This sign on the North Klondike Highway at Stewart Crossing describes the development of the Mayo Road, part of which is now Yukon Highway 11, The Silver Trail:
The first overland road between Whitehorse and Dawson City was constructed in 1902. This road was extended in 1914 from Minto to Mayo Landing. Until the 1920s, the Overland Trail was a winter road that accommodated wheeled horse-drawn coaches when the ground was frozen and sleighs during the height of the winter. Over time, the horse-drawn vehicles were replaced by trucks or small cats (tracked vehicles). In the 1930s, a cat train travelling day and night from Whitehorse took seven to eight days to reach Mayo.
As silver ore production in the region rose, the sternwheelers were sometimes unable to clear the backlog of freight and there was a need for an all-season overland route. The first all-weather road between Whitehorse and the Mayo mining district was completed in 1950 and ferries were installed on the new route at the Pelly, Stewart and Yukon rivers. United Keno Hills Mines maintained the road from 1953 to 1957 when the government took it over. By the late 1950s, all of the ore concentrate was being shipped by road and the golden age of Yukon sternwheelers was over.
