Klondike Mines Railway

1904-1906: Promotion, Financing & Construction

The first to propose a concrete solution for these shortcomings was a businessman by the name of John H. Mackenzie. Arriving in 1898 via stern wheeler from St. Michael to Dawson City, Mackenzie first tried his luck in mining ventures between Fox and Monte-Cristo Gulches, only to reach the conclusion that far greater riches were to be found in the provision of various services to the miners.

Mackenzie understood the construction of a narrow gauge railway as a profitable investment and a sound solution to the Klondike transportation problem, indeed going as far as to suggest that the railway would pay for itself within a mere sixty days of operation. In conjunction with his business partner H. Stratton and with the promotion and financial support of Thomas O’ Brien, Mackenzie applied for a charter on December 17, 1898. A year later and following persistent lobbying from the business trio, a charter in the name of the Klondike Mines Railway was finally granted by the Canadian Parliament.The Klondike Mines Railway Company was incorporated in July 1899. It is primordial to note that it was O’Brien and a few others –James Arthur Seybold of Ottawa, William D. Ross of New Glasgow, Llewellyn N. Bate and Harold Buchannan McGiverin of Ottawa- and not the initial agents which headed the parliament's list of applicants on the charter. More so, the granted charter imposed clear restrictions on the approaching building of the railway, defining the route from start to finish and imposing provisions for both telegraph and telephone lines.

Construction of the railway began in the spring of 1903. Several intertwined developments explain the long time lapse between the chartering of the line and the start of its construction. On the one hand, conditions of the charter demanded that settlements with the over one hundred creeks’ claim-holders for damage compensation be made entirely before the construction of the railway. It was not legal issues with the miners, however, which stood as the prime cause of this construction standstill: it was rather the applicants’ lack of capital.

1906-1910: Completion & Operation

In November 1906, the Klondike Mines Railway was completed, traveling a total distance of 31.81 miles between Dawson City and Sulfur Springs.

1910-1913: Defeat & Dissolution

When the railway began operating again after the winter of 1910, the KMRy had reduced its weekly passenger service from six to three. The same season would also see the dissolution of the railway's mail contract, an agreement which had been enforced since July 1, 1909. On July 14, 1911, the railway announced a further reduction in passenger service. Trains would now leave only twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, and a motor car would leave on Wednesdays "carrying a limited number of passengers, mail, and express." Freight trains still operated more than twice a week. Tellingly, the summer of 1911 would turn out to be the railway's shortest season: ending their service on September 29, the railway would only have operated for a mere five months. This season would also be the last to see coach No. 200 & No. 202 in action, later left to rot on Klondike Island.

In light of the clear reduction in passenger traffic and of the exceptionally short length of the KMRy's operation characteristic of the summer of 1911, the company ceased all passenger service for the following year. In spite of this clear reduction in services, the company's imminent dissolution was not so apparent. Before the summer of 1912, General Manager E.A. Murphy anticipated an increase in the hauling of coal and other fuels for the dredges on Bonanza and Eldorado creeks. This predicted increase in freight service led to the purchase of KMRy #4, arriving July 2 on one of the first boats of the season. Perhaps unreasonably, dreams of connecting the Klondike Mines Railway to the White Pass & Yukon Route were still intimated: on May 12, 1912, the Dawson Daily News claimed that "the White Pass may come to Dawson & Fairbanks." The Klondike Mines Railway even doubled its operating staff, now four engineers, three firemen, and six brakemen. Increasingly, freight trains were working up to twenty-four hours a day.

By 1912, the KMRy's most important customers were the gold dredging companies along Bonanza Creek, most particularly those owned and operated by Joe Boyle's Canadian Klondyke Mining Company. Since all of these dredges worked steam thawing plants, these companies were dependent on the railway for the constant delivery of cordwood required for the process. The dependence which characterized the relationship between the gold dredging companies and the Klondike Mines Railway was mutual: having interrupted its passenger service to focus its activities on freight business, the eventual dissolution of three of the dredges on the railroad route meant a significant and incurable blow to the railroad's operation. More so, the railway's efficient focus on providing the materials for the creation and operation of mechanized mining companies implied and necessitated its eventual termination. as Greg Skuce emphasizes in The Klondike Mines Railway, "the railroad hastened its own end by putting the machinery of the modern mining companies into place." With a mining process increasingly mechanized and a correspondingly decreasing population -in large part thanks to the efficiency of the railway in quickly delivering machinery to the major creeks- the railway very much contributed to its own downfall. Tellingly, the population of the territory had dropped from 27,219 in 1901 to 8,512 in 1911, and gold production figures for 1918 show an 80% decline from 1912. The railway could not have done otherwise than to shut down its operations.