White Pass & Yukon Railroad

White Pass & Yukon Ticket Office

The White Pass and Yukon narrow-gauge railroad was completed in 1900, running from Skagway to Whitehorse over the White Pass, or as the stampeders called it, Dead Horse Gulch. Donkeys and horses; men worked the beasts until they dropped, and simply left as many as 3,000 of them where they lay, grinding them into the narrow pathway as they dragged their loads on up. No man was allowed across the pass without a year’s worth of food, on top of their tools. With the steeper Chilkoot Trail, this was the main entry to the Yukon Gold Rush.

The railway doesn’t run to Whitehorse anymore. The rail line is still there and so is the station, you buy your tickets there, but you have to take a bus to get to the train. We board the bus and head south. Our driver Larry points out high spots along the way and stops for them occasionally. Emerald Lake, the beautiful but dead lake, the village of Carcross (contraction of Caribou Crossing) with its ‘turn of the 19th century’ General Store, and Shallow Lake, scene of the movie adaptation of Farley Mowat’s ‘Never Cry Wolf’, where the young researcher falls through the ice attached to all his kit.

Carcross General Store

Carcross sits on the shores of Bennett Lake; it was here in January of 1898 that 30,000 men built 6,000 boats as they prepared for the spring thaw to float north on the Yukon River to Dawson. They were closely watched by Sam Steele, the incorruptible Mountie, who mediated disputes, gave advice on boat building, and guided them on their way.

Our Carriage on the WPYR

We cross back into Alaska, and there’s the train… we climb aboard the period carriages assisted by period-costumed attendants. Sometimes the train is pulled by a steam engine but today it’s a diesel. Each carriage is rudimentary; wooden seats within and a deck at each end – you are allowed to stand on the deck as the train moves and the views are better from here, so this is where I stand for the journey. And, wow, what views as we crest on the pass, then descend to the port of Skagway atop the Alaskan Inside Passage.

Original Trestle Bridge

On the way, we look down into the valley and see the prospectors’ detritus, still laying there after more than one hundred years, slowly rusting. We pass an original wooden trestle bridge, now ending mid-air; the Pacific peaks through the gap in the mountains, as the train snakes back and forth on its descent. The journey ends on the harbour front at Skagway; for the hopeful seeking gold, the place where their nightmares began. We walk to the Sweet Tooth for supper, as Larry recommended – quite a wait but well worth it. Next week we leaf through Skagway’s history.

View of the Pacific thru the mountain

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