Riverboat Discovery

The Riverboat Discovery is tourism business owned and operated by the Binkley family and based out of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Binkley familys steamboating tradition goes back over 100 years and five generations. In 1898, when Charles M. Binkley hiked over the Chilkoot Pass with other stampeders, he was not so much in search of gold as he was the chance to build and operate boats on the Yukon and its tributaries. He became a respected pilot and boat builder in the North. His son, Captain Jim Binkley, Sr., followed in his fathers footsteps and piloted freight vessels on the Yukon and Tanana Rivers in the 1940s. As transportation systems changed in the north, railroads and airplanes began to carry much of the freight. In 1950, noting the coming changes in the freighting business, Captain Jim and his wife, Mary, began a river excursion business focusing on sharing their love of Alaska and its culture with visitors. Over the coming years, Captain Jim and Mary Bs business grew from the G...