The many trails to the Klondike goldfields converged on the Yukon River system; all the tens of thousands who filled Dawson City to the bursting point in 1898 arrived on the river.
Most crossed the coastal mountains by the Chilkoot Pass or the White Pass and joined the river system near its source in the Southern Lakes, floating down from Lindeman or Bennett through Tagish and Marsh lakes into the river itself. In those days, the part of the river above Fort Selkirk was commonly called Lewes River. The stretch from White Horse to Lake Laberge was sometimes called Fiftymile River.
Stampeders on the Ashcroft and Stikine trails, and some who came overland from Edmonton, entered the river system at Teslin Lake. They floated down the Teslin River (then called the Hootalinqua or Teslintoo), joining the Yukon River at Hootalinqua below Lake Laberge. The stretch of river between Lake Laberge and the mouth of the Teslin River at Hootalinqua was called, in Gold Rush days, the Thirtymile River.
Some started from Edmonton and followed the Mackenzie River north, crossing to the Pelly or Stewart rivers and floating down to the Yukon above Dawson City. Others went further north on the Mackenzie and crossed to the Porcupine River. Their route met the Yukon River in Alaska, well downstream from Dawson City. There they joined stampeders who had taken the rich man's route to St. Michael and proceeded upriver by steamer to the Klondike.
