Alaska Transportation Company

Alaska Transportation Company was founded on April 5, 1898, in Seattle, Washington by Andrew F. Burleigh (1846-1907) and George W. Dickinson. Alaska Transportation Company was formed to cash in on the gold rush happening around Dawson City and Nome in Canada, known as the Klondike Gold Rush. Klondike Gold Rush peaked between 1896 and 1899 in Klondike, Yukon. Alaska Transportation Company sold shares in the company to raise funds to build a ship to travel up the Yukon River. The ship would depart from Puget Sound ports. Moran Brothers Company of Seattle got the contract to build the nine steamships to be used. Alaska Transportation Company headquarters was at Pier 58 in Seattle.^[1] Both Andrew F. Burleigh and George W. Dickinson had previously worked for the Northern Pacific Railway as attorneys. Andrew F. Burleigh had a short law partnership with James B. Metcalfe and Charles W. Turner. Captain James Griffiths worked at Alaska Transportation Company before starting his own firm James Griffiths & Sons, Inc.^[2] In 1896 Andrew F. Burleigh founded the Yukon Company to operate ships and barges on the Yukon River. Alaska Transportation Company did not purchase surplus World War II ships, with an aged fleet of ships and competition from the Alaska Highway opened in 1942, the company closed in 1948.^[3]

Andrew F. Burleigh's plan for the Gold Rush to start at Kusawa Lake, where miners and cargo board his ships, the ships go down the Takhini River, and then down the Yukon River to Dawson City. By the time his ships were completed the peak of the Gold Rush was near its end. But his passenger, mail and cargo company did continue to serve Alaskan ports.^[4]