History
The Riverboat Discovery business was founded in 1950 by Jim Binkley, a former freight riverboat captain on the Yukon River. Binkley was approached in 1950 by Alaska tourism entrepreneur Chuck West, who expressed interest in a local river tour in Fairbanks, Alaska, and asked if Binkley could provide such a service. Binkley initially operated a small converted missionary boat, the Godspeed, on tours of the rivers near Fairbanks.
The company's first sternwheeler, Discovery I, was built by Jim Binkley in his backyard in 1955 to accommodate more passengers. Later, more riverboats were added to the Discovery fleet; Discovery II was converted from a freighting steamboat in 1971, and Discovery III was built in 1987 at the Nichols Brothers Boat Builders shipyard on Whidbey Island near Seattle, Washington.
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