Overwhelmingly, over 10 people are known to have no religious affiliation at all, while the Catholic and Protestant faith is most popular in the Yukon. Yukon has a primary and secondary education system similar to the rest of Canada, though most of the schools are in Whitehorse.
There is one small college, Yukon College, located in Whitehorse, which offers education in arts and sciences. At any given time, it has around full-time and part-time students. The main attractions in the Yukon are its remote location and unspoiled lands. Hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, hiking, mountain climbing, wildlife viewing, dog-sledding, and other wilderness experiences are the main leisure activities. The two major exceptions are the Peel River, which drains a lesser plateau in the northeast, and the Liard River , in the lower-lying plain sector in the southeast.
These rivers drain into the Mackenzie River to the east. Permafrost is continuous north of the Porcupine River, and discontinuous but widespread through the rest of the territory. Boreal forests cover 57 per cent of the territory and vegetation is classified as sub-arctic and alpine. White spruce and lodgepole pine trees are the predominant commercial tree species. The region is also notable for native plant diversity. For example, there are over species of wildflowers.
Other large mammals found in the territory include caribou , moose and mountain sheep. The territory provides critical habitat for migratory birds, such as trumpeter swans and birds of prey. The barren-ground porcupine caribou herd migrates between Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. See also Geography of Yukon. In — the first census for which data on the Yukon is available — the population of the territory was 27, After the close of the Klondike Gold Rush the population declined to 8, in The population of the territory declined further to 4, by and would not experience significant growth until after the Second World War.
It was not until that the population of the territory surpassed the number recorded in In , the population of the Yukon was 35,,which represents a 5. George Mercer Dawson. The capital until , it was the centre of the Klondike Gold Rush and, for a period, was the largest city north of Seattle and west of Winnipeg. The community serves as a service centre for the southeastern Yukon. Faro , located in central Yukon, was home to one of the largest lead-zinc mines in the world.
In , the annual unemployment rate in the Yukon was 9. By industry sector, the largest number of Yukoners were employed in public administration, health care and social assistance, and retail. Employment in the Yukon in many industries is seasonal, which has resulted in a migratory labour force. In , the most cited ethnic origins were English, Canadian and Scottish.
Visible minorities made up 8. Aboriginal peoples make up The majority of Yukoners have English as their mother tongue Christian denominations accounted for 46 per cent of the population followed by traditional Aboriginal spirituality at one per cent.
While it is one of the youngest parts of Canada in terms of European settlement, the Yukon along with Alaska is the oldest continuously inhabited part of North America. The earliest human inhabitants arrived via a land bridge across the Bering Strait from Asia.
The date this occurred, however, is subject to considerable debate amongst archaeologists. Archaeological sites in the Old Crow basin in the north of the territory place the arrival of humans at least as early as 10, BCE and possibly much earlier.
The majority of Aboriginal peoples of Yukon belong to the Na-Dene linguistic group. They included the Nahanni in the east with Kaska , Goat and Mountain groups , and several groups in the south and west Teslin , Tutchone and Tagish. Close interaction through trade and intermarriage between the Tutchone and coastal Tlingit in the southwest resulted in strong Tlingit influences on, and even dominance of, Tutchone language and culture. The geographic and linguistic boundaries between different groups are fluid and generally blend into one another.
As a result, these divisions into different groups are somewhat arbitrary. See Demography of Aboriginal Peoples. Aboriginal peoples in the Yukon felt the influence of Europeans even prior to actual contact. News of the arrival of Russian explorers in the Pacific Northwest in the s and British explorers in the s quickly spread through pre-existing trade networks.
The presence of Europeans altered these traditional networks as different groups moved to acquire a better position in the growing trade with Europeans. The first lasting contact was made in the s by fur traders of the Hudson Bay Company , using maps and information from early explorers such as Sir John Franklin , who reached Yukon's arctic shore in Traders in the interior and whalers on the north coast were followed by missionaries and the North-West Mounted Police in communities such as Fort Selkirk and at Herschel Island.
By the late 19th century, gold prospectors in growing numbers pushed northwards from the Cassiar and Omineca mountains of northern British Columbia. Crossing onto the Yukon watershed they worked their way along the various rivers. Others moved inland from the Bering Sea, following up the Yukon River from its mouth by stern-wheeler. Several centres of gold mining developed, often for only a brief period.
Forty Mile , almost astride the Alaskan boundary, was one. George Carmack, Skookum Jim and Tagish Charley's discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek — a tributary of the Klondike River — on 17 August , initiated what became the pinnacle of a series of gold rushes in western North America, stretching back to the California Gold Rush of Although there had been a greater amount of gold in California, in the Yukon, the gold was concentrated in a much smaller area.
This meant that individual claims had the potential to be incredibly valuable. As a result, thousands of newcomers poured into this hitherto remote corner of Canada, transforming the Yukon permanently. Most of the gold-seekers arrived by way of Skagway and the upper Yukon River. Others tried the "Overland Route" from Edmonton , via the Peace or Mackenzie rivers, but few reached their destination.
Still others sought an all-American route via Valdez, AK, hoping to avoid Canadian government regulations. Dawson came into existence to serve the influx, at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon rivers, with actual mining taking place up the nearby creeks. In one month, Dawson grew to be the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg , developing a complete range of services, including water, sewerage, electricity and telephones. In June , the Yukon was made a separate territory and Dawson named its capital.
Whitehorse was established as the point where trans-shipping from rail to river took place, but Dawson was the dominant centre. To maintain order, prevent the lawlessness that characterized frontier towns in the United States, and also to assert Canadian sovereignty, the Canadian government increased the North-West Mounted Police presence in the Yukon from 19in to by the end of , and eventually to more than See also Yukon and Confederation.
By , however, the most easily worked placer mines were finished, leaving claims to be mined by large companies using expensive dredges. The population of Dawson began to decline almost immediately as those seeking easy riches were soon discouraged and lured by reports of gold discoveries elsewhere. Yukon's economy shifted from gold to other minerals beginning in when its first hard rock mine started silver and lead production at Keno Hill in the central Yukon.
The remote location and rugged landscape of the Yukon as well as volatile world market for minerals hindered development and prevented stability in the mining industry.
The Yukon contributed several hundred men to the Canadian effort during the First World War despite having a population of roughly 7, in The exodus of so many men had a detrimental effect on the economy of the territory, causing labour shortages and forcing some mines to restrict operations. High fur prices made trapping an important seasonal activity in the interwar years for Aboriginal peoples and prospectors, in the absence of any other industry. The fur trade also helped create a nascent tourist industry drawing in wealthy big-game hunters.
This spurred the construction of the Alaska Highway, the Canol pipeline and a better road infrastructure as a means of shoring up defenses in the region. These controversial projects expedited new mineral exploration activity as well as bringing people, services, industries and tourists to the Yukon. With the highway came a permanent non-Aboriginal population that outnumbered Yukon's indigenous peoples for the first time.
Yukon's capital was transferred from Dawson to Whitehorse in , two years after the initial announcement.
In , a major hydroelectric plant was built in Whitehorse. The largest economic development in the postwar years was the opening of a major open-pit lead-zinc mine and town at Faro in Low metal prices and the recession in the mids resulted in mine closures throughout the Yukon, and increased government efforts to strengthen other economic sectors such as tourism and renewable resource development.
Primary resource extraction has always been the foundation of the Yukon economy. Furs, the original trading commodity, continue to be harvested and exported. Although of declining importance to the economy overall, the fur harvest remains a vital source of income. During a brief but hectic period at the turn of the century an active Arctic whaling industry was based on Herschel Island , the only sheltered harbour along the Yukon's Arctic coast. The economy is vulnerable to reversals in mining, for example, in the s all of the major Yukon mines closed due to depressed world markets, resulting in a serious economic crisis and a decline in population.
Farming was significant at the time of the gold rush, but subsequently became negligible because of high costs, low profits, marginal soil, climatic restrictions, topography and improved transportation that lowered the price of agricultural imports. Aided by new technologies and favourable government policy, agriculture has showed slow but steady growth.
Placer gold mining was the mainstay of the Yukon's economy from the time of the Klondike Gold Rush up until the development of silver and lead mines in the Keno Hill area in the early s. Oh, and did we mention the glorious midnight sun and magical northern lights which are such a bucket list item for so many travellers?
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