The SS Keno is a preserved historic sternwheel paddle steamer, a National Historic Site of Canada, and a unit of the Canadian national park system. The SS Keno is berthed in a dry dock on the waterfront of the Yukon River in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada.
The vessel was constructed in 1922, in Whitehorse, by the British Yukon Navigation Company, a subsidiary of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway company. For most of its career it transported silver, zinc and lead ore down the Stewart River from mines in the Mayo district to the confluence of the Yukon and Stewart rivers at Stewart City. It was retired from commercial service in 1951 due to the extension and improvement of the Klondike Highway in the years after World War II.
Following its withdrawal from service the SS Keno was laid up at the BYN Co. shipyard in Whitehorse, before being selected for preservation and donated by the company to the Canadian Government in 1959. On 25 August 1960 the Keno left Whitehorse to sail downstream to Dawson City. In doing so she became the last of the Yukon's sternwheeler steamers to navigate the Yukon River under her own power. Three days later she arrived in Dawson and was subsequently installed as a tourist attraction and a permanent memorial to the approximately 250 sternwheelers that provided a vital transport service on the Yukon River and its tributaries during the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
Background
The Yukon River flows for through Yukon and Alaska, and its catchment area covers approximately . The Yukon's name is derived from a Gwich’in name, meaning "Great River", and the waterway has been used by aboriginal groups in the area for many centuries. From the middle of the 19th century it also formed a major transport link for white trappers, traders and mineral prospectors operating in the region, but its shallow, sinuous and fast flowing nature made navigation difficult. As early as 1869 the Alaska Commercial Company began regular sternwheel paddle steamer services as far upstream as Fort Selkirk, exploiting the sternwheeler riverboat design's inherent shallow draught, flexible landing ability and protected paddlewheel to overcome many of the river's challenges. River traffic boomed during the Klondike Gold Rush, and by the end of the 19th century around 60 sternwheelers were in operation on the Yukon.
By 1914 the White Pass and Yukon Route railway company's river navigation subsidiary, the British Yukon Navigation Company (BYN Co.), had built an effective monopoly on riverboat traffic in the upper reaches of the Yukon River. As trading and mining activities in Yukon and Alaska grew, bigger and better sternwheelers were built to cope with the increasing traffic on the main river channel. However, in order to connect to many mining camps and trading posts vessels were required to negotiate the still shallower and more tortuous channels of the Yukon's tributaries. In 1922 BYN Co. built the SS Keno to provide service to the booming silver mining district around Mayo Landing, in particular the United Keno Hill Mine properties, approximately up the narrow, winding and shallow Stewart River from its confluence with the Yukon River.
Design and construction
In order to be able to navigate Stewart River, BYN Co. construction foreman A.E. Henderson specifically designed SS Keno for shallow water operation. As built, she was long, with a beam of . For comparison, the second SS Klondike, completed eight years after the Keno for service on the main river routes, was over 200 ft long and had a beam in excess of 40 ft. Most importantly, in service the Keno draught was typically only between two and three feet (0.6 to 0.9 m), and with a light load as little as . Her hull was constructed from wood, carvel-built, and her superstructure was arranged in a three deck configuration typical of sternwheelers. The lowermost deck, the main deck at gunwale level, was the freight house. Above this, and approximately the same size, was the saloon deck, carrying much of the vessel's passenger accommodation and facilities. Uppermost was the smaller, punningly titled 'Texas' deck, carrying larger staterooms for the captain, senior crew and first class passengers. Surmounting the Texas was the pilothouse, from which the vessel was commanded. In this configuration, the Keno gross tonnage was 553.17 tons.