Yukon Field Force

Yukon Field Force
The force on parade in Dawson City, 1900
Active	1898–1900
Country	Canada
Branch	Permanent Force of the Canadian Militia
Role	Garrison
Size	203

The Yukon Field Force, later termed the Yukon Garrison, was a unit of 203 officers and men from the Permanent Force of the Canadian Militia that served in the Yukon between 1898 and 1900. The force was created in the wake of the Klondike Gold Rush in response to fears that the United States might attempt to seize the region. It left Ottawa on 6 May 1898, travelling by rail and sea to the port of Glenora in British Columbia. From there, the unit made an arduous journey of 890 kilometres (550 mi) on foot and using makeshift boats to Fort Selkirk, where they established their headquarters. A detachment of 72 men was sent to the boom town of Dawson City to support the North West Mounted Police, with duties that included guarding the gold deposits of the local banks. As the fears of an annexation reduced, pressures grew for the recall of the force. The force was halved in size in July 1898 and the remainder were finally withdrawn in June 1900.

The Yukon Field Force was created in response to the discovery of gold in the Canadian far north in the final years of the 19th century. There was no government presence in the Yukon in the late 19th century and the region was sparsely populated by First Nations and European prospectors. The borders in south-east Alaska had been disputed between the United States, Canada and Britain since the United States' purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. There were no police in the region, and the Permanent Force of the Canadian Militia was only around 800 strong across the whole of the country, with the nearest garrison in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Gold began to be discovered along the valleys, however, and by 1894 the growing population and development of gold mining at Forty Mile had led to calls from religious and business leaders for Ottawa to intervene to control whiskey trading, protect the local First Nations and gather customs duties. The government surveyor William Ogilvie warned Ottawa that it was necessary to introduce Canadian government quickly to the region if a United States takeover was to be avoided. In response, the North-West Mounted Police carried out a survey along the Yukon River, establishing a barracks there the following year.