Yukon Riverboat Days

Gordon C. Shaw is professor emeritus, Faculty of Administrative Studies,
York University.

Each of the first seven chapters of this delightful book tells the story
of an individual or a family who lived along the Yukon River between
Whitehorse and Dawson in the 1930s or 1940s. Subsequent chapters focus
on the people who served aboard the various Whitepass and Yukon
sternwheel river steamers.

People lived isolated lives along the river. Most found employment in
cutting wood for steamboats or in operating roundhouses. Through her
interviews with many of these individuals and their families, the author
brings an interesting era to life. Steamboat historians will appreciate
the descriptions of life aboard the steamers, and especially the
descriptions of the sinking of the steamers Klondike and Casca, both
lost in 1936. The last chapter tells of the final voyage of the steamer
Keno from Whitehorse to Dawson in 1960.

Yukon Riverboat Days is recommended for steamboat historians and for
anyone interested in life in the Yukon before World War II.