Yukon River in the context of "Whitehorse"

Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been demarcated by the Treaty of 1818, consisted of the land north of 42° N latitude, south of 54°40′ N latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains down to the Pacific Ocean and east to the Continental Divide. Article III of the 1818 treaty gave joint control to both nations for ten years, allowed land to be claimed, and guaranteed free navigation to all mercantile trade. However, both countries disputed the terms of the international treaty. Oregon Country was the American name, while the British used Columbia District for the region.

British and French Canadian fur traders had entered Oregon Country prior to 1810 before the arrival of American settlers from the mid-1830s onwards, which led to the foundation of the Provisional Government of Oregon. Its coastal areas north of the Columbia River were frequented by ships from all nations engaged in the maritime fur trade, with many vessels between the 1790s and 1810s coming from Boston. The Hudson's Bay Company, whose Columbia Department comprised most of the Oregon Country and north into New Caledonia and beyond 54°40′ N, with operations reaching tributaries of the Yukon River, managed and represented British interests in the region.

Innoko Wilderness is a 1,240,000-acre (500,000 ha) wilderness area in the U.S. state of Alaska. It was designated by the United States Congress in 1980. It lies within the southeastern part of Innoko National Wildlife Refuge. Innoko Wilderness is a transition zone between the boreal forestland of interior Alaska and the open tundra of western Alaska. More than half of the Wilderness is wetlands of muskeg and marsh, lakes, rivers, and streams dotted with islands of black spruce and an understory of mosses, lichens, and shrubs. Along the Yukon and Innoko Rivers are numerous privately owned subsistence camps used periodically for hunting and fishing by Alaska Natives.

The longest rivers of the United States include 38 that have main stems of at least 500 miles (800 km) long. The main stem is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". The United States Geological Survey (USGS) defines a main-stem segment by listing coordinates for its two end points, called the source and the mouth. Some well-known rivers like the Atchafalaya, Willamette, and Susquehanna are not included in this list because their main stems are shorter than 500 miles.

Seven rivers in this list cross or form international boundaries. Three—the Milk River, the Red River of the North, and the Saint Lawrence River—begin in the United States and flow into Canada; two do the opposite (Yukon and Columbia). Also a segment of the Saint Lawrence River forms the international border between part of the province of Ontario, Canada, and the U.S. state of New York. Of these seven rivers, only the Milk River crosses the international border twice, leaving and then re-entering the United States. Two rivers, the Colorado and the Rio Grande, begin in the United States and flow into or form a border with Mexico. In addition, the drainage basins of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers extend into Canada, and the basin of the Gila River extends into Mexico.

The Nowitna River is a 250-mile (400 km) tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. The river flows northeast from the Kuskokwim Mountains through Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge and enters the larger river 38 miles (61 km) northeast of Ruby and southwest of Tanana. Major tributaries include the Titna, Big Mud, Little Mud, Lost, and Sulatna rivers.

In 1980, the 225 miles (362 km) of the river within the wildlife refuge were designated "wild" and added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The designation means that most of the Nowitna is unpolluted, free-flowing, and generally inaccessible except by trail.

The Norton Sound (Inupiaq: Imaqpak) is an inlet of the Bering Sea on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, south of the Seward Peninsula. It is about 240 km (150 mi) long and 200 km (125 mi) wide. The Yukon River delta forms a portion of the south shore and water from the Yukon influences this body of water. It is ice-free from June to October.

Norton Sound was explored by Captain James Cook in September 1778. He named the body of water after Sir Fletcher Norton, then Speaker of the British House of Commons.

The Innoko National Wildlife Refuge is a national wildlife refuge of the United States located in western Alaska. It consists of 3,850,481 acres (15,582 km), of which 1,240,000 acres (5,018 km) is designated a wilderness area. It is the fifth-largest national wildlife refuge in the United States. The refuge is administered from offices in Galena.

The refuge was established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The northern part of the refuge, called Kaiyuh Flats, is adjacent to the Yukon River southwest of Galena. It contains 751,000 acres (3,040 km). The southern part contains approximately 3,099,000 acres (12,540 km) of land surrounding the Innoko River. The land is swampy and is the nesting area for hundreds of thousands of birds including ospreys, northern hawk-owls, trumpeter swans, bald eagles, common ravens, short-eared owls, and red-tailed hawks. Mammalian species that habitat this refuge are brown and black bears, moose, wolves, Canadian lynx, marten, porcupine, beaver, caribou, river otter, red fox, wolverine, muskrat, and mink.

The Innoko River (/ɪˈnoʊkoʊ/; (Deg Xinag: Yooniq) is a 500-mile (800 km) tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. It flows north from its origin south of Cloudy Mountain in the Kuskokwim Mountains and then southwest to meet the larger river across from Holy Cross.

Most of its upper portion flows through the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge. The entire river is within the Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area.

The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon in northwestern Canada, between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896; when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of prospectors. Some became wealthy, but the majority went in vain. It has been immortalized in films, literature, and photographs.

To reach the gold fields, most prospectors took the route through the ports of Dyea and Skagway in southeast Alaska. Here, the "Klondikers" could follow either the Chilkoot or White Pass trail to the Yukon River and sail down to the Klondike. The Canadian authorities required each person to bring a year's supply of food in order to prevent starvation. In all, the Klondikers' equipment weighed close to a ton, which most carried themselves in stages. Performing this task and contending with the mountainous terrain and cold climate meant that most of those who persisted did not arrive until the summer of 1898. Once there, they found few opportunities, and many left disappointed.