We are only a few kilometres from the head of the mighty Yukon River.

There was a time when sternwheelers like this would be hauled out only for the winter, silently waiting for the spring and another season hauling freight and passengers to points of call down river.

Riverboats brought virtually all goods into the region, as well as many passengers.

The SS Klondike was first built in 1929. It sank in 1936, was rebuilt and launched again as the SS Klondike II, the largest and last of the sternwheelers.

While not unique to the Yukon there are few other places where these sternwheelers were used as extensively. These ships were the centrepieces of the Yukon’s transportation system and during a ninety-year period over 250 sternwheelers plied the Yukon River and its tributaries.

After highways and airlines took over transport in the Yukon, the SS Klondike spent a short time as a cruise ship, and finally placed here designated as a National Historic Site of Canada.