White Pass Research Articles

Going for the Gold: The White Pass and Yukon Route

Going for the Gold: The White Pass and Yukon Route

Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure by David Meissner (review)

Reviewed by: Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure by David Meissner Elizabeth Bush Meissner, David. Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure; by David Meissner and Kim Richardson. Calkins Creek, 2013. 167p. illus. with photographs ISBN 978-1-59078-823-3 $16.95 R Gr. 5-9. The Yukon Gold Rush of 1897 is revisited here through the experiences of two young men who were among the first stampeders to make their way to the Klondike after news of gold strikes reached Seattle and San Francisco. Stanley Pearce and Marshall Bond, financed largely and speedily by Pearce’s well-to-do father, outfitted themselves in what would have been considered high style—from collapsible boats to fur robes—and caught one of the first vessels north from Seattle, hoping to reach Dawson City before the region became frozen in for the winter. Just one step ahead, it seemed, of the elements and fellow stampeders, the men cleared the White Pass (nicknamed Dead Horse) Trail and Lake Bennett before the freeze and settled into a cabin in Dawson City in time to investigate possible claims to stake. They did everything right, were better equipped than most, had a fair share of luck, and yet came away a year later with only life experience to show for their efforts, and most of their good humor thankfully intact. Meissner pieces together the account mainly from letters, journal entries, and newspaper dispatches the men sent back to the States throughout their adventure, and the emotional highs and lows of hope and disappointment come vividly through their accessible writings. Plenty of period photos, many of notable detail and clarity, augment the text, and a bibliography and list of further resources are included. U.S. History teachers will appreciate the deft integration of primary sources, but kids who love adventure stories will simply appreciate an exciting personal account—topped off perhaps with a Netflix viewing of Chaplin’s The Gold Rush. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Quantum Leap: A Black Woman Uses Legal Education to Obtain Her Honorary White Pass

The nature of privilege is that it is hidden from those who possess it even more than it is hidden from those who lack privilege. Privilege's invisibility to its owner makes privilege difficult to both identify and fight.

To a Redbud

To a Redbud Debora Greger (bio) When I heard your name, I thought lipstick,cardinal, ketchup, pigeon-blood ruby, something sanguine–– all the while, two weeks a year, you flowered something the field guide calls “purple/pink” with an air of defeat. You haven’t bothered with leaves. Furred with petals, you race the wild plum into bloom. You cloud the sky. You’re childhood’s Horse Heaven Hills come back in dream, dirt painted purple by dawn. The Greyhound bus that no longer runs––it trundles over White Pass, the only passenger the ghost of my mother. Dead two years, she loves to travel so lightly now. She’s tumbleweed curled in her seat, prickly as ever–– if she still finds Seattle “excessively green,” she won’t say. Why am I not there to meet her? Even in dream, the living keep themselves busy, betraying the dead. Flowering Judas, they call you, redbud not red. [End Page 81] Debora Greger Debora Greger’s latest book of poems, By Herself, will be published by Penguin in the fall of 2012. Copyright © 2012 Middlebury College Publications

Eocene rotation of the Coast Plutonic Complex and Intermontane Belt: paleomagnetism of Eocene plutons along the Klondike Highway

Paleomagnetic results are reported for the ∼59 Ma Skagway, ∼54 Ma Fraser, ∼53 Ma Summit Lake, and ∼48 Ma Clifton felsic plutons of the eastern Coast Plutonic Complex (CPC) that outcrop along the south Klondike Highway in Alaska and British Columbia. Thermal and alternating field step demagnetizing methods yielded stable characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) directions for all 29 sites of normal, reversed, and mixed polarity. The ChRM resides in single or pseudosingle domain magnetite and (or) pyrrhotite that is shown to be primary by contact tests with the ∼47 Ma vertical White Pass mafic dikes. Paleopoles from six 56 to 50 Ma (mean 52 ± 2 Ma) Intermontane Belt – Yukon–Tanana terrane (IMB–YTT) units that cannot be explained by tectonic tilt are compared with nine clustered 59 to 46 Ma (mean 52 ± 4 Ma) eastern CPC paleopoles. Both paleopole populations show nonsignificant poleward (northward) translation relative to North America (IMB–YTT, 3.7° ± 5.3°N; CPC, 4.3° ± 6.4°S; overall, 1.2° ± 4.9°S), indicating that northward translation of the accreted terranes ended by ∼58 Ma. Conversely, both populations show clockwise (CW) rotation that is either highly significant or substantial (IMB–YTT, 19.3° ± 10.5 °CW; CPC, 7.1° ± 16.1 °CW; overall 12.8° ± 10.9 °CW). The results are best explained by tectonic rotation from ∼50 to ∼45 Ma of the IMB–YTT as a thin-skin on top of North America during emplacement and co-incident rotation of the massive Eocene plutons of the eastern CPC along the North American margin.

Going for the Gold: The White Pass and Yukon Route

Going for the Gold: The White Pass and Yukon Route

Century-scale variability in late-summer rainfall events recorded over seven centuries in subannually laminated lacustrine sediments, White Pass, British Columbia

Formation of annually laminated sediments in Summit Lake, White Pass, British Columbia is controlled by runoff generated by snowpack and glacier melt and major rainfall events. The 700-yr varve record is divided into two subannual series (early and late) based on sedimentological criteria and sedimentary structures within each varve. A comparison of recent subannual laminae with nearby meteorological records supports the interpretation they are formed by river discharge events generated by major snow and glacier melt events and large late-summer rainfall events. A significant correlation exists between the late subannual thickness series and the size of the largest rainfall events in late summer. The long record indicates there was an abrupt increase in the thickness and frequency of major rainfall-induced sedimentary events at the end of the seventeenth century. In addition, the frequency of laminae generated by early runoff events also increased. However, early subannual varve thickness component remains statistically the same as the thickness prior to the end of the seventeenth century. This suggests the change in varve thickness at this time is due to increases in major late-summer rainfall frequency rather than increased sediment availability caused by regional Little Ice Age glacier advances.

Timing and climatic controls over Neoglacial expansion in the northern Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canada

Holocene sedimentary records from two lakes in White Pass, British Columbia, show that the onset of Neoglacial sedimentation began c. 2 ka cal. BP. Prior to this time, the lakes accumulated organicrich sediments, with properties and sedimentation rates similar to adjacent lakes that have not had glacial influences during the Holocene. Neoglaciation at White Pass was coincident with the increased delivery of exotic Tsuga heterophylla (western hemlock) pollen. These results, together with regional indications for increased delivery of hemlock pollen at 2 ka BP by a deepened low pressure in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, suggest that increased moisture was important for the expansion of glaciers in the region in addition to longer-term late Holocene cooling.

Skagway, Whitehorse and the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway

The White Pass and Yukon Route, a 177 km narrow gauge railway linking the Alaskan coastal port of Skagway with Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon Territory, ceased operations in October, 1982, a casualty of the economic recession of the early 1980s which brought about the collapse of the Territory's hardrock mining industry. The railway had been constructed by British interests between 1898 and 1900, that is, in the aftermath of the Klondike gold rush, and had been in continuous operation since that time. In this paper, the author traces the broad lines of the history of the railway and shows the various ways in which it influenced the development of Skagway and of Whitehorse, its ocean and inland termini respectively. The closing of the railway was a major blow to Skagway, where White Pass Transportation and its subsidiaries were the principal employers, and where over two-thirds of the railway's employees were located. The closing appears to have had a more limited impact on Whitehorse, a much larger community whose economy is now highly diversified.

Eocene (51 Ma) end to northward translation of the Coast Plutonic Complex: paleomagnetism and K–Ar dating of the White Pass Dikes

The White Pass mafic dikes are located in the Coast Belt, inboard of the Coast Shear Zone–Denali Fault System, east of Skagway, Alaska, astride the Alaska–British Columbia border. The dikes intrude Eocene felsic plutons in the Coast Plutonic Complex. Three K–Ar analyses date the dikes at 51.9±0.8 Ma (biotite), 50.1±1.0 Ma and 45.0±0.8 Ma (both whole rock). Structural analysis on these vertical dikes indicates that the study area has not been tilted significantly since dike emplacement. Conventional alternating field and thermal step-demagnetization and saturation-remanence paleomagnetic methods were used to analyse 407 specimens from 27 dike and five host rock sites. Three contact tests show that the specimens retain a primary thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) carried in pseudosingle to multidomain magnetite, although some magnetization in a few dikes is carried by pyrrhotite. The dual-polarity TRM is mostly reversed and the 24 accepted dike sites give a pole position of 245.7° E, 76.3° N ( d p=4.2°, d m=4.4°), indicating a paleolatitude discordance of 8±4° south and a clockwise rotation of 40±9° with respect to the North American craton. These data, along with other paleomagnetic data on Eocene rocks, indicate that the allochthonous eastern Coast and Intermontane Belt terranes had halted their northward translation by about 51 Ma but continued to be rotated clockwise by an average of 24±10° thereafter, probably on underlying sole faults.

Treatability Testing of Intrinsic Bioremediation, Biostimulation, And Bioaugmentation of Diesel-oil Contaminated Soil At 5 ° C

Abstract To support the remediation design for a diesel-oil pipeline break near a remote railway river crossing near the British Columbia and Alaska border, a treatability test was designed to assess the in-situ bioremediation potential under four conditions of soil amendments at 5 ° C. The four conditions were:intrinsic bioremediation, where the soil received only water;biostimulation with one application of slow-release fertilizer;bioaugmentation with one application of both fertilizer and a psychrotrophic (cold-adapted), hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial culture; andsurfactant enhanced bioavailability, where the soil received one application of fertilizer and treatment with a biodegradable surfactant solution. Tests were monitored by soil respiration and bacterial enumeration and total extractable hydrocarbon (TEH) content by GC/FID. After 40 days incubation under aerobic conditions, all tests showed significant reduction in diesel range (C7 - C30) THE contamination. The intrinsic control was least effective, but still showed 66% TEH reduction at 5 ° C. The biostimulated soil performed the best, allowing 86% TEH reduction. The bioaugmented soil and surfactant treated soil both allowed about 75% TEH reduction. The study concluded that simple biostimulation with slow-release fertilizers would be the most appropriate bioremediation approach for this site. Introduction A four-inch diameter petroleum pipeline, located adjacent to the rail tracks of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, was broken by heavy equipment working in the area in October 1994. A significant quantity of Arctic diesel fuel leaked and immediate efforts were made to recover most of the product through the summer of 1995. Following site investigation in November 1995, a plume of diesel contamination was delineated in the gravelly cobbles and boulder fill supporting the railway bridge over the East Fork Skagway River. The plume had migrated downward through the fill to bedrock surface. Liquid product at the toe of the slope could discharge with shallow groundwater flow over ground surface into the river. The estimated 500 m3 of residual hydrocarboncontaminated fill supporting the railway bed required remediation to prevent continued contamination of the water passing through the contaminated area. Initial soil chemical and biological data indicated that active natural biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons may be occurring at the site, but appears limited by natural nutrient level and the indigenous bacterial population at the site. The gravelly soil near the toe of the slope contains between 1,000 and 5,000 mg/kg of total extractable hydrocarbons (TEH) and has an indigenous heterotrophic bacteria population of between 104 and 106 bacteria/ g of soil. Excavation of the slope and structural fill supporting the operating railway was not feasible; therefore, in-situ remediation options were considered. Because of the generally low volatility of some components of Arctic diesel and the lack of electrical power at the remote site, in-situ bioremediation was considered the most feasible option. To determine the optimal conditions for in-situ bioremediation of this hydrocarbon-contaminated soil, a laboratory-scale treatability study was carried out. Because of the cold climate near the Alaska-British Columbia border, it was imperative that the testing be performed at the expected ambient soil temperature of about 5 to 8 ° C.

White House Pass?

White House Pass?

Late Quaternary Vegetation History of White Pass, Northern British Columbia, Canada

Paleoecological investigations at two sites in the White Pass, Drizzle Pond, and Waterdevil Lake, provide a record of late-Quaternary vegetation change in this mountainous region of northern British Columbia. The vegetational sequence at Waterdevil Lake (875 m a.s.l.) has four stages: (1) shrub tundra with alder (Alnus crispa) and dwarf birches (Betula glandulosa/nana) from 10.5 to 8.5 ka; (2) shrub tundra with alder and dwarf birches plus juniper (Juniperus communis) on drier microsites from 8.5 to 5.2 ka; (3) spruce (Picea) woodland from 5.2 to 4.0 ka; and (4) open woodland with lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) from 4 ka to the present. Alpine shrub tundra has persisted around Drizzle Pond (910 m a.s.l.) throughout the Holocene and only varied slightly in composition.The fossil record demonstrates that White Pass did not serve as a migration route for those major tree and shrub species that occur on both the coastal and interior sides of the pass. Because the highest elevations in the pass have always been in alpine tundra, it is unlikely that trees could have crossed the divide. Although subalpine fir, spruce (probably white spruce), lodgepole pine, mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana), and alder occurred within the White Pass during the Holocene, the timing of their arrival there in comparison with arrival times on the coast and interior also indicates that the pass was not the route by which these species entered the interiors of British Columbia or the Yukon Territory.

Late Quaternary Vegetation History of White Pass, Northern British Columbia, Canada

Late Quaternary Vegetation History of White Pass, Northern British Columbia, Canada

Passing in the Fiction of Jessie Redmon Fauset and Nella Larsen

Passing, which both destabilizes and reinforces the construction of ethnic identity, is seen by African-American women writers principally in the context of the denial of the right to one's chosen work. When white people pass for black they may or may not have to change the colour of their skins. Ray Sprigle, author of In the Land of Jim Crow, simply let it be understood that he was black during his foray into the South, and in a month was challenged only twice once because he talked too much.1 John Howard Griffin, author of Black Like Me2 and Grace Halsell, author of Soul Sister,3 both used chemicals to dye their skins black. Black people passing for white do not change any reality, but only exploit the fiction that 'black' people are necessarily black. Two African-American women novelists wrote fictions about this fiction: Jessie Redmon Fauset's There Is Confusion (1924), Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral (1928), and Comedy American Style (1933),4 and Nella Larsen's Passing (1929).s It should be remembered what powerful inducements there were for African-American women to pass, even if only on a temporary basis, right up to 1964, when the Public Accommodations element in the Civil Rights Act of that year, the first comprehensive package of anti-discrimination legislation since Reconstruction, imposed legal, enforced penalties for the barring of black people from any kind of social space. Even some of the most ardent anti-racist women campaigners, such as Mary Church Terrell and Lucy Parsons, did not condemn passing. Mary Church Terrell, born a slave in Tennessee in 1863, was, like Ida B. Wells, author of the celebrated pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892) ,6 a friend of the Tom Moss who was lynched in Memphis in 1892: as a consequence she visited the White House with Frederick Douglass to ask President Benjamin Harrison

The abundance of exotic western hemlock pollen at Waterdevil lake, white pass, northern British Columbia: a preliminary analysis

The abundance of exotic western hemlock pollen was studied at Waterdevil Lake, northern British Columbia, in order to determine whether or not its depositional history was independent of change s in pollen productivity in the likely source area, coastal forests of western hemlock-Sitka spruce, about 30 km to the southwest. A comparison with the abundance of western hemlock pollen at Lily Lake, Alaska, which lies within the coastal source area, supports this notion. The one major vegetational change during the late Holocene at Waterdevil Lake, the transition from subalpine fir forest to lodgepole pine-subalpine fir forest, coincides with an increased abundance of exotic western hemlock pollen. These preliminary results suggest that a study of exotic pollen in this region may be useful for interpreting past changes in circulation patterns.

The White Pass: Gateway to the Klondike

Journal Article The White Pass: Gateway to the Klondike Get access The White Pass: Gateway to the Klondike. By Minter Roy. (Fairbanks: The University of Alaska Press, 1987. xii + 394 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95.) Thomas G. Smith Thomas G. Smith Nichols College, Dudley, Massachusetts Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Western Historical Quarterly, Volume 20, Issue 2, May 1989, Pages 226–227, https://doi.org/10.2307/969356 Published: 01 May 1989

The Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899, Including the Identities of Those in the Staff Picture

For a boy seven and one-half years old, the boarding of the steamship George W. Elder at Seattle for a voyage to the unknown north was an exciting experience. At that age one is apt to remember exciting experiences more than others, and the Harriman Alaska Expedition was filled with excitement. I recall steaming into the fiords with the great glaciers all around and hearing at intervals the boom from the icebergs breaking off. The trip up the newly built railroad to White Pass, and the many tragic stories of the Gold Rush miners attempting to climb their way to the upper reaches of the Yukon, is still indelible in my mind. A particular thrill was being taken to the beach in Siberia in front of an Eskimo village. The Eskimos looked strange and formidable. But the greatest thrill of all was the night we hit a rock in the uncharted waters of the Bering Sea. It was about midnight. We were all pulled out of our bunks and told to put on our life jackets. When we came on deck, it was still broad daylight even at that hour at that latitude in June. The lifeboats were being prepared in case we had to abandon ship. I still vividly recall the thrill of thinking that we might have to put to sea in one of the lifeboats. I did not recognize any danger and thus had no fear. As it turned out, by reversing the propeller and other maneuverings, the captain was able to pull us off the rock, and we proceeded on our way. Throughout the expedition the scientists talked freely with us children, and I remember particularly two men-John Burroughs and John Muir. They would walk the deck together and stop and talk to us in a kindly manner. This kindness tended to offset their rather terrifying appearance with their long gray beards. Looking back it seems to me as if almost every day had some new and fascinating experience; so when we finally landed at Seattle two months later, I was a sad boy when I walked down the gangplank, thinking that the end had come. I had, of course, no conception of the lasting influence of thefindings of the distinguished scientists who took advantage of the opportunity the trip afforded. In going to Alaska in recent years, Ifind that people still speak of the expedition and of the scientific discoveries that were made at that time. Forty-two years later, the expedition came up in my first talk with Stalin. In September 1941, Lord Beaverbrook and I headed Anglo-American missions to Moscow to find out what supplies the Russians needed the most to help them hold out against the Hitler invasion. Stalin received us in the Kremlin on the first night of our arrival. He asked about my previous visits to Russia, and I told him that my first visit was made without a passport. He looked surprised. I explained that in 1899 my father had landed us on the east coast of Siberia, and of course we had no passports. He commented: Oh, that was under the Czar; you couldn't do it now. He showed more concern with the security of Siberia than with my father's extraordinary expedition!

The Fox Sparrow in Southwestern Yukon and Adjacent Areas

The Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca) has not been reported from Yukon Territory of Canada southwest of Dawson, Teslin Lake, Nisutlin River, and Pelly River (Rand 1946; the last locality, on the Canol Road, is now called Ross River). From extreme northwestern British Columbia, Swarth (1936) reported it as a rare migrant and breeding bird at Atlin, but collected only one juvenile of the breeding population; Brooks (1927) saw several and collected an immature on 4 September 1924 at Log Cabin, near White Pass; Munro and Cowan (1947:231) recorded Shortt's July specimens from mile 85, Haines Road. From the northeastern corner of southeastern Alaska (east of Glacier Bay and north of Juneau) there are two records: Hartlaub (1883) reported a specimen taken by Arthur Krause on 1 February 1882 from Portage Bay; Bishop (1900:87) reported a specimen he took, one of several seen near White Pass on 9 June 1899. In 1972 I searched for Fox Sparrows in the areas mentioned above in June and early July and again in September and early October. They were scarce,

Questing for Gold and Furs in Alaska

edited by SVERRE ARESTAD 3 Questing for Gold and Furs in Alaska The complement two sets of each experiences other. Both recorded narratives here in concern a sense complement each other. Both narratives concern young men who, around the turn of the century, cast their lot with fur trappers, traders, and gold seekers looking for quick if not easy wealth in the Klondike gold fields, and in the fur trade in the even more forbidding wastes of the frozen Arctic coast of northern Canada. I Our gold prospector, "Yakima Pete" Norby, left Yakima, Washington, shortly after the news of the gold strike in the Klondike had spread throughout the world. From Seattle he shipped north by boat to the infant but roaring and rowdy town of Skagway, at the end of the Lynn Canal in southeastern Alaska. From there he trekked on horseback, on foot, and by boat over White Pass, through a chain of many lakes which empty into the Yukon River, and to Dawson down the Yukon. After four years and ten months "in and around Dawson," Yakima Pete returned to the Pacific Northwest, never to visit Alaska again. My only meeting with Peter Norby took place in his home at Port Townsend, Washington, in the fall of 1944. He and 54 QUESTING IN ALASKA his wife, the former Anna Bendixen of Port Townsend, were congenial, hospitable people. Norby, who was then seventy, seemed much younger, with a good deal of physical energy, a lingering spirit of adventure, and a head full of plans. One of them was to write a book about his prospecting days in Alaska that would bring in "a lot of money," a plan about which his wife expressed some skepticism. Six months later, I received a twenty-four-page manuscript from Norby, a part of which is reproduced here. So far as I know, that is all he ever wrote. His account of gold prospecting, reflecting his buoyant optimism , self-reliance, and good humor, is distinguished by his refusal to dwell upon the sordid aspects of life in the mining camps. According to the Port Townsend Leader of February 11, 1954, Peter Norby was "one of this area's best known pioneer residents . . . widely known for his fraternal, sports and civic activities over a long period of years." He was, for example , an "ardent skier and salmon fisherman," an original member of the volunteer fire department, a member of the Pioneers of Alaska, and an active participant in the Jefferson County Historical Society. Norby was born in Trysil, Norway, August 28, 1874. When he was ten he "began work as a cattle herdsman. At the age of 12 in 1886, he came to the United States and settled at Bloomington [Blooming] Prairie, Minn, where he worked on a farm. He came to Port Townsend in 1889 and worked for the Sawbridge Hardware Co., later going to Yakima to work for the same company." Norby 's account, completed at Port Townsend in 1945, is entitled "A Few Reminiscences about My Trip from Yakima, Washington, to the Klondyke in 1897." In the version to follow , alterations from his manuscript consist of condensation, some rearrangement of material, the rewriting of a few sentences for clarity, and standardizing of spellings for consistency . The flavor of the original has been retained. s. a. 55 FROM YAKIMA TO THE KLONDIKE IN 1897 by Peter ("Yakima Pete") Norby The story that I am about to tell is all true, and although some of the anecdotes may seem a bit exaggerated, they are not. When I mention Fred, Tony, Dick, John, Roxy, and Riley, I mean Fred Jungst, Tony Krober, Dick McDaniel, and John Miller, while Roxy and Riley were the two horses that Fred Jungst and I rode to Seattle from Yakima, and which we took to Skagway by boat and used to pack our outfits in to Lake Rennett. Lieutenant Wyckoff, a retired navy man, asked me at the dinner table in Mrs. Stone's boarding house on North Railroad Avenue in Yakima in the first part of August, 1897, if I would go to the Klondike if they would stake me. For the information of people who did...