Bill's Aviation Log

Today we would spend seeing the sights in Whitehorse. Our first was the Yukon Transportation Museum, which was right by the Whitehorse Airport and right off the Alaska Highway.

Notice the nice weather. I'm wearing a T-shirt in the Yukon!

The DC-3 on the pedastal -- which is a giant weather vane, by the way -- had an interesting history. Built in August of 1942, she spent her first three years flying transport missions in India and China. Starting in 1946, she spent 15 years flying for the Canadian Pacific Airlines as CF-CPY. In 1960 she became a bush plane, hauling supplies north into remote places. From 1966 to 1970 she operated out of Whitehorse. In 1977 the Yukon Flying Club began restoration for permanent display at Whitehorse Airport. Her total time of 31,581 hours is not unusually high for a DC-3 but since most of that time was in the rugged Yukon, it is pretty good!

In 1964 the Canadian Army turned over responsibility for the Alaska Highway to the federal government.

Andy Cruikshank and Clyde Wann founded Yukon's first commercial airline in 1927: Yukon Airways & Exploration Company. The flagship for the company was the Queen of the Yukon, hauling mail and passengers throughout the Yukon. Unfortunately the Queen crashed and was damaged beyond repair only eight months after her inaugural flight. A new Ryan Monoplane was acquired but it only lasted only three months before crashing, killing the pilot. By 1930 Yukon Airways was finished.

This replica Queen of the Yukon was commissioned by the Yukon Government for the Yukon Pavilion at Expo 86, in Vancouver. After the Expo, the Queen was donated to the Transportation Museum.

A diorama of the infamous Chilkoot Pass.

The Klondike Gold Rush (1896–1899) was primarily focused in the region around Dawson City in Yukon and the Yukon River. The most common way to get to Dawson City was by ship to the port of Skagway, then

To be allowed to enter the Klondike and take part in the gold rush, Canadian officials required that stampeders take one ton of provisions with them, to try to ensure they were prepared to survive on the frontier.[6] This was broken down into a year's supply of food, which was half of the weight, and 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of equipment. No traveller could take his supplies across the pass at once, so several trips had to be made in order to transport all needed goods to the destination. Quite often the supplies had to be carried by hand in 50–60-pound packs, as the passes proved to be too narrow for wagons or draft animals. It would take days to complete.

In the winter, workers cut the ice into 1500 steps, which came to be known as the 'Golden Stairs'. The steps were too narrow for more than one person to climb at a time, so the trek was limited to a single-file line up the mountain.

Once over the pass, miners reached Lake Bennett or Lindeman Lake, where they built or bought boats to travel down the Yukon River system. From Lake Bennett → Tagish Lake → Marsh Lake → Yukon River → Whitehorse. The river journey continued beyond Whitehorse to Dawson City, the heart of the goldfields.

From 1900 to 1950, the sternwheelers of the British Yukon Navigation Company plied the upper Yukon River between Whitehorse and Dawson City. The S.S. Klondike was the largest of the fleet and operated between 1937 and 1950. She can be visited in downtown Whitehorse.

Here is a photo of the S.S. Klondike underway.

The Overland Trail was developed as a dependable winter route for mail, passenger and freight service between Whitehorse and Dawson City. In 1902 a trail was built totally overland except for river crossings. The finished trail was 330 miles long. The average trip took five days. Wheeled stages were used in spring through fall; sleights like this one pictured below in the winter months. Buffalo robes kept passengers warm; i.e., from freezing to death.

In 1934, George Simmons formed Northern Airways. Their first airplane was a Fairchild 71. The next a Fokker Super Universal. But in 1938, they bought the speedy Waco, callsign CF-BDZ, pictured here. CF-BDZ's working career was 12 years -- a long time for a bush plane -- including an engine failure causing a landing on a remote frozen lake. In 1949 CF-BDZ was restored, but an engine backfire caused a fire and the plane burned. In 1977 the carcass was dragged out of the willows and muskeg for restoration and display at the Yu7kon Transportation Museum.

CF-BXF was built in the late 1920s, serving a number of coastal and bush operators , flying passengers and servicing logging and coastal communities. Several well-known bush pilots flew her. She was involved in a take-off/sea handling accident at Jervis Inlet in 1963. The airframe was preserved and eventually ended up at the Yukon Transportation Museum where she was restored.

The remnants of one of the three Fokker Super Universals or "Super Fokker" flown by Northern Airways. All three met their demise in non-fatal crashes. This one is CF-AJC. We previously saw one of the three -- CF-AAM -- in the Western Canada Aviaiton Museum in Winnepeg.

Early editions of The Milepost. We had the latest edition for our trip and referred to it frequently.

June 18, 2025 - Driving to Alaska Whitehorse Transportation Museum
Today we would spend seeing the sights in Whitehorse. Our first was the Yukon Transportation Museum, which was right by the Whitehorse Airport and right off the Alaska Highway. Notice the nice weather. I'm wearing a T-shirt in the Yukon! The DC-3 on the pedastal -- which is a giant weather vane, by the way -- had an interesting history. Built in August of 1942, she spent her first three years flying transport missions in India and China. Starting in 1946, she spent 15 years flying for the Canadian Pacific Airlines as CF-CPY. In 1960 she became a bush plane, hauling supplies north into remote places. From 1966 to 1970 she operated out of Whitehorse. In 1977 the Yukon Flying Club began restoration for permanent display at Whitehorse Airport. Her total time of 31,581 hours is not unusually high for a DC-3 but since most of that time was in the rugged Yukon, it is pretty good!



Here we go!

In 1946, the American Army turned over responsibility for the Alaska Highway to the Canadian Army.

In 1964 the Canadian Army turned over responsibility for the Alaska Highway to the federal government.

Nice map of the Yukon. Whitehorse is at bottom center marked with a star. Dawson City, where the Klondike gold rush was centered, is about halfway up the Yukon Territory, on the west side. The Yukon River and Klondike River run from Whitehorse to Dawson City. The Alaska Highway, marked in yellow, is at lower left.

Inside the museum, a room all about aviation in the Yukon.

Models of historic Yukon aircraft.

The Queen of the Yukon hangs overhead. If it looks similar to Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, that's because the Spirit and the Queen were both Ryan Brougham B-1 Monoplanes. Where Lindbergh carried tanks for fuel up front, the Queen of the Yukon had a passenger cabin, complete with wicker seats.

Andy Cruikshank and Clyde Wann founded Yukon's first commercial airline in 1927: Yukon Airways & Exploration Company. The flagship for the company was the Queen of the Yukon, hauling mail and passengers throughout the Yukon. Unfortunately the Queen crashed and was damaged beyond repair only eight months after her inaugural flight. A new Ryan Monoplane was acquired but it only lasted only three months before crashing, killing the pilot. By 1930 Yukon Airways was finished.

This replica Queen of the Yukon was commissioned by the Yukon Government for the Yukon Pavilion at Expo 86, in Vancouver. After the Expo, the Queen was donated to the Transportation Museum.



A diorama of the infamous Chilkoot Pass. The Klondike Gold Rush (1896–1899) was primarily focused in the region around Dawson City in Yukon and the Yukon River. The most common way to get to Dawson City was by ship to the port of Skagway, then To be allowed to enter the Klondike and take part in the gold rush, Canadian officials required that stampeders take one ton of provisions with them, to try to ensure they were prepared to survive on the frontier.[6] This was broken down into a year's supply of food, which was half of the weight, and 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of equipment. No traveller could take his supplies across the pass at once, so several trips had to be made in order to transport all needed goods to the destination. Quite often the supplies had to be carried by hand in 50–60-pound packs, as the passes proved to be too narrow for wagons or draft animals. It would take days to complete. In the winter, workers cut the ice into 1500 steps, which came to be known as the 'Golden Stairs'. The steps were too narrow for more than one person to climb at a time, so the trek was limited to a single-file line up the mountain. Once over the pass, miners reached Lake Bennett or Lindeman Lake, where they built or bought boats to travel down the Yukon River system. From Lake Bennett → Tagish Lake → Marsh Lake → Yukon River → Whitehorse. The river journey continued beyond Whitehorse to Dawson City, the heart of the goldfields.

Can you imagine having to pack your supplies up the snow-covered mountain? Multiple times? Those miners were tough! By 1900, the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway connected Skagway directly to Whitehorse (about 110 miles), replacing the dangerous trail routes. After that, goods and people could move much faster and safer.

Whitehorse was the head of navigable waters on the Yukon River. Sternwheelers plied the river during the summer season (May to October), hauling freight and passengers from Whitehorse to Dawson City and to all points in between.

From 1900 to 1950, the sternwheelers of the British Yukon Navigation Company plied the upper Yukon River between Whitehorse and Dawson City. The S.S. Klondike was the largest of the fleet and operated between 1937 and 1950. She can be visited in downtown Whitehorse. Here is a photo of the S.S. Klondike underway.

A fascinating model of the S.S. Klondike. The model was constructed by hand and from scratch by Pieter Oerlemans. Building materials include 2,000 popsicle sticks and 200 bamboo skewers. It took 3,000 hours to build!

The Overland Trail was developed as a dependable winter route for mail, passenger and freight service between Whitehorse and Dawson City. In 1902 a trail was built totally overland except for river crossings. The finished trail was 330 miles long. The average trip took five days. Wheeled stages were used in spring through fall; sleights like this one pictured below in the winter months. Buffalo robes kept passengers warm; i.e., from freezing to death.

All sorts of treasures in this room!

Overhead hangs a homebuilt Smith DSA-1. DSA stands for Darned Small Airplane. The mini-biplane was built by Herman Peterson and his wife Doris in the 1960s and first flew in 1967. Peterson was a bush pilot and maintenance engineer. The Petersons donated the plane to the museum in 2004.

In 1934, George Simmons formed Northern Airways. Their first airplane was a Fairchild 71. The next a Fokker Super Universal. But in 1938, they bought the speedy Waco, callsign CF-BDZ, pictured here. CF-BDZ's working career was 12 years -- a long time for a bush plane -- including an engine failure causing a landing on a remote frozen lake. In 1949 CF-BDZ was restored, but an engine backfire caused a fire and the plane burned. In 1977 the carcass was dragged out of the willows and muskeg for restoration and display at the Yu7kon Transportation Museum.

Lynnette and a Fairchild 71 in the colorful Northern Airways livery.

CF-BXF was built in the late 1920s, serving a number of coastal and bush operators , flying passengers and servicing logging and coastal communities. Several well-known bush pilots flew her. She was involved in a take-off/sea handling accident at Jervis Inlet in 1963. The airframe was preserved and eventually ended up at the Yukon Transportation Museum where she was restored.

The remnants of one of the three Fokker Super Universals or "Super Fokker" flown by Northern Airways. All three met their demise in non-fatal crashes. This one is CF-AJC. We previously saw one of the three -- CF-AAM -- in the Western Canada Aviaiton Museum in Winnepeg.

As you might expect, many aircraft went down in the rugged Yukon wilderness. If that happened, and you were lucky enough to survive the crash, you were in a serious life-threatening situation. This exhibit describes one such case, where a Howard DGA-15 went down 74 miles southeast of Watson Lake in early February 1963. The pilot and passenger were injured but then had to survive in minus 40 degree temperatures with no survival gear and little food. They managed to survive 49 days until March 25 when they were finally spotted and rescued. The passenger, Helen Klaben, wrote a book about it called "Hey, I'm Alive". Now, pilots are required carry survival equipment. Also, with satellite-based personal locator beacons and breadcrumb trackers, there is a good chance you will be rescued within days, if not hours.

Seal-skin kayak.

Birch bark canoe.

One of the weapons that won World War II for the allies: the Truck. This is a 1942 Chevy G7106 Dump Truck, used in the building of the Alaska Highway.

In 1945, the British Yukon Navigation Company (BYN) a twice weekly service between Dawson Creek and Whitehorse on the new Alaska Highway. They used a 20-passenger bus, called Pony Cruisers, like ht eone pictured below. Think airline travel is bad now? It took two days and three nights to make the trip from Dawson Creek to Whitehorse!

The snowmobile was invented by Joseph-Armand Bombardier, a Canadian mechanic and inventor, in 1935. Bombardier built the first practical snowmobile — a vehicle that could travel over snow using tracks instead of wheels — in his small garage in Valcourt, Québec. He later founded Bombardier Inc., which became famous for producing Ski-Doo snowmobiles starting in the late 1950s. Before Bombardier’s design, there had been earlier experimental snow-going vehicles, but his invention was the first commercially successful and mass-produced snowmobile. Here is an example of one of the earliest snowmobiles: a 1969 Bombardier Olympique 335 Ski-Doo.



Early editions of The Milepost. We had the latest edition for our trip and referred to it frequently.

Whitehorse Airport terminal was just behind the Transportation Museum so we walked over to take a look. You can just see the Tower behind those trees.

We checked out the inside of the Terminal, which obviously gets a lot of use. Lots of scheduled commercial flights come into and out of Whitehorse. There is an eatery upstairs where you can get sandwiches and drinks. An Air North 737 -- Yukon's airline -- is pulled up at the terminal. Based in Whitehorse, Yukon, Air North offers service to the northern communities of Dawson, Old Crow, and Inuvik. There is also service to Victoria, Vancouver, Kelowna, Edmonton, and Calgary, with seasonal routes to Yellowknife, Toronto, and Ottawa.

General aviation overnight parking is to the right. Whitehorse would be a good stop to overnight as there is a hotel and restaurant an easy walk across the street, which is the Alaska Highway.

An aerial picture of Whitehorse taken in 1941. A gravel runway would have existed up on the bluff. Four sternwheelers are tied up along shore.

An aerial picture of Whitehorse city and airport taken in 1962, looking south. Notice how the airport sits up on a bluff overlooking the city. The Alaska Highway runs north to south at far right. At left is the Yukon River.


	Previous	Home	Next

June 18, 2025 - Driving to Alaska Whitehorse Transportation Museum

June 18, 2025 - Driving to Alaska
Whitehorse Transportation Museum