The Chilkoot Pass

    The Chilkoot Pass was named after the Chilkat Indians. The Chilkoot Pass was near Dyea and close to the White Pass. The White Pass was another route to take to the Klondike. George Holt and two natives were the first over the Chilkoot Pass in the mid-1860's. After that, the Chilkoot Pass became a shortcut to the Yukon River. During the stampede, the Chilkats were paid as packers to help carry loads for miners, but in the summer of 1894 a man named Peter Peterson built a tram which was 10 sleds attached to a rope. When the sleds would reach the top they would be loaded with snow so that they would fall down the hill pulling the other sleds full of supplies up the hill. The Chilkats complained that the tram had put an end to their work. This tram didn't work too well because snow would get stuck in the bottom of the sleds and was hard to shovel out, and the supplies were sometimes too heavy. Peterson later built another tram. Then in 1897 another man named Archie Barns made a horse powered tram, then later a steam powered tram. Some men carved 3 foot wide stairs and benches out of the snow on the trail. There were so many men going up the pass they made a steady stream or line up the pass. If you got tired and lost your place in the line it sometimes took over an hour to get back in line to continue up. With all the men walking it took longer than the usual for the snow to melt. There were not many avalanches but there was the great avalanche of 1898 which claimed 68 lives.