River · Canada, United States
Yukon
The Yukon is one of the longest rivers in North America. It begins among lakes and glaciers in western Canada, crosses the wild land of Alaska and finally flows into the Bering Sea.
Picture credit: Anthony DeLorenzo (CC BY-SA 2.0) · CC-BY-SA 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Iforgotmylegs (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Yukon?
The river starts here: Lakes and glaciers of the Coast Mountains, British Columbia/Yukon, Canada.
It ends in the Bering Sea (Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta), Alaska.
Countries on the river: Canada, the United States.
The story behind it
In winter the Yukon freezes over, and the ice can grow more than 1.5 metres thick. Then people travel along the frozen river by dog sled and snowmobile. In spring the ice breaks up, and huge chunks, some as big as bulldozers, can push onto the banks. In Dawson City people have been betting since 1896 on the exact minute of the break-up: a wooden tripod stands on the ice, linked to a clock that stops when the ice moves. Dawson City became famous in the Klondike Gold Rush, when the Yukon was one of the main roads for the gold seekers. Paddle-wheel steamboats carried people and supplies on the river until the 1950s. Every summer, Chinook salmon swim up the river from the sea, some of them more than 3 000 kilometres. In Whitehorse they climb the longest wooden fish ladder in the world.
Questions children ask
How long is the Yukon?
The Yukon is about 3 190 km long. Depending on which lake or stream is counted as its start, sources give slightly different lengths, from about 3 120 to 3 190 km.
Which countries does the Yukon flow through?
The Yukon flows through Canada and the United States. It crosses the Yukon territory with Whitehorse and Dawson City and then flows through Alaska to the Bering Sea.
Why do people bet on the ice in Dawson City?
Since 1896, people in Dawson City have guessed the date and minute when the frozen Yukon will break up in spring. A tripod on the ice is linked to a clock, which stops as soon as the moving ice shifts the tripod.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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