There are a great many placer miners, prospectors and others who are planning on going to the newly discovered Iditarod country early in the spring, and those who contemplate such a trip, the carefully prepared information we are giving below will prove beneficial in many ways. The figures quoted are reliable and are taken from the actual experience of others who have made the trip via this route.
Many misleading articles are no doubt published regarding the most feasible spring and summer route to the Iditarod, but when a careful comparison is made, one can see at a glance that the route from Vancouver or Seattle via Skagway and Whitehorse is not only the quickest but also by far the cheapest, and by taking this route you will arrive at your destination thirty to thirty five days sooner than by any other.
To those intending to make this trip by row boats before the Upper and
Lower Yukon river and streams tributary thereto are navigable for large steamers, we give the following table of time required for the trip via the Skagway-Whitehorse route:
Vancouver or Seattle to Skagway by steamer three and one half days - Skagway to Whitehorse by train one day. From Whitehorse by row boat to Dawson five days, Dawson to Ft. Yukon four days, Ft. Yukon to Ft. Gibbon four days, Ft. Gibbon to mouth of
Innoka river or Shageluk slough leading up to the Iditarod diggings three days.
This mode of travel would take about twenty or twenty one days from Vancouver or Seattle to mouth of the Innoka river or Shageluk slough, and upon arriving at the mouth of the Innoka with your own boat you would oot be deluyed at that point waiting for a steamer up the river and could save time and expense by poling up the river in your own boat.
The cost of making the trip in this manner would be: Transportation
from Seattle or Vancouver to Whitehorse, firstclass $50, secondclass $40.
At Whitehorse you can purchase a row boat at from $20 to $35 (according
to size) specially built for use on the Yukon river. These boats will accommodate from three to five persons with the baggage and supplies.
Every spring: before the rivers are navigable for large steamers, there are hundreds of men who leave Whitehorse in these row boats for down river points, thus arriving at their destination from two to three weeks ahead of those who wait for steamers.
These row boats can leave Whitehorse any time after April 27th.
To those who wish to wait for the opening of Steamboat navigation on the
upper Yukon river we give the following table of time required:
Vancouver or Seattle by steamer to Skagway three and half days, Skagway to Whitehorse by train one day, Whitehorse to Dawson by steamer 40 hours, Dawson to mouth of Innoka river or Shageluk slough six days.
By this mode of traveling it would take from twelve aod a half to thirteen days from Vancouver or Seattle to the mouth of the Innoka river, by making
close connections.
Each spring steamers leave Lower Lebarge for Dawson between the 8th and 10th of May.
The cost of outfitting at Whitehorse is no more than at any point in Alaska or Yukon. The merchants here carry complete and up-to-date stocks and just the class of goods you would require.
For speed, safety and economy the spring and summer route via Skagway
and Whitehorse is the ideal one and we offer the above for comparison with any other route.
Anyone desiring information regarding the Skagway- Whitehorse route can
obtain same by communicating with the Secretary of the Whitehorse Board of Trade.
