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ORIGINS OF THE POSTAL SERVICE
IN THE YUKON
Until July 1, 1898, the mail service between Skagway, Alaska and Dawson was handled exclusively by the NWMP.15 The Canadian Post Office Department then contracted P.C. Richardson to carry letter mail between Juneau and the Alaska boundary, twice a month for four years, and to serve all Canadian post offices along the route.16 (Richardson was already under contract with the United States government for the transportation of mail between Juneau and Circle City, Alaska, via Yukon.) By December 1898, however, this agreement was no longer viable: Richardson had subcontracted the work to the Arctic Express Co., and now lacked the funds to pay the company.17
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Mr. Downing with His U.S. Mail Team;
Nome, Alaska-Dawson, Yukon
Photo: Kinsey & Kinsey
© Public domain
National Library and National Archives
of Canada, C-018638
The U.S. government opened a post office in Nome on June 8, 1899. The mail left there, travelled through Fort Gibbon, Fort Yukon, Circle City, Eagle and Dawson, and finally reached Skagway by the main mail route. |
Once again, the NWMP assumed responsibility for the mail service in the Yukon. On November 9, 1899, Ottawa instructed the NWMP to arrange a fortnightly mail run, up to 700 pounds
[300 kilos] each way, between Bennett, British Columbia and Dawson.18 In addition to this, by 1899, "there were a number of private express services, often by a single man with a dog-team, which operated around the creeks and now and again went outside (these areas) with mail during the winter. In the summer there was little call for an express service for mail, as steamers came constantly up and down the river with mail."19
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