When was the Yukon Territory established?

The Yukon Territory was established on June 13, 1898 when the federal Yukon Territory Act (61 Victoria, c. 6) separated the Yukon district from the North-West Territories. The territory was created during the Klondike Gold Rush partly to assert Canadian sovereignty over the gold-bearing region and partly to provide more responsive administration for the booming territory's population. The Act was passed by Sir Wilfrid Laurier's federal Liberal government and signed by Governor General Lord Aberdeen.

The Yukon district had been part of the North-West Territories since 1870 when Canada acquired Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory from the Hudson's Bay Company. Before 1896 the district had perhaps 500 to 1,000 European residents (mostly fur traders, missionaries, and a small number of miners) and several thousand Indigenous people, including the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, Han, Northern Tutchone, Southern Tutchone, Tagish, Tlingit, Kaska, and Gwich'in nations. The Klondike Gold Rush transformed the region's population almost overnight, with about 30,000 residents by mid-1898 in and around Dawson City alone.

The new Yukon Territory was governed by a Commissioner appointed by the federal government (William Ogilvie was the first, 1898 to 1901), assisted by a partly elected, partly appointed Council. Dawson City was the capital. Major additions to territorial government included the establishment of the partly elected Yukon Council in 1899, full election of the Council in 1908, and the gradual expansion of territorial powers over the 20th century. Whitehorse replaced Dawson City as the capital on April 1, 1953 because Whitehorse had become the territory's economic centre after the construction of the Alaska Highway during World War II.

The Yukon's population peaked during the Gold Rush, fell sharply after 1899, and stabilised at modest levels until the Alaska Highway construction (1942) and post-war mining and tourism revivals. The modern Yukon population is about 45,000 (about 75 per cent in Whitehorse). The Yukon Act was extensively rewritten in 2003 (in force April 1, 2003) to grant the territory province-like powers and remove most federal-government control over natural resources. Land claims with the Yukon's 14 First Nations are largely settled under the 1990 Umbrella Final Agreement and 11 individual final agreements with self-government provisions. Yukon's official languages include English, French, and the eight Indigenous languages of the territory.