I knew very little about the Northwest Territories, and not a whole lot more about the Yukon, so I searched for books that would fill me in on the roads, history, topography and culture of the region. Most of what has been written is about the 1998 Yukon Gold Rush but I found a few things more focused on the Northwest Territories.

The Roads

The Milepost. This is the definitive mile-by-mile guide for all of the major (paved and unpaved) roads in Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, and the major access routes in Alberta and British Columbia as well. My family used this guide when we drove up to Alaska in 1958, and is updated every year. It includes excellent, easy-to-use maps of all the roads, and lists attractions and points of interest all along each route, including information about campgrounds, hotels and restaurants.

Scenic Driving: Alaska and the Yuklon, 2nd ed., Erik Molvar. The author of this guide is an Alaskan resident and wildlife biologist who has spent a lot of time exploring Alaska and the Yukon. He gives less detail than The Milepost, but provides more interesting information about the history and natural features of the area. He has traveled all of the major roads in Alaska and the Yukon which gives his accounts a personal feel. his descriptions are very informative. This book gave me a good understanding of the geology, topography, and wildlife of country I’ll be riding through.

Yukon and the Gold Rush

The Lost Patrol: The Mounties’ Yukon Tragedy, Dick North. In December, 1910, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police patrol set off  by dogsled on a 475 mile trip from Fort McPherson to Dawson City. They became lost and tragically died only a few miles from where they started. Author North recreates that trip a hundred years later, explaining how that expedition must have unfolded and describing first hand the challenges of navigating and traveling in the frigid north. This book gave me a good idea of what traveling in the Arctic north 100 years ago was like.

Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush 1986-1899, Pierrte Berton. Berton is considered the authority on the Gold Rush. He describes in exquisite and colorful detail what led up to the Gold Rush, the characters involved, the routes prospectors followed, and how things panned out (pun intended) for the many folks involved. As a Canadian, Berton makes interesting comparisons between the mores of Dawson City in the Yukon, and Sakagway in Alaska. I’ll be visiting both on this trip.

Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike, Charlotte Gray. Berton’s Klondike is so full of facts and details that it is easy to lose sight of the larger picture. Gold Diggers tells the story of the Gold Rush through the lives of six different people, including Jack London, a priest, a Mountie, and a business woman.

Northwest Territories

Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage, Brian Castner. In 1789 Alexander Mackenzie traveled the entire length of what is now called the Mackenzie River in an attempt to find a northwest passage. Although Mackenzie considered his trip a failure the river was later named for him. This is Brian Castner’s account of his trip in 2016 retracing Mackenzie’s route in a canoe. In it he gives fascinating details about the river, Canada’s longest with the second largest drainage basin of any river in North America, after the Mississippi. I’ll be crossing the Mackenzie River at Tsiigehtchic soon after entering the Northwest Territories.

Journey: A Novel, James A. Michener.  A great read, Michner follows four Englishmen and their Irish “servant” who attempt to reach the Klondike gold fields using the all-Canada route. Less than 100 miles north of Edmonton the party launched their boat on the Athabasca River which along with the Slave River delivered them to Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, and from there they took the legendary Mackenzie River northward all the way through the Territories before crossing over the mountains to join a tributary of the Yukon River to reach Dawson. This is a riveting story of the hardships of navigating and surviving in the remote Northwest Territories and it gave me a historical context for some of the sites I’ll be seeing on my trip.

Novels

   The Call of the Wild, Jack London

 

 

White Fang, Jack London

 

 

The Yukon Grieves for No One, Lynn M. Berk

 

 

To Die Alone in the Yukon, Lynn M. Berk