Down the Yukon River but up the Teslin, steamboats like the SS Nisutlin carried the soldiers and equipment of the 340th Engineers to their starting point at Teslin and Morley Bay deep in the interior of Yukon Territory. General Hoge had ordered the 340th to build highway from there through into the mountains of British …
Tag Archives: Yukon River
As the Crow Flies
As the crow flies, Lake Bennett lay just a few miles from Skagway. Theoretically Klondike gold rushers could travel those few miles from the Skagway dock to Lake Bennett, build or buy a boat and cruise down Lake Bennett to Carcross and the Yukon River. The Yukon could then float them downstream all the way …
The Rapids
The Rapids started it all. When a would-be prospector on the way to the Klondike came by ship to Skagway and then lugged his gear to the top of the Chilkoot Pass, he still had to navigate Lake Bennet to the narrows at Carcross and then the Yukon River to Dawson City. The greatest peril …
Emma Did it Her Way
Emma Kelly lived in Topeka, wrote for a Chicago newspaper, thirsted, as they say, for adventure. In 1897 word came south from the Klondike that men had struck gold, and young Emma decided to head north to Dawson City. She arranged financing, acquired a list of newspapers that would print stories she sent back, and …
Gangplanks and Leonard Cox
Gangplanks punctuated Leonard Cox’s time with the 340th Engineers. A gangplank in Seattle carried him onto the ship that took him up the inside passage to Skagway. He didn’t know it, but his regiment would defend America by helping build the Alaska Highway through Northern Canada. More from the 340th The Army drafted Leonard …
Maternity Alaska Style
Maternity ward? A cabin in Eagle Alaska—in January. If the history of the subarctic north fascinates you, people who choose to live there especially fascinate you. The weather, the terrain, the geology, all downright hostile, draw utterly unique people who choose to live there because of the difficulty and danger, not in spite of …
The 340th Gets Started
The 340th Engineers heavy equipment convulsed the Skagway docks again at mid-June 1942. Vessels bearing heavy equipment jammed in one behind the other. Colonel Lyons and his regiment had reached their starting point at Morley Bay in the nick of time. Read more about getting to Morley Lyons’ pre-positioned troops in Skagway, Whitehorse, and Morley …
The SS Nisutlin Forced the Rivers
SS Nisutlin and its Canadian crew forced the Yukon and Teslin Rivers to transport men and equipment for the 340th Engineers. General Hoge had ordered the 340th to build highway from Teslin through Yukon toward British Columbia. On the other side of the Continental Divide they would meet the 35th Engineers coming the other way. …
Who Got Rich?
Against all odds, thousands of the Stampeders who invaded the North Country in search of gold made it to the Klondike, and some got rich. Dawson City became, for a time, the largest city north of San Francisco. Saloons, dance halls, butchers, clothiers and blacksmiths lined its streets. Down on the Alaska Peninsula, Skagway mushroomed …
Yukon River Route
Our would-be prospectors are headed for the Yukon River route to Dawson City. We’ve followed them by ship to Skagway; watched them climb up Chilkoot Pass to the Canadian border—over and over again until they accumulated a ton of supplies. Now the route led twenty-six miles across Lake Bennett, two and a half miles through …