Whitehorse (2006 population 20,461; CA population 22,898) is the capital of the Yukon Territory of Canada. Whitehorse accounts for more than 75% of the territory's population.
Whitehorse is located at Historic Mile 918 (current kilometrepost calibration is kilometre 1,425.3) of the Alaska Highway and is the former terminus of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway from Skagway, Alaska (although the rails are still there, the train only goes as far as Carcross now). At the head of navigation on the Yukon River, the city was an important supply and stage centre during the Klondike Gold Rush. It has been the territorial capital since 1953[1], when the seat was moved from Dawson City after the construction of the Klondike Highway. Whitehorse is in the mountain climate region, the tundra soil region, the arctic vegetation region, and the boreal cordillera ecozone.
the city gets its name from the White Horse rapids, which were said to look like the mane of a white horse. The rapids have disappeared under Schwatka Lake behind a hydroelectric dam, which was completed in 1958.
Nowadays Whitehorse is a government town, and it is the home of the main campus of Yukon College. A $45 million (CAD) multiplex centre has been built for the Canada Winter Games in 2007. Whitehorse also previously hosted the 1972, 1980, 1986, 1992 and 2000 Arctic Winter Games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehorse,_Yukon
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