Lake Bennett, British Columbia
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Lake Bennett is a lake partly in the province of British Columbia and partly in the Yukon Territory, in Canada. It is just north of the border with the United States state of Alaska, near the Alaskan port of Skagway.
The narrow-gauge White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad connects Bennett, British Columbia at the south end of the lake with Skagway further south and Whitehorse, Yukon on the north. It runs between Skagway and Fraser during the summer months.
The abandoned town of Bennett, British Columbia and the town of Carcross, Yukon are on the shores of Lake Bennett.
During the Klondike Gold Rush, Lake Bennett was where the gold-seekers who had crossed the Coast Mountains from Skagway or Dyea, carrying their goods over the Chilkoot Trail or the White Pass, purchased or built rafts to float down the Yukon River to the gold fields at Dawson City, Yukon. In late May of 1898, the North West Mounted Police counted 778 boats under construction at Lindeman Lake, 850 in Bennett and the surrounding area, and another 198 at Caribou Crossing (now Carcross) and Tagish Lake. It was further estimated that another 1,200 boats were built in these areas over the next few weeks.
