The Yukon is the principal river of Alaska. It is one of the greatest
and most scenic rivers in the world. It is approximately 2,300 miles
long (from the headwaters of the Lewes River), in its middle and lower
courses ranges at times with its sloughs to several miles in breadth,
and includes many hundreds of islands of its own formation. Its scenery
is still essentially primeval, affected but little by human occupation
or industry. It has, in fact, gone considerably back in these respects
since the gold rush was over.
This great stream has been known to the white man for less than a
century. Cook, in September of 1778, sailed near, discovering Stuart
Island and Cape Stephens of the St. Michael Island, but missed the
river.
In 1829 P. E. Chistiakof, director (1826-1830) of the Russian-American
colonies, sent the naval officer Vasilief to explore the coasts between
the Alexander Redoubt (at the mouth of the Nushagak) and the Shaktol
or Norton Sound, and in 1830 Vasilief explored the larger part of the
Kuskokwim River, of which the Russians knew already from their earlier
explorers. Here they heard of an even greater stream to the north.
In 1831, on the recommendation of Vasilief, Michail Dmitrievich
Tebenkof was sent to Norton Sound with the view of further exploration
and the establishing of a post in that region. Tebenkof discovered
that Cape Stephens was not a part of the mainland but of an island;
and he built here a fortified post which in honor of his patron saint
is called St. Michael, a name which subsequently passed to the whole
island. The post was to serve both trade and further exploration.
From St. Michael, at the end of 1834, a small party is sent out under
the leadership of an educated "kreol" (son of a native mother and
Russian father), Andrei Glazunof, and on January 26, 1835, they reach
the good-sized Indian village of Anvik, on the Kwikhpak, or Yukon.[15]
From here Glazunof travels down the river to the large village of
Aninulykhtykh-pak (above Holy Cross), the last Indian (as distinguished
from Eskimo) village down the river, whence Glazunof sends most of his
party back to St. Michael and himself proceeds to the Kuskokwim.
In 1836 the Russians effect the first settlement on the Yukon, at
Ikogmiut (Zagoskin, 6), later known as the Russian Mission.
In 1838 Malakof, over land portage, reaches Nulato and builds there
a trading post, which, during his absence the next winter, is burned
by the natives. In 1841 Dieriabin rebuilds and fortifies this post,
becomes its headman, and is there eventually (1851) killed by the
Indians.
In 1841 Lieut. Laurenti Alexief Zagoskin is delegated to explore the
"Kwikhpak," with its portages to the Kotzebue Sound, and the Kuskokwim
River; and in 1843 he navigates and maps 600 miles of the Yukon, or
from about the mouth of the Apkhun (northern) pass to the mouth of the
Novitna River, with approximately 100 miles of each, from their mouth,
of the Koyukuk and of the Ittege (or Innoko) Rivers.
The Russian post at Nulato remains until the sale of their American
dominions by the Russians to the United States in 1867. From it and
from St. Michael individual Russian traders ranged over the river and
its lower affluents, but there was no further noteworthy scientific
exploration. In 1863, however, Lukin, who after Vasilief and Kolmakof
helped to explore the Kuskokwim, reached to Fort Yukon.
Meanwhile the river has been visited by both the English and the
Americans. In 1847 Mr. Bell, of the Hudson Bay Co., having heard of the
great stream from some of the Indians who visited the fort on Peels
River, set out in quest of it, accompanied by a native guide, and
reached it by the Rat and the Porcupine Rivers.[16]
Between 1843 and 1867 the river in its lower and middle reaches is
freely traversed by the Russian traders. In 1851 Nulato is reached by
Lieutenant Barnard, of H. M. S. _Enterprise_, in search of Franklin,
only to be massacred there with some of the Russians and natives by the
offended Indians of the Koyukuk. In 1861 Robert Kennicott traverses
a part of the Yukon, and in 1865 he, with Capt. Charles S. Bulkley,
leads there the expedition of the Western Union Telegraph Co., which is
accompanied by William H. Dall and Frederick Whymper, and results in
much information. Already, however, in 1863, Strahan Jones, commander
of the Peels River Fort, has descended the Yukon to the mouth of
the Novitna River or the uppermost point reached by Zagoskin, thus
completing its identification as one and the same great stream. This
point and the Tanana mark the westernmost penetration by the English
(the Hudson Bay Co.).
In 1865 begin American explorations proper. In that year, under an
agreement with the Russians, Maj. Robert Kennicott, heading a party
of the Western Union Telegraph explorers, crosses from St. Michael to
Nulato. Kennicott dies in Nulato a year later, but the explorations are
carried on to result eventually in a series of valuable publications,
more particularly by Dall and Whymper.[17]
The researches under the auspices of the Western Union Telegraph Co.,
themselves backed by the Government, are followed by explorations under
the direct auspices of the American Government. Thus, in 1869 there is
a reconnaissance of the river by Capt. C. W. Raymond; in 1883, that by
Lieut. Frederick Schwatka; in 1885 by Lieut. Henry T. Allen; in 1898
by Capt. W. P. Richardson; and these are succeeded by the geological
surveys of A. H. Brooks and companions.[18]
From 1878 on commenced placer and mining explorations for gold in
Alaska leading gradually to the eventual great gold rush of the later
nineties, which brought a whole flotilla of large river steamers and
other craft to the Yukon and led to a rapid growth of some of the old
and the establishment of a number of new settlements along its banks.
The rash passed in turn, many of the miners and others departed, boats
became idle and were beached or taken to the St. Michael ship "bone
yard," where, together with most of the buildings, they are now (1926)
being broken up; and the Yukon has reverted in a large measure to its
former primeval, dormant, lonely state.
Such, in brief, is the white man's history of the Yukon, with all of
which the river remains but half known, at best. It has never been
fully surveyed, which would be a vast and unending task. It contains
a large number of barely known little tributaries that are lost in
the jungle-covered flats with their many pools and lakes. It has
innumerable islands and channels, in which the traveler is easily lost,
and it cuts and builds constantly during the open season. Its valley is
squally and rainy. The stream may one moment be like a great, liquid,
softly flowing mirror, to be in a few minutes churned into an ugly and
dangerous roughness from which every smaller boat must seek shelter.
Its shores are inhospitable, except for the native fisherman and
hunter, and torment man with swarms of gnats and mosquitoes.
But there is no malaria; no snakes or other poisonous things. And
when the weather is decent the water, the wooded shores, and the
fresh, clean virginal parklike islands have a greatness and charm that
compensate for much. Besides which there is the still more intensive
allure of original exploration. Botany, zoology, and above all
paleontology, find here still a fruitful field, while for anthropology,
and especially archeology, the land is still largely a terra incognita.