Mel Crawford (Canadian, B. 1925) "Yukon" Signed lower left. Original Mixed Media painting on Cold Press Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover for the Canada 17c Flags of Canada Yukon stamp issued June 15, 1979. Like much of the Canadian west, the Yukon Territory was first explored by fur traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. With the discovery of gold in 1873, settlements were established along the Yukon and Stewart Rivers. In 1895, the Territory was incorporated into the newly-organized Northwest Territories along with the rest of the former Hudson's Bay Company lands, and the Northwest Mounted Police were dispatched to the region to maintain Canadian law. When a rich gold strike was made in the Klondike region in 1896, the real modern history of the Yukon began. Thousands of gold seekers swarmed into the Yukon from all over Canada and the United States, and the rough-and-ready reputation of the territory began to spread throughout the world. In 1898, an Act of Parliament separated the Yukon Territory from the Northwest Territories, and established local control over most questions of administration in the Territorial Capital at Whitehorse. By the end of the gold rush, in 1901, the Territory's population had risen to more than twenty-seven thousand. Twenty years later, barely over four thousand people remained in the Territory. Today, there are still fewer than thirty thousand people in the whole Territory. But the Yukon will continue to grow and to prosper, because its rich lands have the resources that the more developed lands to the east and south need: lead, zinc, copper, nickel, asbestos, cadmium, tungsten, coal, gold, and silver are but a few of the resources that the Yukon has in abundance. Image Size: 14 x 12.25 in. Overall Size: 17.75 x 15 in. Unframed. (B05407)