[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 69 (Wednesday, June 7, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S4667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     RECOGNITION OF WHITE PASS & YUKON RAILROAD'S 100TH ANNIVERSARY

 Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize an 
Alaskan institution as it nears its 100th birthday.
  It is a major tourist attraction in Alaska, the eighth most popular 
in the state in 1998, boosting ridership in 1999 to about 274,000 
passengers. It is an engineering marvel, having been named an 
International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1994, such as the 
Panama Canal, Eiffel Tower, and the Statue of Liberty. It is an 
historic institution, its history tied directly to that of the 
Territory and State of Alaska. It got its start because of the famed 
Klondike Gold Rush of 1898--the last great Gold Rush in North American 
history. But it is more.
  The White Pass & Yukon narrow-gauge Railroad is a lasting monument to 
the power of a dream, and to the ability of this country to mobilize 
technology. And it is proof positive that if you never give up, you can 
accomplish any worthwhile task, no matter how difficult the challenge. 
That lesson is as important today, as it was in 1900, at the line's 
completion.
  It was early in 1898 when two men came north intent upon solving a 
transportation dilemma--intent upon moving men and supplies across the 
daunting Coast Mountains of Southeast Alaska, so they could reach the 
gold fields of the Yukon to forge national wealth for both Canada and 
America from the virgin wilderness. Sir Thomas Tancrede, a 
representative of a group of British financiers and Michael J. Heney, a 
Canadian railway contractor, by chance met one night at a hotel bar in 
Skagway, Alaska.
  Tancrede, after detailed surveys, had concluded that it was 
impossible to build a railroad through the rugged St. Elias Mountains 
that separate the interior of the Yukon from Alaska at the northern end 
of the Alaska Panhandle. But Heney had just the opposite view. After an 
all-night ``discussion,'' one of the world's great railroad projects 
was no longer a dream, but an accepted challenge.
  On May 28, 1898, construction began on the White Pass & Yukon Route. 
Utilizing tons of black powder and thousands of workers the project 
began. Two months later the railroad's first engine pulled an excursion 
train from Skagway north over the first four miles of completed track, 
making the WP&YR, the northernmost railroad in the Western Hemisphere--
the first built above 60 degrees north latitude.
  From there on, the going got tough. The railroad, truly an 
international undertaking, climbed from sea level at the docks in 
Skagway through sheer mountains to 2,865 feet at the summit of the 
White Pass. It faces grades as steep as 3.9 percent. Heney's workers 
hung suspended by ropes from the vertical granite cliffs, chipping away 
with picks and planting black powder to blast a right-of-way through 
the mountains. Heavy snow and temperatures as low as -60  deg.F 
hampered the work. And the mere whisper of a new gold find sent workers 
scurrying off in droves.
  With all odds against it, the track reached the summit of White Pass 
on Feb. 20, 1899 and by July 6, construction reached the headwaters of 
the great Yukon River at Lake Bennett. While southern gangs blasted 
their way through the pass, a northern crew worked toward Whitehorse, 
later the capital of the Yukon Territory. On July 29, 1900, the 110-
miles of rails met at Carcross, where a ceremonial spike was driven by 
Samuel H. Graves, the company's first president. It is that 
anniversary--the Golden Spike Centennial Celebration--that will take 
place in Carcross, Yukon Territory, on Saturday, July 29 that is a 
reason for this statement.
  Another reason, however, is simply to honor the White Pass, one of 
the most historic and quaint railroads in the world. Through the years 
when Alaska was a territory and later a state, the railroad enjoyed a 
rich and colorful history. It hauled passengers and freight to the 
Yukon; was a chief supplier for the U.S. Army's Alaska Highway 
construction project during World War II; and later was a basic freight 
railroad, hauling metal from the mines of the Yukon to tidewater in 
Alaska. The company after WWII began modernizing itself, retiring the 
last of its stream engines in 1964, switching to diesel locomotives. It 
became a fully-integrated transportation system, carrying freight 
(containers and highway tractor-trailer units) and passengers from 
Alaska to Canada's Interior.
  In 1982, however, world metal prices plummeted and the major mines in 
the Yukon shut down--metals being the most dependable freight during 
its first 82 years of service--causing the railroad's operations to be 
suspended. It was six long years later that the railroad reopened to 
provide tourist excursions for the 20.4 mile trip from tidewater to the 
summit of the White Pass and back to Skagway. It also picks up hikers 
who trek the famed Chilkoot Trail that ends at Lake Bennett and brings 
them to the Klondike Highway for road transport home.
  The railroad along the way paid homage to its heritage by saving old 
steam engine No. 73, a 1947, 2-8-2 Mikado class steam locomotive, and 
later restoring her for ceremonial service, so that passengers can 
venture from the docks in historic downtown Skagway--center of the 
Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park--toward the old Gold Rush 
cemetery, just 1.5 miles away. In those few miles, tourists can feel 
the rumble, hear the noise and experience the romance of historic 
American train travel.
  The White Pass embodies Alaska's ``boom-and-bust'' history, being 
born as a result of the Klondike Gold Rush. It is the direct result of 
the spirit and economic boom started in August 1896 when George 
Washington Carmack and his two Indian companions, Skookum Jim and 
Tagish Charlie, found gold in a tributary of the Klondike, later named 
Bonzana Creek outside of Dawson. The railroad experienced the 
territory's malaise in the early 20th Century, until World War II 
reinvigorated it. It survived the downturn in North American mining 
industry and is now benefiting from the growth of the nation's tourism 
industry and America's renewed interest in its history.
  All of America is better off for the railroad's presence. It today is 
a slice of living history that helps fuel the imagination of Americans 
and a love for our nation's past. It is a national treasure that we all 
need to protect and preserve. Happy Golden Anniversary to all the 
employees of the railroad and may you have a second great century of 
exciting and historic travel.

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