Baby! It's Cold Outside

The following information was gleaned from: https://wpyr.com/history/ Researching the 19th century, one could conclude that it was the era of railroad building and an easier mode of transportation into the northern reaches of Northwest North America was of interest to everyone. Two men appeared on the scene with essentially the same idea: build a railroad through the White Pass. Sir Thomas Tancrede, representing investors in London, and Michael J. Heney, an experienced railroad contractor interested in finding new work for his talents, joined forces. Tancrede had doubts about building a railroad over the Coastal Mountains while Heney thought otherwise. “Give me enough dynamite and snooze (snuff)” he bragged, “and I’ll build a railroad to Hell.” They met by chance in Skagway, talked through the night and by dawn, the railroad project was no longer a dream but an accepted reality. It was a meeting of money, talent and vision. The White Pass & Yukon Railroad Company, organized in April 1898, paid George Brackett $110,000; $60k and $50k in two separate payments for the right-of-way to his road. In the fall of 1897, Brackett, a former construction engineer on the Northern Pacific Railroad, built a twelve mile toll road up the canyon of the White Pass. The toll gates were ignored by travelers and Brackett’s road was a failure. On May 28, 1898, construction began on the narrow gauge (3-foot) railroad. On April 12, 1898, E.C. Hawkins of Denver Colorado arrived in Skagway to take charge of the work. By May 27 construction had begun with the laying of rails at Skagway and by mid-July the first locomotive in Alaska, 2-6-0 No. 2 purchased from a Utah shortline, arrived on the scene.

The picture on the front of this post card was taken very early in the history of the railway. It shows a train stopped on a steel cantilever bridge near the White Pass Summit in Alaska. At no time during the construction period were fewer than a thousand men employed, and the figure often reached 1,800 to 2,000. They worked in relays through the summer when daylight lasts virtually around the clock. The workers reached the Summit of White Pass on February 20, 1899. While construction crews battled their way north laying rail, another crew came from the north heading south and together they met in Carcross on July 29, 1900, where a ceremonial golden spike was driven by Samuel H. Graves, the president of the railroad. For decades, the WP&YR carried significant amounts of ore and concentrates to Skagway to be loaded upon ore ships. During World War II, the railroad was the chief supplier for the US Army’s Alaska Highway construction project. The railroad was operated by steam until 1954, when the transition came to diesel-electric motive power. White Pass matured into a fully-integrated transportation company operating docks, trains, stage coaches, sleighs, buses, paddle wheelers, trucks, ships, airplanes, hotels and pipelines. World metal prices plummeted in 1982, mines closed and the WP&YR suspended operations. In 1988, WP&YR reinvented itself as a tourist attraction. The line reopened in 1988 to operate as a narrow gauge excursion railroad between Skagway and White Pass Summit. The active line was later extended to Bennett in the 1990s and to Carcross in 2007.

The post card was published by Wolf Creek Books out of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in Canada. Here is everything that I know about them: They still exist today; and Wolf Creek Books is a Printing, Publishing and Allied Industries company located at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory Canada. Their address is 2066 2nd Ave, Whitehorse Y1A 1A9 YT, Canada. You can contact Wolf Creek Books by phone 867-668-4260