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White Pass & Yukon Route Celebrates

125 Years of Adventure

High in the rugged wilderness where Alaska sweeping views of waterfalls, tunnels, and sky-
meets the Yukon, the White Pass & Yukon high trestles.
Route Railroad continues to forge a path For a deeper experience, adventurers can
through history—and breathtaking scenery. opt for the Bennett Lake Adventure, a seven-
This summer, as the railway culminates its and-a-half-hour trip to remote Lake Bennett—
125th anniversary celebration, travelers can accessible only by train or a 33-mile hike on the
step aboard a moving time machine that once historic Chilkoot Trail. There, guests explore
carried stampeders chasing Klondike gold. an interpretive center that showcases the gold
This summer’s festivities will conclude with rush story before continuing on to Carcross. A
a grand celebration in Carcross, Yukon on July hearty box lunch is served as the train glides
26. The date commemorates the driving of the along Lake Bennett’s glacial waters, flanked
Golden Spike in 1900, marking the completion by towering mountains.
of the 110-mile line connecting Skagway, “It’s one of the most beautiful rides we
Alaska, to Whitehorse. “The spike really was offer,” says Taylor-Rose. “You can really
gold,” says Jacqueline Taylor-Rose, Manager imagine what those early gold seekers must
of Marketing for the railway. “It got a little have felt, finally reaching the Yukon after such
mangled in the process, but it symbolized the a grueling journey.”
unity of two crews—one building from the Freight and Fortunes
U.S. side, the other from Canada—meeting in After the Gold Rush faded, White Pass
the middle.” evolved into a vital freight route, hauling ore
A Journey through Time and minerals south while bringing supplies
Built in the fever of the 1898 Klondike Gold north while also transporting tourists wanting
Rush, the White Pass & Yukon Route was a to relive the stories of Robert Service and
marvel of vision and determination. Surveyed Jack London. Visitors would get off the ship
by Canadian contractor Michael J. Heney and at Skagway, board the train to the Yukon,
financed by investors from England, Heney then board paddle wheelers and stay in
carved the line through fjords and sheer hotels along the Yukon River. The line saw
granite cliffs using little more than picks, heavy use during World War II when the U.S.
shovels, and grit saying, “Give me enough Army leased it to support construction of the
dynamite, and snoose, and I’ll build you a Alaska-Canada (ALCAN) Highway.
railroad to hell.” Workers completed the first The collapse of mineral prices in the early
20.4-mile stretch to White Pass Summit in 1980s led to the closure of the railway—which
just nine months. Using a narrow gage track reopened in 1988 as a tourist line. Today, it
made it easier for the tight turns required on welcomes more than half a million passengers
the route. The completion of the entire line annually.
in just over two years remains an admired A Living Legacy
engineering feat today. Even after a century and a quarter, the
“It’s amazing to think they built all of this White Pass & Yukon Route continues to inspire
without modern machinery,” Taylor-Rose awe. It’s a tribute not only to human ingenuity
reflects. “They had up to 35,000 workers, but also to the enduring pull of the North.
some who had come north chasing gold and “Our scenery and history are unmatched,”
ended up building the railway instead.” Taylor-Rose says. “Whether you’re here for
Ride the Rails Today the gold rush lore or just the incredible views,
Now fully restored as a heritage railway, it’s a must-do for anyone visiting the region.”
White Pass offers a variety of excursions from With one foot in the past and another
May through September. The most popular steadily into the future, White Pass remains
is the White Pass Summit Excursion—a two- what it has always been: a gateway to
hour, 45-minute narrated journey ascending adventure.
2,865 feet from Skagway to the Alaska–British For more information about the railway
Columbia border. Guests remain on board for and their routes visit: wpyr.com
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