Located on Lake Bennett on the South Klondike Highway, between Whitehorse and Skagway. Population: About 400. From the time the first prospectors came over the Chilkoot Pass, this place was known as Caribou Crossing because of the large herds of caribou that crossed the narrows between Bennett and Tagish Lakes twice a year on their annual migration. Artifacts of aboriginal people--flaked stone tools estimated to be 4,500 years old--have been found here.
Carcross has a Yukon Community College campus. The campus has offered basic adult education programs since it opened in 1981. It works closely with the Carcross/Tagish First Nation to help prepare its people to administer their pending land claim and self-government agreement.
Carcross is a popular and picturesque stopping place for motorists. The highway is open year-round as the result of a maintenance agreement between Canada and the U.S., with additional funding provided by the Yukon mining industry which ships ore to Skagway.
