Glowing red in an eerie landscape
Trimly set beside the tracks
Pretty much a potty stop these days
Or transfer point for White Pass out & backs.
Perched along Lake Bernard in the odd miniaturized glacial tundra landscape, Fraser is a spot to stretch your legs after the White Pass climb on the excursion train -- and for some, the to/from transfer to 'motorcoach.' For others, it was our Port of Entry into Canada -- we were on to the end of the tracks at Carcross, YT.
Explore North's concise description says most: (
visit link)
Fraser is located at Kilometer 36.5 of the South Klondike Highway in northwestern British Columbia. It is 34 km north of Skagway, Alaska and 69 km south of Carcross, Yukon. It is a Canada Border Services Agency ("Canada Customs") port of entry and a maintenance camp for the Yukon's Department of Highways and Public Works, which maintains this section of highway under contract to the British Columbia government. Fraser has no permanent residents and no businesses. A privately-owned micro-hydro project supplies electricity to the community. All housing is for Customs and Highways employees.
Fraser began as the location of a water tower for the steam engines of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway, which was built in 1898-1900 to connect Skagway and Whitehorse. The water tower structure still stands, but today the railway primarily uses Fraser as a place to transfer passengers between buses and trains.
"Fraser" is correctly pronounced fray-zer, but many people pronounce it fray-zher like the television sitcom Frasier.
======
Notes from the train:
The railroad more than paid for itself before it was even finished by starting service for each mile of completion. The math is simple.
Start with “One Ton of Goods.” A man can carry, what, say 50 lbs average, given packs of the time and general fitness of the individual. This is likely generous, actually, Though I’ve hefted some goodly packs myself. Ok. So load up 50 lbs. Carry it five miles. Cache it. Go back. Count: 10 miles. Repeat. Repeat 2,000/50 or 400 times. That’s 4000 miles to just cover 5 miles. Fraser is at milepost 27.7. Lake Bennett, where they were bound, queuing up for the spring thaw, was at milepost 40.5. Do the math. Yeah.
So each 5 miles that the railroad could carry a ton of goods took Four HUNDRED miles off the trek. You darn betcha it was profitable.
Not to mention, well, not as steep as the Chilkoot trail (which was too steep for pack animals), but moving yourself up that kind of elevation is hard enough.
Yup.
The railroad lifts 3,000 feet in 20 miles.
At Bennett Lake, Steamship service was established with in a couple years as well. [Imagine carting THOSE pieces up.]
Side Note: the White Pass Railroad only recently regrouped in the current incarnation as excursion service – and has run at DOUBLE the expected occupancy.