White Pass

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The White Pass is a 873 m high mountain pass in the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains on the border between Alaska and British Columbia, Canada and is part of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. It connects the location of the Inside Passage port city of Skagway and Lake Bennett.

History

The road over the pass was one of two options to go during the Klondike Gold Rush, the end of the 19th century next to the Chilkoot Pass from the Pacific Coast to the goldfields inland. The route over the White Pass was longer, but less steep and high as the over the Chilkoot Pass. However, it was because of the higher crime rate, which was the bandit Soapy Smith attributed as hazardous.

Made possible by the relatively low slope a way for horse-drawn carriages through the pass was built during the gold rush. The harsh conditions in the winter and the heavy loads, however, cost a lot of horses life, what the path known as the " Dead Horse Trail " (engl.: "Path of the dead horse " ) earned.

Was named the White Pass in 1887 by surveyor William Ogilvie after the then Canadian Minister of the Interior Thomas White.

The 1898 went into operation in narrow-gauge White Pass and Yukon Railway was built over the White Pass. Also, the Klondike Highway from Skagway to Dawson in the Yukon Territory uses this route and runs along the pass parallel to the tracks.