|
| Title | Horse drawn sled at Log Cabin on the White Pass Trail, ca. 1898 |
| Photographer | Unknown |
| Date | ca. 1898 |
| Notes | Caption on image: Log Cabin, White Pass Trail
On verso of image: The Northwest Mounted Police put those notices on cabin. I believe Log Cabin was built during the very first rush, '96-97. The Mollie Walsh tent road house was about 1000 yards in the opposite direction of photo.
Filed in British Columbia--Log Cabin |
| Contextual Notes | While many of the first stampeders in 1897 headed up the Chilkoot Trail, some chose the rough trail over the White Pass starting at Skagway and promoted by William Moore. Though the lack of a real trail prevented any great number of stampeders from making it through to Bennett Lake in the fall of 1897, the White Pass soon became an important parallel route to the Chilkoot.
Winter freeze-up and heavy snowfall actually improved the trail because the snow and ice made the trail surface more even. In the spring, rough areas and sections of the trail subject to thaw were corduroyed-tree trunks laid side-by-side on the ground as a rough roadway-or bridged by commercial packers. (Some of this corduroy is still visible on both the U.S. and Canadian sides of the White Pass Trail.) Even with these improvements, spring storms often closed sections of the trail for days at a time
Finally, by early March, 1898, the White Pass Trail was in good shape. A mounted rider could travel from Skagway to Bennett in a day. Pack horses, generally loaded with about 90 kg (200 lbs.), were slower, but were able to travel over rougher ground. However, the trail wasn't open for long. By May, the spring thaw effectively closed it down again. About that time, though, plans for a railway through the pass came to fruition.
Log Cabin, a day's walk from Bennett, developed as a major settlement in the first winter of the rush. In the fall of 1897, Thomas Tugwell and his son erected the grandly-named "British Hostelry" there. The pair of squat log buildings faced the trail, hugging the rocky ground and providing only minimal head room; patrons were clearly expected to remain seated during meals. The British Hostelry offered rooms and meals to travellers, and office space to a variety of entrepreneurs. |
| Subjects (LCTGM) | Log buildings--British Columbia--Log Cabin; Horses--British Columbia--Log Cabin; Sleds & sleighs--British Columbia--Log Cabin |
| Subjects (LCSH) | Log Cabin (British Columbia)--Buildings, structures, etc. |
| Location Depicted | Canada--British Columbia--Log Cabin |
| Digital Collection | Alaska, Western Canada and United States Collection
|
| Order Number | AWC0451
|
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction, inquire about permissions, or for information about prices see: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/services/reproduction-info |
| Repository | University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division |
| Repository Collection | Canada Photograph Collection. PH Coll 393 |
| Object Type | Photograph |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from a photographic print using a Microtek Scanmaker 9600XL at 100 dpi in JPEG format at compression rate 3 and resized to 768x600 ppi. 2004. |
| Restrictions | For information on permissions for use and reproductions please visit UW Libraries Special Collections Reproduction & Use page
http://content.lib.washington.edu/sc-use.html |
