Official Name: | Destruction Bay |
Pushpin Map: | Canada |
Coordinates: | 61.2542°N -138.8067°W |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Canada |
Subdivision Type1: | Territory |
Subdivision Name1: | Yukon |
Area Land Km2: | 13.57 |
Population Total: | 55 |
Population As Of: | 2016 |
Population Density Km2: | 4.1 |
Population Footnotes: | [1] |
Timezone: | MST |
Utc Offset: | −07:00 |
Destruction Bay is a small community on the Alaska Highway (historical mile 1083) in Canada's Yukon on Kluane Lake.
Populated mostly by non-aboriginal residents, community residents provide Yukon government services to residents in the area (school, highway maintenance), including nearby Burwash Landing and some tourism-related businesses along the Alaska Highway. The name is derived from the wind blowing down structures erected by the military during highway construction in 1942–43.
The community has a one-room school serving kindergarten through grade eight.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Destruction Bay had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 13.9km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[2]
In 1942, a camp was set up to be used by crews working to build the Alaska Highway.[3] It was used for housing of workers, as well as a stopping place for truckers to rest, refuel, and service their equipment. Not long after it was built, a severe windstorm destroyed many of the buildings in the camp, leading to the name Destruction Bay.[4]