Map of White Pass & Yukon Route and Connections

Promoting alternative sources of railroad revenue during the twilight of the Klondike Gold Rush.

The Klondike Gold Rush kicked off in earnest in 1896 and brought tens of thousands of prospectors to the remote Yukon Territory near the (then-disputed) Canadian/Alaska border. Claims were made across a broad region, including near Lake Atlin, and while a few made it rich, many others lost their lives or their fortunes in pursuit of gold. The White Pass & Yukon Route was a narrow-gauge railway specifically constructed to transport those prospectors – linking the port at Skagway, Alaska (the territory’s first) with the Yukon’s capital at Whitehorse. When the fever died down and the flow of miners slowed to a trickle, the railroad began exploring remote vacation destinations as an alternate source of revenue.

This map of the White Pass & Yukon Railway, published in 1925 by the Poole Brothers, shows the operational route into the Yukon, plus connections with several steamship lines and government trails. Dozens of small towns, hunting lodges, and resorts are accessible along this network, emanating from Vancouver and Seattle. An inset in the upper right shows the Atlin Lake District, a boomtown from the Gold Rush that transformed into a popular tourist area for socialites during the 1920s. The base map of 1917 was updated through several versions to reflect small updates to operations.

Example (1922) at David Rumsey Map Collection.