A great barrier looms up a mile ahead – five great irregular blocks of reddish rock ranging across the river like the piers of a bridge – making two principal channels. That on the left is growling ominously over the shallow rocks, so we turn to the right….We turn our prow squarely for the middle of the cleft; a drop, a smash, a few quarts of water over the sides, and we are shot through into the fast current, without even looking back.
(E.T. Adney, The Klondike Stampede of 1897-1898)
If you spend any time at all exploring the Yukon, you will learn about the historical importance of the sternwheelers in maintaining the supply line to the communities along the Yukon River. They were of particular importance in supplying the miners during the Klondike Gold Rush.
But there was one spot along the river between Whitehorse and Dawson City where it was thought to be unnavigable. That spot was Five Finger Rapids.
Initially after gold was discovered in the Klondike, the sternwheelers delivered passengers only to Five Finger Rapids, after which they would have to hire pack horses to take them the rest of the way to their destination. However, it was soon discovered that even the largest of the sternwheelers could navigate the near channel at low water. But at high water, the falls created a two-foot drop, so when the sternwheelers worked up over the rapid, they lost power once the wheel itself left the water. So they devised a system of cables to help pull the sternwheeler through.
This system worked well, except that some sternwheelers were still being damaged by hitting the rock wall. So, as a final solution, over a period of years, the rapid was blasted away and the rock removed, thereby widening the channel by six meters.
