View from highway - Photo Yukon welcome highway sign Welcome to The Yukon Territories, Canada. Photo taken at The Yukon, Top of The World Highway at the border crossing of Alaska. - European incursions into what later became the Yukon started in the first half of the nineteenth century. Hudson's Bay Company explorers and traders from Mackenzie River trading posts used two different routes to enter the Yukon and created trading posts along the way. The Klondike Gold Rush was the seminal event in the Yukon's history. Gold was discovered on a tributary of the Klondike River in August 1896. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people braved hardships to reach the Klondike gold fields in the winter and spring of 1897-1898. Yukon Top of the World Highway The Top of the World Highway, Connects Dawson City in the Yukon Territory with the Alaska, USA border, where it joins the Taylor Highway (Alaska highway #5) west to Chicken and Tetlin Junction & the Alaska Highway.