Dateline: December 1, 2025.
On November 28, 2025, I received an email with the subject line "Moving the SS Klondike in 1966." Expecting a question, I opened it to find an offer to share memories from 59 years ago:
I've been reading your Explore North web pages while digging out more
information about old family slides.
I've been looking through old family slides and have 3 color pictures of
the Klondike being moved through Whitehorse on July 7, 1966. One picture
shows it behind a Chevron station and Taylor & Drury Motors.
I was just shy of four years old then and don't remember much of that
trip, but have the full collection of family slides and transcribed
family travel diary. We drove an IH Travelall from New Jersey to Alaska
along the Alaska Highway (gravel at that time), through Dawson, and
returned via the Alaska Marine Highway System through Haines. We hauled
a popup trailer the whole distance.
If you are interested in seeing the pictures, please reply to let me know.
We also have photos of the Aksala and Neecheah when they were at mile 900.
Michael Drews
I, of course, replied immediately that I would love to see them, and the next day received the 20 photos you'll see below, in very high resolution, 5-6 MB each.
I posted one (the sternwheeler Aksala sitting along the Alaska Highway at Mile 900) on my 22,000-member Yukon History & Abandoned Places (YHAP) group and it got a wonderful reaction - as of this morning (December 2nd), 5,600 people have seen it, 305 have "Liked" it in various ways, and there are 52 comments. Last night I posted all 20.
Posting on Facebook and here have different purposes. Facebook is the place to get a whole lot of people to see them, while ExploreNorth is a permanent record and allows me to more easily post a lot of information with the photos, such as links to boat biographies.
The timing of the Drews' arrival at Whitehorse was perfect to capture some significant events in the lives of some of the riverboats. Here, the Neecheah at Mile 900 of the Alaska Highway - Ted Ter Voert bought it in 1958 and moved it here with plans to turn it into a cafe.
The superstructure of the sternwheeler Aksala at Mile 900 - it was planned to be the centre block of a motel. It was demolished, but the wheelhouse to the left was saved and restored by a Whitehorse resident.
A classic portrait of the sternwheelers Casca and Whitehorse. Both boats burned on June 21, 1974 - the cause was never determined.
"The vessels Casca, Whitehorse and Klondike are being preserved as historical relics by the Government of Canada, through the courtesy of the White Pass & Yukon Route. In due course they will be set up in a riverside park for the enjoyment of the public;in the meantime you will assist in this project if you do not climb on the vessels."
The 54-foot launch Loon was built for the British Yukon Navigation Company in 1922, designed to work between Whitehorse and Lake Lebarge, particularly for freight in the spring. She was put on the ways in 1947, and is now privately owned, with restoration planned.
White Pass & Yukon Route passenger car #258, Lake Kluahne, 45 feet long and seating 38 people, was built in 1893.
Taylor & Drury Motors moved the cars off their lot to allow the boat to pass through.
One of the "log skyscrapers" built on Lambert Street by Martin Berrigan. A two-storey one was built in 1946, then this one was completed in 1949.
The sternwheeler Keno was sailed from Whitehorse to Dawson in August 1960.
This is the International Travelall and popup trailer that the Drews family drove.
Approaching the ferry landing at West Dawson.
Looking back at Dawson from the ferry.
