White Pass & Yukon Route: Alaska's oldest railway is Skagway's main attraction.

• Author: Wehmhoff, Gretchen

On one side of the valley north of Skagway, the Klondike Highway follows the Skagway River, climbs to the 2,865-foot summit between British Columbia and Alaska, and then drops down in flowing curves around scenic mountain lakes and majestic peaks. The road passes Carcross, Bennett Lake, and the headwaters of the Yukon River on its way to the Alaska Highway a few miles east of Whitehorse, Yukon. Further west, the highway continues north to Dawson City, the historic gold rush town on the Yukon River.

On the other side of the valley, a winding train track cuts into dangerously steep mountain sides, sometimes disappearing around a bend or through a tunnel before meeting up with the Klondike Highway in Fraser, British Columbia. Intimidating peaks tower above the area, some exceeding 7,000 feet in a valley just miles from sea level. These tracks started their journey in 1898, the peak of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Thousands of gold seekers climbed the treacherous Chilkoot trail, making multiple trips with the required one ton of gear. Captain William Moore, a founder of the new city of Skagway on Chilkoot Tlingit land, and First Nation guide Keish (Skookum Jim Mason) believed there was an easier route north. They made the arduous trek to Bennett Lake over what is now White Pass, named for the Canadian Minister of the Interior, Sir Thomas White.

Both the Chilkoot and White Pass trails were plagued with injury, hardships, and death, yet folks with dreams of gold kept coming. In this constant stream of people, two ambitious men saw an opportunity.

Michael J. Heney. a railroad contractor, met Sir Thomas Tancrede in Skagway. Tancrede represented London investors. Money, experience, and vision ted to the formation of White Pass Railroad. In May 1898, work on the railroad to Whitehorse began, and construction crews from the north and south met in Carcross in July 1900. By that point, the venture had been acquired by London-based White Pass & Yukon Railway Company (WPY). A golden spike marked the completion of the railroad, which employed more than 35,000 workers during its construction.

In 2018, WPY was purchased by Klondike Holdings, an ownership group formed of majority partner Survey Point Holdings, its affiliates and longtime partners based in Seattle, and Carnival Corporation (parent company of Holland America-Princess) as a minority partner.

Modern Day, Historic Design

WPY is a narrow-gauge short-line, or Class III railway. In contrast, the Alaska...