Overland Trail (Yukon)

The Overland Trail was a Klondike Gold Rush-era transportation route between Whitehorse, Yukon and Dawson City in the Canadian Yukon Territory. It was built in 1902 at a cost of CDN$129,000 after the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad won a contract to deliver mail to the Dawson City gold fields from the Canadian government. The trail consisted of a 330 miles (531 km)-long, 12 feet (4 m) wide graded surface with culverts in some locations. Before its construction, transportation to Dawson City required a steamboat trip on the Yukon River during the brief subarctic summer, or dog sleds after the rivers had frozen. After its construction, horse-drawn stagecoach routes soon were established. Even with this regulated travel, it took five days to travel the distance between the two towns. Sleighs were substituted for coaches once snow began to fall, and passengers were charged CDN$125 for a one-way trip.

The first automobile used the trail in 1912, but soon afterward, declining returns from the gold mines caused the population of the Yukon to drop precipitously. In 1955, a new automobile highway was built north from Whitehorse to Mayo, with a spur to Dawson City. This highway made the Overland Trail obsolete, and it fell into disrepair. That road itself was replaced by the Klondike Highway. Today, the Overland Trail is primarily a recreation route for sled dog teams, snowmobiles, and other tourism-related activities. Artifacts relating to the Gold Rush-era use of the trail are plentiful along the route, which is used in February as part of the Yukon Quest, a 1,000-mile sled dog race between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, Alaska.