Haines Junction is a village in

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

, Canada. It is at Kilometre 1,632 (historical mile 1016) of the Alaska Highway at its junction with the

Haines Highway The Haines Highway or Haines Cut-Off (and still often called the Haines Road) is a highway that connects Haines, Alaska, in the United States, with Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada, passing through the province of British Columbia. It follows ...

, hence the name of the community. According to the 2021 Census, the population was 688.Population and dwelling counts
Statistics Canada However, the Yukon Bureau of Statistics lists the population count for 2022 as 1,018.
/ref> Haines Junction lies east of

Kluane National Park and Reserve Kluane National Park and Reserve (; french: Parc national et réserve de parc national de Kluane) are two protected areas in the southwest corner of the territory of Yukon. The National Park Reserve was set aside in 1972 to become a national pa ...

. It is a major administrative centre for the

Champagne and Aishihik First Nations The Champagne and Aishihik First Nations (CAFN) is a First Nation band government in Yukon, Canada. Historically its original population centres were Champagne (home of the ''Kwächä̀l kwächʼǟn'' - "Champagne people/band") and Aishihik (home ...

History

For around two thousand years, the

Southern Tutchone The Southern Tutchone are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group living mainly in the southern Yukon in Canada. The Southern Tutchone language, traditionally spoken by the Southern Tutchone people, is a variet ...

people had seasonal hunting and fishing camps in the area of present-day Haines Junction. The original name of the area was "Dakwakada", a

word meaning "high cache". It was common for Tutchone people to use raised log caches to store food year-round or temporarily while they hunted and fished in an area. The Haines Junction area was also important for trade between the coastal and interior peoples. It lies at the interior end of the

Chilkat Pass The Chilkat Pass is a mountain pass on the border of Alaska, United States, and the province of British Columbia, Canada, at the divide between the Klehini (S) and Kelsall Rivers just northwest of Haines, Alaska. At an elevation of 3510 ft ...

, one of only three passes that allowed travel between the coast and the interior, which was used extensively for trade between the coastal

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

and Southern Tutchone people. The current town of Haines Junction was established in 1942 and 1943 during the construction of the Alaska Highway (ALCAN). In 1943, a second highway, the Haines Highway, was built to connect the Alaska Highway with the coastal town of

Haines, Alaska Haines (Tlingit: ''Deishú'') is a census-designated place located in Haines Borough, Alaska, United States. It is in the northern part of the Alaska Panhandle, near Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. As of the 2020 census, the populat ...

, over the Chilkat Pass. Situated at the junction of these two highways, Haines Junction was a construction camp and a supply and service centre for the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

building the highway. The Haines– Fairbanks petroleum pipeline was constructed in 1953–55, and a pumping station was built just north of Haines Junction.http://www.arlis.org/docs/vol1/AlaskaGas/Report4/Report_CEMML_2003_HainesFairbanksPipeline.pdf

Geography

Climate

Haines Junction has a subarctic climate ( Dfc) with mild summers and long, severely cold and snowy winters, with annual snowfall averaging 64.5 inches (164 cm).

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Haines Junction had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Infrastructure

Terminal, Haines Junction airport, Yukon 2

By road, Haines Junction is served by the Alaska Highway and the

(Yukon Highway 3). By air, it is served by the

Haines Junction Airport Haines Junction Airport is located northwest of Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada. The airport has no scheduled airline service and is served by one fixed wing charter and two helicopter operators. Haines Junction is the gateway to Kluane National ...

. Fibre connections to most homes and businesses are becoming available in late 2022/early 2023. Bell Mobility operates a cellular network tower in the area.

References

External links

* * {{Subdivisions of Yukon Villages in Yukon Southern Tutchone