Pop Quiz: Who and what am I quoting in today's blog title? The first correct answer posted in my comments gets a prize. Seiously!
Put on your 'Must do in my lifetime' list: Ride the White Pass Yukon Railroad from Skagway to Carcross.
Today was absolutely fantastic! I took the White Pass Railroad to Carcross, a gorgeous and relaxing trip.
It was so nice to have something else providing my forward motion. My legs were loving the lazy day.
The railway was built during the Klondike Goldrush to haul supplies over the mountains to the Yukon.
Gold was discovered in the Yukon in 1896 but it took until '97 for the news to reach the lower 45 states. The gold miners who had struck it rich took a ship to Seattle and brought the sacks of gold that they had discovered with them. News spread like wildfire and over 100,000 people took to ships to head north.
Tens of thousands of people ended up in Skagway, which had sprung up overnight as a lawless tent city. To get to the Yukon, Stampeders, as the newly arrived greenhorns were called, had to cross one of two passes to the north. The more popular trail was the Chilkoot that left from Dyea, eight miles to the west of Skagway. This was a strictly foot path with a steep final ascent to the pass called the Golden Stairs. The other path was through White Pass. This was heralded as easier since pack animals could get through on it. Because of the sheer numbers of people and their incompetence, however, the trail turned into a quagmire and thousands of horses died along it.
The Canadian government required every person entering the Yukon on these trails to have one ton of supplies to see them through the harsh conditions. These supplies were carried up on the backs of stampeders 40-50 pounds at a time. The Chilkoot trail to Lake Bennett, where the staging area was to head farther north is around 35 miles. That's 70 miles round trip. To carry the ton of supplies up the pass required each person to walk the trail about forty to fifty times covering around 3500 miles. And, this was all in the winter with temperatures of 50 below, howling winds, only a few hours of daylight, and massive blizzards.
The trip up the Chikoot was only the beginning. Once the Stampeders got to Lake Bennett, they erected the largest tent city the world has ever seen and proceded to build boats so they could float down the lakes to the Yukon River when the ice on the lake finally broke.
Most of these people were completely inexperienced. They were office workers from the cities. And now they were building boats in the middle of winter. When breakup came, the entire town packed up and floated downstream.
Almost none of the Stampeders made any money from the gold rush. All the good claims were already taken even before news about gold had reached Seattle.
Bennett was the lunch stop on the train trip today. There is nothing left of the town of Bennett except the church and the rairoad depot. It is in an absolutely fantastic spot at the head of this huge lake.
-- Post From My iPhone
"The Cremation of Sam McGee" Robt. Service
ReplyDeleteI hiked over the Chilkoot Pass with a friend and then had lunch at the Railroad Station and then took the train the rest of the way to White Horse.....now just how many years ago was that? Must have been about 30!
Glad to read your update!
Carolyn