File:Klondikers in boat navigating Whitehorse Rapids, probably 1898 (AL+CA 639).jpg

Caption on image: Whitehorse Rapids PH coll 298.67b

Miles Canyon and Whitehorse rapids were dangerous and famous obstacles to Gold Rush stampeders bound for the Klondike goldfields. To bypass these rapids, cargo was carried in horse-drawn carts on wooden rails, or ‘tramlines’, between transfer points at Canyon City and White Horse City. In 1897, two entrepreneurs capitalized on the obstacles presented by the Canyon and the Rapids by building tramways on either side of the river. For a fee, their horse-drawn tram cars carried goods and small boats around the rapids on log rails. A tent town called Canyon City appeared at the head of the tramway on the east bank. A roadhouse and saloon provided lodging and refreshments to the tens of thousands of gold seekers on their way to the Klondike. When the White Pass and Yukon Railway from Skagway was completed in 1900, a larger town (now Whitehorse) sprang up across the river around wharves where freight was transferred from rail cars to sternwheelers. The construction of the Whitehorse hydro-electric dam in 1958 tamed Miles Canyon and has replaced the once foaming White Horse Rapids with Schwatka Lake reservoir.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Rapids--Yukon; Rivers--Yukon; Boats--Yukon
• Subjects (LCSH): Whitehorse Rapids (Yukon); Yukon River (Yukon and Alaska)