The Yukon Territory consists of 207,076 square miles and is located in the extreme north-western portion of Canada. It extends north in an almost triangular formation from the northern boundary of British Columbia to the Arctic Ocean and from the Northwest Territorries border on the east to the Alaskan on the west.

Exploration of what later would become the Yukon began in 1825 when Sir John Franklin mapped the Arctic coastline from Hudson Bay to Point Barrow in Alaska. in 1830 the Hudson's Bay Company commenced exploration of the western portion of Canada's northland seeking to expand their trading area from coast to coast of what was to become known as Rupert's Land. Several explorers and traders such as Robert Campbell, Peter Dease, Thomas Simpson, Murdoch McPherson, John Bell, Alexander Murray and many others explored the many rivers and valleys and established fur trading settlements in numerous areas of western and northern canada. Many geographical features bear the names of these early Hudson's Bay frontiersman such as Dease Lake, Fort Simpson, Fort McPherson, Bell River, Stewart River, etc.

In 1870 the newly constituted Dominion of Canada purchased Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company for 300,000 English Pounds plus certain retained privelages. The privelages provided that HBC could claim 1/20 of the arable land, including mineral rights, that would be allocated for future settlement and that they retain alloted tracts of land in and around each of their 120 established fur trading settlements.

In 1887 the government appointed George Dawson, Richard McConnell and William Ogiilvie as the "Yukon Expedition". They were to carry out an extensive mapping program to establish ther boundaries for a new Territory. In 1898 the surveyed area was separated from the Northwest Territories and became the "The Yukon Territory" with Dawson City as its capital and William Ogilvie as the first Commisioner. In April 1953 the capital was moved from Dawson City to Whitehorse