Early Klondike mail delivery was haphazard. The first commercial winter mail contracts were awarded to the Canadian Development Company, which in turn assigned the contract to Mr. P.G. Richardson. With no regular winter transportation system in place, dog:teams were used to carry the mail in the winter of 1899-1900. By the next winter, horses replaced dogs after freeze-up.
In March 1901 the White-Pass-and-Yukon-Route purchased the Canadian Development Company's holdings and secured the winter mail contracts. Since it was the official mail carrier, the new stage line set up by
