A Guide to Whitehorse

Dateline: February 11, 2006. Last update: January 12, 2026.

Click on each photo to greatly enlarge it.

Running Whitehorse Rapids. One of these men may be Eugene LaRose, who gained local fame for running the rapids regularly - he and his brother Al were drowned doing it in 1908.

The sternwheeler Casca was one of a large fleet that served Whitehorse until the Alaska Highway and North Klondike Highway were built. See a list of the boats here.

The White Horse Inn, probably most famous for it's bar, known in the 1940s and '50s as the "Bucket of Blood." It was on the northeast corner of Main and Second Streets.

An aerial view of Whitehorse in the 1950s, before construction of the Whitehorse Rapids Dam.

A 1960s view of downtown from the top of the "clay cliffs," location of the airport and the Alaska Highway.

The White Pass & Yukon Route railway station has been the eastern "anchor" of Main Street for over 100 years. This is how it looked in the 1960s.

"White Horse, Alaska. April 25, 1900." This 4-photo panorama was shot by Eric A. Hegg, the official photographer for the White Pass & Yukon Route railway, which was 3 months away from arriving at Whitehorse when this series of photos was shot. Writing "Alaska" instead of "Yukon" was common in those days.

The Capital Hotel, Main Street. Postcard using a painting by Jim Robb, 1991.