The
Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern
North America. Over half of the river lies in the
U.S. state of
Alaska, with most of the other portion lying in and giving its name to
Canada's Yukon Territory, and a small part of the river near the source located in
British Columbia. The river is 3,700 km (2,300 mi) long and empties into the
Bering Sea at the
Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The average flow is 6,430 m³/s (227,000 ft³/s).
[1] The total drainage area is 832,700&_160;km² (321,500&_160;mi²),
[2] of which 323,800&_160;km² (126,300&_160;mi²) is in Canada. By comparison, the total area is more than 25% larger than
Texas or
Alberta.
The longest river in Alaska and the Yukon Territory, it was one of the principal means of transportation during the 1896–1903 Klondike Gold Rush. Paddle-wheel riverboats continued to ply the river until the 1950s, when the Klondike Highway was completed.
The Yukon River has been heavily polluted from gold mining, military installations, dumps, wastewater, and other sources. The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, a cooperative effort of 64 First Nations and tribes in Alaska and Canada, has the goal of making the river and its tributaries safe to drink from again.
The generally accepted source of the Yukon River is the Choda Glacier at the southern end of Atlin Lake in British Columbia. Others suggest that the source is Lake Lindeman at the northern end of the Chilkoot Trail. Either way, Atlin Lake flows into Tagish Lake, as eventually does Lake Lindeman after flowing into Lake Bennett. Tagish Lake then flows into Marsh Lake. The Yukon River proper starts at the northern end of Marsh Lake, just south of Whitehorse. Some argue that the source of the Yukon River should really be Teslin Lake and the Teslin River, which has a larger flow when it reaches the Yukon at Hootalinqua. The upper end of the Yukon river was originally known as the Lewes River until it was established that it actually was the Yukon. North of Whitehorse, the Yukon River widens into Lake Laberge, made famous by Robert W. Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee." Other large lakes that are part of the Yukon River system include Kusawa Lake (into the Takhini River) and Kluane Lake (into the Kluane and then White River).
