Swift River (Yukon)

Swift River
Location in Yukon
Swift River
State :	Canada
Territory :	Yukon
Coordinates :	60 ° 1 ′  N , 131 ° 3 ′  W Coordinates: 60 ° 1 ′  N , 131 ° 3 ′  W
Residents :	10 (as of 2006)

Swift River is a place in the Canadian Yukon on the river of the same name .

It is located on the Alaska Highway right on the border with British Columbia . In 2006 the place had 10 residents who lived in five households.

In 1923, the Northwest Territories and Yukon Radio System was established to improve communications in Whitehorse . In 1941 the first Aeradio Navigation Range station followed in Teslin , later in Swift River. These stations were initially used for aircraft navigation in support of the Soviet Union ; a total of 8,100 aircraft based on their signals. The news was morsed . Similar stations were in Beaton River , Aishihik and Snag . This radio system existed until 1955.

The founder of the Yukon Airways and Exploration Company , Clyde Wann , who first started a regular mail service by air in 1927, also owned several lodges, one of which is in Swift River.

With the expansion of the Alaska Highway, large camps suddenly emerged in the sparsely populated region, in which numerous road workers lived. In 1942, Swift River briefly lived around 5,000 people.

In 1993 a lodge was built, where accommodation and meals were offered. In 2004, however, the health authorities checked the antiseptic tanks for water preparation and thereupon banned the owners from operating hotels and restaurants. They could not build appropriate tanks on their 0.5 hectare property; the only alternative would have been to rebuild the restaurant. As this was unaffordable for the owners, they had to close their house in 2009. This means that the only year-round gas station between Watson Lake and Teslin will disappear (apart from the Rancheria Lodge), the former is 160 km south, the latter 112 km north of Swift River. Bear Creek Lodge outside Haines Junction , which 74-year-old Gail Jeeves had to give up, had similar problems , then Kluane Lake Wilderness Lodge, and Koidern Lodge had to close its restaurant and motel.

In 1997 andradite was found near the settlement , which belongs to the garnet group , an important group of rock-forming minerals from the class of silicates. The largest topaz found there was 5 cm long.

Remarks

1. ↑ aboerStatistics Canada
2. ↑ Exhibit opening commemorates dots and dashes , in: Yukon News, July 8, 2011.
3. ^ The Alaska Highway. A Yukon Perspective
4. ↑ Swift River shutdown leaves owners destitute , in: Yukon News, September 16, 2009.
5. ^ Lee Andrew Groat, Lee Andrew Groat: The geology of gem deposits , Mineralogical Association of Canada 2007, p. 262.
6. ^ Lee Andrew Groat, Lee Andrew Groat: The geology of gem deposits , Mineralogical Association of Canada 2007, p. 264.