Yukon
Yukon names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 2 of them are described by more than one encyclopedia.
Yukon the largest stream in the extreme N
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the largest stream in the extreme N. W. portion of the North American continent. It is 2,200 miles in length, the Mackenzie river, near it, being estimated at 2,300 miles. It is the 17th river of the world as to length, the seventh of the Western Hemisphere, the fourth of the North American continent, and the third in the United States. This last assertion is based on its whole length of 2,044 miles, however, but taking only that portion which which is in the United States, or Alaska, 1,260 miles, it is the fifth river of our country, the Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, and Ohio rivers being longer. Its length in navigable miles is 2,036, there being but four rivers in the world with a greater capacity, the Amazon, the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the St. Lawrence. The entire portion lying in the United States (Alaska) of 1,260 miles is navigable by river steamers. The first absolutely impracticable obstruction to navigation is at the Grand Cañon, 1,866 miles from the mouth. The Yukon river rises in Crater Lake, on the E. slopes of the Alaskan coast range (here called Kotusk Mountains), in British Columbia. In a few miles it passes into the British Northwest Territory, flows N. by W. 784 miles, and enters Alaska about lat. 65° N. This direction is kept till the Arctic circle is just reached, when the Yukon river bends suddenly at almost right angles, flows W. by S. about 1,000 miles, and empties into Bering Sea by a delta whose N. and S. mouths are from 80 to 90 miles apart.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a North American river. Its head waters gather in northwestern Canada. The Yukon flows northwesterly through Alaska to a point north of the Arctic Circle . It then turns southwesterly and pursues its course into Bering Sea. From the source of the Lewes in British Columbia to the mouth of the Yukon is a distance of 2,044 miles. The upper portion of the river threads bold mountain scenery; the middle portion is described as flowing through meadows--willow forelands; the lower part of its course winds across a vast and for the most part marshy plain. The mouth is a delta some eighty miles wide. There are many channels. Only the most northerly is deep enough to permit the entrance of ships. The Yukon is navigable for steamboats for a distance of 1,866 miles. It is closed to navigation by ice during eight or nine months in the year. In the summer season regular service is maintained to Dawson in the Klondike district. In length the Yukon is the fourth river of North America . It is the fifth river in the world, branches counted, in the length of navigable waters.
Yukon a territory of the Dominion of Canada
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a territory of the Dominion of Canada . The district was formed from the Northwest territories in 1898. It was named for the river. The land area is about 196,327 square miles; water area, 649 square miles; population in 1905, 27,000. The territory is governed by a commissioner and a council of ten members, five of whom are elected by the citizens. Dawson, on the Yukon River, is the capital. Gold mining is profitable in the Klondike district. Furs are taken by trappers and Indians. Freight is transported chiefly by means of the Yukon River. The Grand Trunk Railway is expected to build to Dawson.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a territory in N. W. British America; formerly a district of the Northwest Territories; created a separate territory in 1898. It the W. portion, and just N. of British Columbia. It was brought into prominence by the discovery in 1897 of immense quantities of gold on the Klondike river and its tributaries. The gold-producing region extends about 80 miles N. and S., and is perhaps 50 miles in width. See KLONDIKE.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 note that "the Grand Trunk Railway is expected to build to Dawson" never came true: no railway ever reached Dawson, and the territory was instead opened up by road, beginning with the Alaska Highway rushed through in 1942 as a wartime project. Dawson lost the capital to Whitehorse in 1953, and the whole territory now holds roughly 45,000 people rather than the 27,000 Aiton's counted in the goldfields alone in 1905; in 2003 the official name was shortened from Yukon Territory to simply Yukon. On the river, Collier's boast of 2,036 navigable miles has been overtaken by highways and by the Whitehorse Rapids dam of the late 1950s, which drowned the rapids the stampeders feared; the river's length is now usually given as about 1,980 miles (3,190 km). The most serious modern change is one no 1921 writer foresaw: the Yukon's Chinook and chum salmon runs have collapsed so far that fishing on them has been closed outright in recent years.
Written for this edition, 2026.