Hills of Silver: The Yukon's Mighty Keno Hill Mine

The Yukon is famous for its Klondike gold rush, but it was the site of another major mineral discovery in 1918 that touched off its own stampede of sourdoughs and eventually produced more paydirt than the Klondike. This was the fabulously rich Keno Hill silver deposit, which made the Yukon one of the world's leading silver producers and backstopped the territorial economy for decades.

And as the Klondike strike gave rise to the boom town of Dawson, the Keno strike fostered feisty Keno City, t…