Yukon is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 44,975 as of 2023. However, 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 more than 1,000,000 visitors 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 Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon, in north-western Canada, between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896; when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of prospectors. Some became wealthy, but the majority went in vain. It has been immortalized in films, literature, and photographs.
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.
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.
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.
Jay C. Flippen was an American character actor who often played crusty sergeants, police officers or weary criminals in many films of the 1940s and 1950s. Before his motion-picture career he was a leading vaudeville comedian and master of ceremonies.
Bend of the River is a 1952 American Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Julie Adams, and Rock Hudson. Based on the 1950 novel Bend of the Snake by Bill Gulick, the film is about a tough cowboy who risks his life to deliver confiscated supplies to homesteaders after gold is discovered in the region. Bend of the River was filmed on location in Sandy River, Mount Hood, the Columbia River and Timberline, Oregon. This is the second Western film collaboration between Anthony Mann and James Stewart.
John Herrick McIntire was an American character actor who appeared in 65 theatrical films and many television series. McIntire is well known for having replaced Ward Bond, upon Bond's sudden death in November 1960, as the star of NBC's Wagon Train. He played Christopher Hale, the leader of the wagon train from early 1961 to the series' end in 1965. He also replaced Charles Bickford, upon Bickford's death in 1967, as ranch owner Clay Grainger on NBC's The Virginian for four seasons.
Gidget Goes Hawaiian is a 1961 American romantic comedy musical film starring James Darren, Michael Callan and Deborah Walley. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film is a sequel to the 1959 Sandra Dee beach film vehicle Gidget. Dee was under contract to Universal for the rival series film Tammy Tell Me True (1961) and would not be released to Columbia to reprise her hit role.
Night Passage is a 1957 American Western film directed by James Neilson and starring James Stewart and Audie Murphy.
Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier.
Corinne Calvet, born Corinne Dibos, was a French actress who appeared mostly in American films. According to one obituary, she was promoted "as a combination of Dietrich and Rita Hayworth", but her persona failed to live up to this description, though the fault lay as much with a string of mediocre films as with a lack of a compelling talent, for Calvet's sultry looks and flashing eyes were allied with an impish sense of humor. She eventually became better known for her fiery private life and some well-publicized legal battles.
Jujiro Wada was a Japanese adventurer and entrepreneur who achieved fame for his exploits in turn-of-the-20th-century Alaska and Yukon Territory.
Man Without a Star is a 1955 American Western film starring Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, and Claire Trevor. Directed by King Vidor, it is based on the novel of the same name, published in 1952, by Dee Linford (1915–1971). A remake was made for television in 1968 entitled A Man Called Gannon. In February 2020, the film was shown at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, as part of a retrospective dedicated to King Vidor's career.
The Shootout on Juneau Wharf was a gunfight between Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith, Frank H. Reid, and Jesse Murphy that took place on Friday, July 8, 1898, at approximately 9:15 p.m. in Skagway, District of Alaska, in the United States. Smith was shot in the heart and died shortly afterwards, and Reid died of his injuries 12 days later.
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.
Challenge to Be Free is an anti-hero film directed by Tay Garnett and starring Mike Mazurki. The film's plot was a loosely based on the 1931 Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) pursuit of a trapper named Albert Johnson, the reputed "Mad Trapper of Rat River". The film was shot and originally released in 1972 with the title Mad Trapper of the Yukon; it was re-released in 1975 as Challenge to Be Free.
The Klondike Gold Rush is commemorated through film, literature, historical parks etc.
Eric A. Hegg was a Swedish-American photographer who portrayed the people in Skagway, Bennett and Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush from 1897 to 1901. Hegg himself participated in prospecting expeditions with his brother and fellow Swedes while documenting the daily life and hardships of the gold diggers.
