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Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway, The by Eric Johnson Klondike Mines Ry Soft Cover
Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway, The by Eric L Johnson
The story of the Klondike Mines Railway
Soft Cover
164 pages
Copyright 1997
CONTENTS
List of Mapsvi
Acknowledgementsviii
Introduction xi
Chapter 1The Klondike Goldfield 1
Chapter 2Transportation and the Railway 5
Chapter 3The Klondike Mines Railway Charter and Expectations - 1899/1901 11
Chapter 4Promotion, Hawkins Arrives 1902/1903 17
Chapter 5Stagnation 1903 25
Chapter 6Financing and Action 1904/1905 27
Chapter 7Construction Starts, and Falters 1905/1906 35
Chapter 8Completion, and Optimism 1906 45
Chapter 9Reality 1906 and 1907 57
Chapter 10Retrenchment 1908 and 1909 67
Chapter 11Struggle, and Defeat 1910 to 1913 79
Chapter 12Aftermath 1914 to 1928 101
Chapter 13Forsaken, and Remembered 111
Epilogue 127
Appendix AThe Klondike Mines Railway Prospectus 129
Appendix BTariffs and Selected Statistics 132
Appendix CThe Cordwood Industry in the Yukon137
Appendix DBiographies 139
Appendix ERolling Stock - Klondike Mines Railway145
Appendix FThe Klondike River Bridge154
Appendix GMining Railways of the Klondike156
Bibliography 160
Index 161
LIST OF MAPS
Yukon vii
The Klondike Goldfield2
Routes of the KMR and the Pioneer Tramway12
Proposed Railways to the Klondike 1897-190833
Dawson to Grand Forks50
Grand Forks (Bonanza)51
Sulphur Springs 53
Grand Forks to Sulphur Springs56
Dawson City 72
South Dawson and Klondike City74
Old Inn and Ogilvie Bridge94
Flannery Area 122
Railways of the Klondike District157
INTRODUCTION
The discovery of rich gold creeks in the Yukon in late 1896 created a stampede the like of which has not been seen since. Tens of thousands joined in the "rush" to the Klondike, although only a fraction of this number would eventually arrive at Dawson City, chief entry point to the goldfield. There, 1200 feet above sea level, where the Klondike River flows into the Yukon River, Dawson City, or simply Dawson as it was later known, sprang up within months of the discovery of gold. The gold creeks, however, were still some distance away. Central to the goldfield and about twenty miles to the south-east of Dawson is a lightly-wooded hill, over 4000 feet above sea level and the highest in the goldfield, appropriately named King Solomon Dome. Radiating from the "Dome" are five major creeks: to the north Hunker Creek and its tributary Gold Bottom Creek, to the east Dominion Creek, to the south Sulphur Creek, to the south-east Quartz Creek, and to the north-west Bonanza Creek. These creeks were the destination of the gold-seekers.
Encouraging prospects are said to have been found first on Quartz Creek and on a feeder of Hunker Creek, but it was George Washington Carmack's panning of very rich gravel on Bonanza Creek that started the great rush. Bonanza Creek flows generally to the north-west into the Klondike River barely a mile above the Klondike's confluence with the Yukon River. The valley of Bonanza Creek thus situated became the main traffic route to most of the workings, and the gravels of Bonanza Creek and its tributary Eldorado Creek quickly proved to be the richest in the Klondike. Within a year of the staking of the discovery claim the basins of all adjacent creeks were solidly staked. The discovery claim on Bonanza Creek was located about thirteen miles distant from Dawson; about one mile upstream Eldorado Creek flowed into Bonanza Creek, and here at 1600 feet above sea level a major camp named Grand Forks grew. By late 1897 settlements had been established on every one of the creeks surrounding King Solomon Dome.
Klondike Mines Railway Company was granted a charter in 1899, but it languished for several years as gold production in the Klondike peaked, and then fell off. The delay in construction of the railway was not, as is generally believed, the result of right-of-way locational difficulties, although this created temporary set-backs. The company needed a million dollars to begin construction, but it appears that until 1901 no effort whatsoever was made to solicit investors. While one charter member, Thomas William O'Brien, made a real effort to mobilize the project, he didn't have the resources to carry it. The other charter members could better be called promoters and none, it seems, aggressively attacked the financing problem. When in 1902 an engineer eventually accepted the challenge, it was more than two years before he was able to drum up financial backers. During this time good wagon roads were built into the goldfield, and stage lines operated into all of the larger camps in the district. Whether the railway should have been built at all now was debatable, but in 1906 it was finally completed with, however, a line much shorter than had been first visualized. Equipped with rebuilt, secondhand, rolling stock, the railway never reached projected business levels, and after only eight years of seasonal operation in a gold camp now very much in decline, the railway ceased operation.
Many details of the Klondike Mines Railway's history are unknown. If any readers can add to the story-or correct errors in this story the author would be grateful for their help. Should company documents, such as timetables and business records, be known they also would be of great value. Similarly, there must be many valuable photos of Klondike Mines Railway activity tucked away in old family albums. Anything provided me would, with the permission of the lender, be passed on to the Yukon Archives and the Dawson City Museum.
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