Chilkoot Pass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Chilkoot Pass | |
|---|---|
 Miners climbing the Chilkoot Pass in the winter of 1897–98 during the Klondike Gold Rush |
|
| Elevation | 1,067 meters (3,500 feet) |
| Location | Alaska/B.C. |
| Range | Coast Mountains |
| Coordinates | |
| Topo map | NTS 104M11 |
| Transversed by | Chilkoot Trail |
Chilkoot Pass, elevation 1,067 meters (3,500 feet), is a pass through the Coast Mountains in the U.S. state of Alaska and British Columbia, Canada. It is the highest point along the Chilkoot Trail that leads from Dyea, Alaska to Lake Bennett, British Columbia. The Chilkoot Trail was a route used by the Tlingit for trade and later by prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush.
During the gold rush, three tramways and several surface hoists operated briefly over the pass. When the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad was built in neighboring White Pass, the Chilkoot Pass route fell out of favor.
The name Chilkoot is one version of Chilkat, the name of the Tlingit group that used the trail for commerce. The Chilkat River is also named after this group.
- "Take the oath again, Daylight," the same voice cried.
- "I sure will. I first come over Chilcoot in '83. I went out over the Pass in a fall blizzard, with a rag of a shirt and a cup of raw flour. I got my grub-stake in Juneau that winter, and in the spring I went over the Pass once more. And once more the famine drew me out. Next spring I went in again, and I swore then that I'd never come out till I made my stake. Well, I ain't made it, and here I am. And I ain't going out now. I get the mail and I come right back. I won't stop the night at Dyea. I'll hit up Chilcoot soon as I change the dogs and get the mail and grub. And so I swear once more, by the mill-tails of hell and the head of John the Baptist, I'll never hit for the Outside till I make my pile. And I tell you-all, here and now, it's got to be an almighty big pile."
-
- — Jack London, Burning Daylight (1910)
