As a result, in 1986 Captain Jim Binkley and his three sons began planning for the construction of a third sternwheeler for the company, which would be named Discovery III.

Construction began in the late fall of 1986 at the Nichols Brothers shipyard in Whidbey Island, Washington.

The boat was christened May 9, 1987, in Langley, Washington, and afterward was taken by barge north to the mouth of the Yukon River at St. Marys, Alaska.

[1] Once in St. Marys, the barge was sunk from underneath Discovery III and she began the trip up the Yukon River to Fairbanks, Alaska.

After a nine-day journey over 1,000 miles up the Yukon River drainage, the Discovery III arrived in Fairbanks on July 3, 1987.