S.S. Keno
SS Keno in dry dock in Dawson City
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | SS Keno |
| Owner: | White Pass and Yukon Route |
| Operator: | British Yukon Navigation Company |
| Port of registry: | Dawson City |
| Launched: | 1922 |
| Completed: | 1922, rebuilt 1937 |
| Maiden voyage: | 15 August 1922 |
| In service: | 1922 |
| Out of service: | 1951 |
| Status: | Berthed in dry dock, Dawson City, Yukon |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Sternwheel paddle steamer |
| Tonnage: | 613.05 tons |
| Length: | 140.6 ft (42.9 m) |
| Beam: | 30.4 ft (9.3 m) |
| Draught: | 3 ft (0.91 m) |
| Decks: | 3 |
| Official name | SS Keno National Historic Site of Canada |
| Designated | 1962 |
The SS Keno is a preserved historic sternwheel paddle steamer and National Historic Site of Canada. The SS Keno is berthed in a dry dock on the waterfront of the Yukon River in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada.
The vessel was constructed in 1922, in Whitehorse, by the British Yukon Navigation Company, a subsidiary of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway company. For most of its career it transported silver, zinc and lead ore down the Stewart River from mines in the Mayo district to the confluence of the Yukon and Stewart rivers at Stewart City. It was retired from commercial service in 1951 due to the extension and improvement of the Klondike Highway in the years after World War II.
Following its withdrawal from service, the SS Keno was laid up at the BYN Co. shipyard in Whitehorse, before being selected for preservation and donated by the company to the Canadian Government in 1959. On 25 August 1960 the Keno left Whitehorse to sail downstream to Dawson City. In doing so she became the last of the Yukon's sternwheeler steamers to navigate the Yukon River under her own power. Three days later she arrived in Dawson and was subsequently installed as a tourist attraction and a permanent memorial to the approximately 250 sternwheelers that provided a vital transport service on the Yukon River and its tributaries during the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
The Yukon River flows for 3,190 km (1,980 mi) through Yukon and Alaska, and its catchment area covers approximately 832,700 km2 (321,500 sq mi). The Yukon's name is derived from a Gwich’in name, meaning "Great River", and the waterway has been used by aboriginal groups in the area for many centuries. From the middle of the 19th century it also formed a major transport link for white trappers, traders and mineral prospectors operating in the region, but its shallow, sinuous and fast flowing nature made navigation difficult. As early as 1869 the Alaska Commercial Company began regular sternwheel paddle steamer services as far upstream as Fort Selkirk, exploting the sternwheeler riverboat design's inherent shallow draught, flexible landing ability and protected paddlewheel to overcome many of the river's challenges. River traffic boomed during the Klondike Gold Rush, and by the end of the 19th century around 60 sternwheelers were in operation on the Yukon.
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