The scenic city of Whitehorse is located in the province of Yukon in Canada. It is not only the capital of the province, but also the largest city with a population of nearly 28,000. The area of the city is only around 415 square kilometres. Whitehorse is located in the Alaska Highway in the southern part of the Yukon. Which kind of makes it sound more like a truck stop, but I assure you it isn't.
The city straddles the lovely Yukon River, and occupies both banks. The city was actually given its name from the nearby White Horse Rapids, which many at the time thought reassembled the mane of a white horse.
The city has an amazing history. Like many cities in North America it was caught up in the Gold Rush Fever. Once gold had been discovered in nearby Klondike in 1896, the steamships arrived by the hundreds in 1897, packed full of would be millionaires both from the US and abroad. Subsequently Whitehorse seemed like a good place to set up camp, in the search for gold.
Then by mid -June in 1898 there were stampeders buy the tens of thousands. The White Horse Rapids had destroyed many boats, and five people had also lost their lives to a watery grave. Not only was gold discovered, but copper, up in the hills to the west of Whitehorse. Then with the construction of the railway which linked Whitehorse to Skagway in the United States.
All of a sudden The Whitehorse Star, the name of the train that ran the line was starting to boom moving freight in and out of the city. It wasn't until 1942 that the US Department of Defence decided that a road would be a much safer method om transporting both troops and provisions between the US mainland and Whitehorse. Subsequently construction of the Alaska Highway began. A staggering 2,500 kilometres of highway was completed in just eight months. Prior to this time, the only way of accessing the city was via train, air or sea.
Due to the fact that Whitehorse is located in the Whitehorse Valley, the overall climate is much milder than other Yukon communities such as Yellowknife for example. During winter you will find that the days are extremely short, but in summer it is not uncommon to get over twenty hours of daylight every day.
As Whitehorse is definitely one of the smaller cities, it doesn't necessarily have a massive range of tourist attractions, but what they do have is well worth the visit. These attractions include the Takhini Hot Springs, the Miles Canyon Basalts, the Whitehorse Trolley, Lake Laberge, the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre, Schwatka Lake, the Copperbelt Railway and Mining Museum and the Yukon Arts Centre.