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Yukon River
The Yukon River is a major watercourse
of northwestern
North America. Over half of the river lies in the
U.S. state of
Alaska, with the most of the other portion lying in and
giving its name to
Canada's Yukon Territory, and a small part of the river near the
source located in
British Columbia. The river is 3,700 km (2,300 mi) long
and empties into the
Bering Sea at the
Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The average flow is 6,430 m³/s
(227,000 ft³/s).
The total drainage area is 832,700 km² (321,500 mi²),
of which 323,800 km² (126,300 mi²) is in Canada. By
comparison, the total area is more than 25% larger than
Texas or
Alberta.
The longest river in Alaska and the Yukon
Territory, it was one of the principal means of
transportation during the
1896–1903
Klondike Gold Rush. Paddle-wheel
riverboats continued to ply the river until the 1950s,
when the
Klondike Highway was completed.
Yukon means
"great river" in
Gwich'in. The river was called Kwiguk, or "large
stream", in
Yupik. The Lewes River is the former name of the
upper course of the Yukon, from
Marsh Lake to the confluence of the
Pelly River at
Fort Selkirk.
(Source by
Wikipedia)
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