What's Up Yukon contributor Doug Sack, 71, is the former sports editor of the Yukon News and the Whistler Question and longtime columnist for Ski Canada magazine. Before that, he was young.
You should check out Doug's six-part series "The Yukon's Magnificent 11" on Yukon highways.
Issue: 2018-10-17, PHOTO: Danny Macdonald
Hello Everybody, We invite you to share your photos of Yukon life. Email your high-resolution images with a description of what’s going on to editor@WhatsUpYukon.com. Read more
Issue: 2019-04-17, PHOTO: Jubilee and Munin via Foter.com
You may have noticed the above quotation comes to you without attribution. That’s for good reason. Nobody seems to know who muttered it or even if it was ever uttered at all. The Tower ravens of London are arguably the most famous birds in history... Read more
Issue: 2019-03-20, PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons / Paul Gustave Doré
Very few writers throughout history have bonded with their subjects quite like Edgar Allan Poe and the Yukon’s territorial bird. His renowned 1845 poem, The Raven, a critical success, but financial failure, cemented man and bird into one entity to... Read more
Issue: 2019-03-06, PHOTO: Charles Horton Metcalf Photograph Collection, 1896-1899 / Wikimedia Commons
No, her name wasn’t Klondike Kate, the Oregon Mare, Bombay Peggy or the (immortalized by Robert W. Service) “Lady that’s known as Lou.” She and her husband Albert were in the fabrication and construction business in Seattle... Read more
Issue: 2019-02-27, PHOTO: Chris English via Wikimedia Commons
One of my many favourite Bill Reid carvings, Raven and the First Men, is part of a Haida creation myth which is permanently displayed in the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia... Read more
Issue: 2019-02-13, PHOTO: Alaska State Library/Alaska Territorial Governors Photograph Collection
“I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them, of our Bill of Rights.” It was her Russian name that grabbed my attention as I was casually... Read more
Issue: 2019-01-16, PHOTO: courtesy of Bob Hayes
“They were down to just four humans and a wolf puppy named Zhoh.” A funny thing happened in the two years between the ending of Book 1 of the Bob Hayes’ Zhoh trilogy, The Clan of the Wolf, and the beginning of Book 2, The Spirit of the Wolf... Read more
Issue: 2018-10-17, PHOTO: MacBride Museum Collection, 1990.29.1.60
On October 23, 1918, at 10:10 p.m., over three hours later than scheduled, the CPR vessel S.S. Princess Sophia (So-PHY-Ya) piloted by Captain Leonard Locke, departed Skagway with at least 353 passengers and crew, the exact number unknown because... Read more
Issue: 2018-10-10, PHOTO: Pixabay
This quiet, reserved and thoughtful corner of the year-round Yukon has gone to the birds this week, namely Arctic terns, the all-time migratory champions, not only of the bird kingdom but also the entire non-human animal world, including bugs and... Read more
Issue: 2018-09-26, PHOTO: Adam Jones via Wikimedia Commons
Driving to Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. (located on Kugmallit Bay of the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean), is no big deal. Canadians have been doing it for many years on the annual winter ice roads that used to run down the Mackenzie Delta, from Inuvik... Read more
Don Davis/NASA, via Wikimedia Commons
Grandpa, if a giant asteroid was on target to collide with Earth and everyone knew the exact day and time of the explosion to blow up the planet, where would you want to go camping for the last night? Read more
Primary Source: Hougen's History, a CKRW Yukon nugget by Les McLaughlin
It's a story many times told but never gets old, this tale of Kate and Otto Partridge of Ben-My-Chree, which is Manx for "Girl of my Heart" and is the greatest love story in the history of the Yukon. Read more
Credit: courtesy of the Government of Yukon
There is a precise and exact spot on the Alaska Highway between Watson Lake and Teslin, a little way northwest of Rancheria, where you cross the Continental Divide for the last time on your long journey to the northern hinterlands of our continent. Read more
Issue: 2018-08-01, PHOTO: Sue Meikle on behalf of the ElderActive Recreation Association
"The Territory exploded onto the scene in 2004..."When the Canada Senior Games (CSG) were inaugurated on a small scale in Regina in 1996, the Yukon Territory was nowhere to be found because "Yukoners hadn't heard about these Games yet," according... Read more
Issue: 2018-07-18, PHOTO: courtesy of the Government of Yukon
All Yukon RV campgrounds were not created equal. The territorial government operates and services 42 campgrounds from Watson Lake to Rock River on the Dempster, and Snag Junction on the Alcan, but the Feds (Parks Canada) have just one, Kathleen... Read more
Issue: 2018-07-04, PHOTO: Becauseeditor via wikimedia commons
Sammy Shelor, 55, of Meadows of Dan, Virginia, in the central Blue Ridge Mountains of northwestern North Carolina and southwestern Virginia, was literally born to play banjo on October 10, 1962. Both of his grandfathers were banjo pickers; and one... Read more
Issue: 2018-06-27, PHOTO: Jerry E and Roy Klotz via Wikimedia Commons
Of all the cities, towns and villages in northwestern Canada, Atlin's journey through the turbulent 20th century was more dramatic than most. It went from a golden boom town, in 1898, to a burnt-down town in 1901, then another boom until the fire... Read more
Issue: 2018-06-06, PHOTO: Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygren, U.S. Government
There are so many good places in Alaska to go RV camping; it's a bit of a fool's errand to select just one to kick off our new six-part summer series on RV Hotspots in Alaska, Yukon, northern B.C. and N.W.T. That is the challenge at hand—a dirty... Read more
Issue: 2018-05-23, PHOTO: Pixabay
Recently, while researching the census statistics accompanying an editorial in the spring issue of Sourdough Chronicle (YCOAYukon.com), I was astonished to learn that the Yukon Territory currently is without a card-carrying centenarian, male or... Read more
Issue: 2018-05-16, PHOTO: courtesy of the Government of Yukon
Quiz Question In 1884, Haines, Alaska was named for: A. A sea captain B. An Army general C. A female missionary D. A trading company governor E. A reclusive fur trapper Read more
Issue: 2018-04-18, PHOTO: courtesy of the Government of Yukon
The Top of the World Highway is neither on top of the world nor is it a highway, but is certainly one of the most memorable drives in both Alaska and the Yukon. Technically, it runs 127 kilometres from Jack Wade Junction in Alaska, which is the... Read more