currently organised as a subsidiary of the Yukon Development Corporation. The company's headquarters is in Whitehorse, Yukon near the Whitehorse Rapids hydroelectric generating station.
ATCO Electric Yukon, formerly Yukon Electrical Company Limited (YECL), is a private electrical utility based in Whitehorse, Yukon, serving most Yukon communities and Lower Post, British Columbia. The company, founded in 1901, is owned by ATCO of Alberta. Through mergers and acquisitions, Yukon Electrical extended to serve most communities in Yukon.
The history of the Yukon covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians through the Beringia land bridge approximately 20,000 years ago. In the 18th century, Russian explorers began to trade with the First Nations people along the Alaskan coast, and later established trade networks extending into Yukon. By the 19th century, traders from the Hudson's Bay Company were also active in the region. The region was administered as a part of the North-Western Territory until 1870, when the United Kingdom transferred the territory to Canada and it became the North-West Territories.
Steamboats on the Yukon River played a role in the development of Alaska and Yukon. Access to the interior of Alaska and Yukon was hindered by large mountains and distance, but the wide Yukon River provided a feasible route. The first steamers on the lower Yukon River were work boats for the Collins Overland Telegraph in 1866 or 1867, with a small steamer called Wilder. The mouth of the Yukon River is far to the west at St. Michael and a journey from Seattle or San Francisco covered some 4,000 miles (6,400 km).
Walter Muma is a Canadian man who is on record for completing a 3-month 11,500-mile (18,660 km) journey across Canada and Alaska by moped. The journey took place during the summer of 1978, began in Toronto, passed through Yukon and Alaska, continued up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, and finally back to Toronto.
The SS Keno is a preserved historic sternwheel paddle steamer, a National Historic Site of Canada, and a unit of the Canadian national park system. The SS Keno is berthed in a dry dock on the waterfront of the Yukon River in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada.
The Skagway–Fraser Border Crossing connects the communities of Skagway, Alaska and Carcross, Yukon on the Canada–United States border. Alaska Highway 98 on the American side joins Yukon Highway 2 on the Canadian side. The border is near the summit of White Pass on the Klondike Highway, where the elevation is 3,292 feet (1,003 m). The border divides Alaska Time Zone from Pacific Time Zone. The highway, completed in 1979, was initially seasonal, but has been open year-round since 1986.
Media related to Klondike Highway at Wikimedia Commons