How did whitehorse got its name?

Answer 1

Whitehorse got it's name from the Whitehorse rapids in the Yukon River.

Not quite! I'm not sure why EVERY thing that is printed about how White Horse was named is about the rapids. That is not true!

My father, who is 93 today, was raised with a gentleman, Mr. Billy Young, who was in the gold rush and ended up settling in Chicken, Alaska for quite a few years. Later he moved back to Michigan where he lived with my great-grandfather. Billy was very respected and his picture is in many of the pictures that are popular of the gold rush. He died the year I was born, so I was never fortunate enough to hear the passion in his voice when he told of his adventures as my father was. My father has letters of Billy's, much of his gold panning articles, and has relayed those stories of Billy's on to those who would hear. He is currently in the process of having a book published about Billy's adventures, complete with many of the pictures from his gold rush days.

So many times Billy told my father about his trecks in gold country. One of the adventures he would tell of was going over the Chilkoot Pass and the many things that happened. The many men that were lost... and the many animals - mainly horses - that were worked to death on nearly no food. There was no time to bury the animals - and often no way because of the frozen ground. Billy's accounting of his experiences were accurate and never wavered. One of those experiences was the passing on of directions back down the line of prospective miners after making the rapids. "When you get to the dead white horse in by the river..." "When you get to the white horse..." "...dead white horse..."

In 1991, my father and I spent a month between Skagway and Chicken, Alaska. We spend a couple of days in White Horse and a few days in Dawson City. We were totally shocked and amazed at how the history maintained in White Horse was not totally the true way it was.

White Horse was NOT named because of the rapids. It was named so because that was where the dead white horse was located that gave them the direction as to which way to go.. where to "hunker down."

Possibly people who are writing the falsehoods of the history are those who don't want to offend people with the true details... and who would rather be "politically correct!"

Sorry, folks!! Real life is not politically correct! Real life can be ugly, violent, and cruel. I don't believe in political correctness. I believe in the truth. Say what you want about the rapids... I almost fell into them... but don't give them the credit for the name White Horse.