Yukon Midnight Sun, Yukon, George Swinehart, 1898

Notes

The Yukon Midnight Sun was the first newspaper in Dawson City but it was not the first newspaper in the Yukon. That privilege goes to the Caribou Sun. Both newspapers, though, were published by George Swinehart.

On May 16, 1898, while waiting along with others, in Caribou Crossing for the ice to go out, Swinehart set up his press and started printing the Caribou Sun. It contained what news items could be gleaned from the personal letters of the others waiting with him. An excerpt from a book written by Luella Day describes what took place.

Excerpt from ‘The Tragedy of the Yukon; This Book of Travels Gives the True Facts of What Took Place in the Gold-fields Under British Rule’ written by Luella Day.

“ …when a printer named Swinehart, from some Canadian town, had set up on the ice, under canvas, a hand-press and font of type. It was newsy and whatever news came into camp was handed him by the recipients of letters and so the whole company had the benefit of the various items of impersonal gossip from the East. I bought the first copy and stood by the press and saw it come off, paying 25 cents for it. This being the first paper published in the Yukon, the editor, proprietor, compositor and proof-reader took my quarter, the first he received, and set it in a mortise in the feed-bed of the press.”

https://archive.org/details/tragedyofklondik00dayluoft/page/8/mode/2up.  Retrieved January 3, 2022

A month later, on June 11, 1898, Swinehart reached Dawson City and started publication of the Yukon Midnight Sun which he continued to print until he shut it down in 1906.