Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1899-08-17
YUKON RAILROAD.
From Lynn Canal Across the Mountains
70 Lake Bennett.

TO Lake Bennett.
The White Pass and YUKON Railroad
mas fully opened to business from Lynn
Canal acoss the mountains to Lake Ben
nett in the last week of July. The rapid
ty with which the Klondike has been
brought into touch with the rest of the
world is Illustrated by the fact that on
July 20 many of the European news
papers printed dispatch sent from Daw-
son on the previous day telling of the good
feeling there over the vast Improvement
in communications that the railroad would
introduce, and adding that the journey
from Vancouver to that town would now
require nine days. The road WAS practic-
ally completed to the lake on July IL, but
was not fully opened till a fortnight later.
The company is little more sanguine
even than the people of Dawson as to the
shortning of the time to that town. for it
declares that Dawson may now be reached
in eight days from Seattle, Tacoma, Vic
toria or Vancouver.
At any rate, the completion of this rail-
road to the navigable waters leading to
the Yukon practically revolutionizes the
means of communication with the Yukon
gold fields. Up to this time.the overland
journey has certainly been one of hard
ship and danger, and has cost a great
deal of money. Today the arduous part
of the trip may be made in few hours
and at cost which, though hardly CON-
parable with the railroad rates in New
York State, is still almost bagatelle when
measured by the large expense Of packing
freight oyer mountain passes that are
among the most toilsome and formidable
in the world.
The Canadians deserve the credit of
pushing to successful conclusion a great
piece of railroad engineering. The COM
pany asserts that it was the most difficult
stretch of railroad building ever under
taken, and the history of the work shows
that the technical and physical obstacles
in the way were very formidable. One
of the greatest impediments in the way
was the fact that much of the blasting was
done in the places where it was impossible
to employ anything but human labor to
carry the material and supplies for the
men who were using explosives to tear
hundreds of thousands of tons of solid
rock from the mountain sides to make the
roadbed, and human labor also had to be
employed to clear much of the grade as
the blasting operations proceeded.
As the construction was begun early in
June last year, the first section of the
road to Lake Bennett has been completed
in about thirteen months. This time
would have been considerably reduced if
it had not been that about two months
after the work began the news of the dis
coveries at the Atlin gold fields
caused a stampede of workmen. One
morning LOO men were working on the
road, and next day the labor brigade
numbered only 500, all the others having
departed for the new Eldorado. This was
on August 8 of last year, and from that
time there was the greatest trouble to
keep on hand sufficient force of labor
ers. The difficulties were much argument
ed also by the unusually heavy snowfall
last winter, and during February and
March last nine men were employed in
shovelling snow tor every one actually en-
gagged in railroad construction. Railroad
builders were probably never SO bundled
up before to keep them from freezing to
death, for the work was pushed on stead
lily in spite Of the elements, and the larger
part of the line was built with the Their
mometer from20 to 80 degrees below
zero.
1t is said that the company intends to
push the road on to Dawson as soon as
there is any prospect that the develop
ment of the country will warrant this adj
ditional enterprise. In other words,
having joined the sea with navigable
waters by steam road, they will rest on
their oars for a while instead of following
the American method of extending rail-
roads into new regions ahead of of devel-
opement with the idea of stimulating and
assuring it.