| Summary: | On verso of image: Town of Carcross Filed in Yukon Territory From the time the first prospectors came over the Chilkoot Pass, this place was known as Caribou Crossing because of the large herds of caribou that crossed the narrows between Bennett and Tagish Lakes twice a year on their annual migration. Artifacts of aboriginal people--flaked stone tools estimated to be 4,500 years old--have been found here. Following the discovery of Klondike gold in 1896, Carcross became a popular stopping off place for stampeders in their migration to and from the gold fields of Dawson City. For a short time it had the largest sawmill in the territory -- owned by Mike King -- who also built boats and scows for the gold rush trade from early 1897. In late May of 1898, the North-West Mounted Police counted 778 boats under construction at Lindeman Lake, 850 in Bennett and the surrounding area, and another 198 at Caribou Crossing and Tagish Lake. It was further estimated that another 1,200 boats were built in these areas over the next few weeks. In addition to being a minor boat building center, Caribou Crossing was also a station for the Royal Mail and the Dominion Telegraph Line, and it served as a communications point on the Yukon River. From the tent towns that sprung up in the area, several prominent hotels emerged. The Caribou Hotel was built here in 1898, and still enjoys the distinction of being the oldest operating hotel in the territory. In 1899 Fred Trump, grandfather of American millionaire playboy Donald Trump, and his partner Ernest Levin, opened a restaurant in a tent at Bennett, which they called the Arctic. Trump and Levin fed their customers well and, before the year was out, they replaced their tent with a two-storeyed building that offered food and sheltered accommodations. When the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway (WP&YR) threatened to draw business away from the old trail, Trump and Levin floated The Arctic to a new site across from the Bennett depot. When the partners later relocated to Whitehorse, their hotel was burned. In 1901, when the gold rush subsided, Anglican Bishop William Bompas moved his headquarters here from Forty Mile, and established a school for Indian children. Two years later he petitioned the Canadian government to change the name of Caribou Crossing to the abbreviated 'Carcross'. This was due to frequent mixups in mail delivery with communities in Alaska, B.C. and other Yukon settlements that had similar names. The post office made the name change official in 1904. During construction of the White Pass Railway, tracks were laid north from Bennett and south from Whitehorse. They met at Carcross, which hosted the 'last spike' ceremony on July 29, 1900, linking Skagway with Whitehorse over a distance of 110 miles. The Carcross area is part of Skookum Jim's land. Carcross-Tagish people remember his deal with the railway, probably the first land claims deal of its kind in the territory. After gaining fame for his role in the discovery of gold in the Klondike, Jim gave permission for the railway to build across his land in exchange for jobs for people in his community. While railway construction was under way in 1899, gold was discovered in the Atlin district of northern B.C. and another stampede occurred. As a result, all would-be miners, goods and services destined for Atlin went through Carcross. Construction of a road link between Skagway and Whitehorse began in the 1950s, but was only completed to Skagway in 1978. The South Klondike Highway roughly follows the trail of the stampeders of 1898 and Carcross is a popular and picturesque stopping place for motorists. The highway is open year-round as the result of a maintenance agreement between Canada and the U.S., with additional funding provided by the Yukon mining industry which ships ore to Skagway. Carcross was a major depot for the WP&YR until the railway ceased operations during the recession of 1982. The legendary White Pass train made its first appearance at Carcross in 15 years on July 12 this year when it carried gold rush descendants, dignitaries and others as part of the re-enactment of the first shipment of Klondike gold from Skagway to Seattle. Numerous Yukon pioneers are buried at Carcross, including Bishop Bompas, Skookum Jim Mason, Kate Carmack, Tagish Charlie and Polly the Parrot. For more than 50 years Polly held court at the Caribou Hotel where he gained international fame for singing opera--and for shocking unsuspecting hotel guests with colourful profanity. Polly died in 1972 at the age of 126 years -- older than the gold rush itself -- and his grave boasts one of the finest bronze markers in the cemetery. [Source: Explore North web site: http://www.yukonalaska.com/communities/carcrosshist.html]
|
|---|