Rails Through the Rockies
Yellowhead Pass, with its low elevation and gentle grade, seems like a good choice when surveyors were looking for a route to connect British, North America from coast to coast via a transcontinental railway in the mid -1800s.
It was originally chosen as the main route through the Rocky Mountains by Sir Sandford Fleming, Chief Engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway. The pass was abandoned in 1881 in favour of Kicking Horse Pass further to the south. It wasn't until early in the 20th century that the role of the Yellowhead Pass as a rail transportation corridor was revived.
Between 1906 and 1915, both the Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian Northern Railways built rail lines through Yellowhead Pass. The high level of traffic expected never materialized and both railways ran into financial difficulty shortly after the outbreak of World War I. The two routes were merged into the Canadian National Railway after only a few years of operation. Rails were removed from the abandoned sections and shipped east in 1917 for the war effort.
Lucerne
In 1913, the town of Lucerne, located on Yellowhead Lake, was a main division point for the Canadian Northern Railway. When the two railways merged, the town of Fitzhugh (later called Jasper) was chosen as the main station location, making Lucerne redundant. The Canadian Northern employees who kept their jobs moved to Fitzhugh, and the small town saw its population double by this influx of new residents.
“Yellowhead (Leather) Pass
After numerous, arduous and exhaustive surveys to find the most suitable all Canadian route for a railway to the Pacific coast of British Columbia, Sandford Fleming, appointed by the government of Canada as Engineer-in-chief, selected the Yellowhead (Leather) Pass to carry the line through the Rocky Mountains to the valleys of the North Thompson and Fraser rivers to Burrard Inlet. Rejected by the Canadian Pacific Railway company, the pass was later chosen by the Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian Northern railways to reach their respective termini at Prince Rupert and Vancouver.”
Source: Atlas of Alberta Railways