Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-22

ing from Tie OaIldulaH kVockleS ANO
the Yukon on the west and along
a thousand miles of the glistenng
steel Of the Canadian National Rail-
way transcontinental line on the SOUTH all the
way to Ungava on the east, thousands OF men,
women and children from all parts Of the world
are battling night and day with axes, dyna-
mite, snowshoes. dog teams, bobsleds, snow
mobiles, tractors and planes equipped with
skis in Winter and with canoes and planes
fitted with floats in Summer to wrest hidden
gold from the great geological pre-Cambria1
shield which covers those sub-Arctic regions!
To get to that gold they are building rail-
roads, Harvesting waterfalls for electric power,
bridging rivers constructing new highways
through the bush, cutting new trails over the
muskeg and adventuring north in every kind
of airplane All want to be the first to dis
cover the precious gold and silver and the
baser metals, such as copper and lead. Night
and day, Winter and Summer they are fight
ing doing and dying, in that great battle to
conquer the frozen North, the impenetrable
bush, the Barren Lands and the deceptive
muskeg!
From the four corners of the earth they
come in a mighty procession. Into the little
one-story town of The Pas, on the Saskatche-
wan River in Northwestern Manitoba, they
have rushed by thousands. For many years
it. was the end of steel, and the jumping on
place for the musherS of the North, the be-
ginning of the long dormant rusty and aban-
doned stretch of steel to the Nelson River. It
had once been the dream Of this town that
the railroad begun in 1911 and abandoned in
1918 would some day be continued to its
original destination, either at Port Nelson or
Fort Churchill on Hudson Bay. Then The Pas
would be an important town only 500 miles
from this new exit to the sea and to Europe.
RUT it was not until gold and copper in
enormous quantities were found at the Film
Flon, IS miles north of The Pas, and at the
Sheriff. Gordon, some 80 miles farther north,
that the Canadian government appropriated
the money to rejuvenate the old railroad and
continue 1t over the Barren Lands to Fort
Churchill, so miles north Of Fort Nelson, on
the west shore Of Hudson Bay.
Accordingly, since 1928, thousands upon
thousands of rushers have poured into the
little town of The Pas. From December to
March the population had jumped from 1000
to 5000. This did not include the thousands
who went north to rebuild the abandoned
railroad, nor the prospectors, the drillers the
engineers, the surveyors, the trappers, the adj
venturerS, the clandeStne rum sellers, the
gamblers who mushed into all parts Of Northern
Manitoba. Nor the dock builders and carpenters
flown into Churchill to begin the erection of a
seaport and a railroad terminal on barren
rock north Of SO and the northern lights.
Indeed, the rush would have been into Fort
Churchill before the railroad got there If the
Canadian government had not strictly forbidden
anybody but government workers to enter that
treeless and shackless ledge Of rocks at the
mouth Of the Churchill River. The government
well knew that If there was a rush into that
timberleSs land many would freeze to death in
the 50-below-zero weather of that long Winter
and that as many would starve because of the
lack Of transportation to convey food into that
remote corner of this continent. But what q
rush there will be to that most northern rail-
road terminal on this continent when the
Canadian government lifts the ban! It will be
another Oklahoma rush! .-.'-
Meanwhile The Pas is the great jumping off
place for the thousands of prospectors who
are scattering fan-Shaped up into that 1000
square miles of UNEMPLOYED and unpopulated
Barren Lands and Northwest territories. There
I saw brown Mexicans with beaded sombreroS
and high heeled boots from the mining fields
OF their native mountains; lanky Australians
with their broad-brimmed felt hats and long
strides; Beers with their stolid countenanceS
and heavy leather belts; pale Scandinavians
with their teeth Specked from chewing snuff;
short, stocky Hollanders with their phlegmatic
countenances, and wiry BelgianS.
TWO trains week leave The Pas for the
end of steel. One is called the way Freight"
and the other the "Muskeg Special" No Pas
senger trains have yet been sent over the line
into Fort Churchill But several old tourist cars
are, attracted to the SO or more freight cars
which haul food, supplies tools, fodder, ETC., for
the railroad builders.
These tourist cars have no upholstered seats
There is stove at each end. The hunks consist
OF "a shelf which is pulled down. There is no
partition between the shelves. Each person
crawls into his eiderdown bag In the Winter