Alaska and the Yukon in 1928

Ever since the “days of ’98,” the Yukon has been a major mining area. In 1928, when this booklet was produced, the only way for a Canadian to get to the Yukon was to take a train to Vancouver or Prince Rupert, then a steamship to Skagway, Alaska, and then the White Pass train to Whitehorse, Yukon. When Canadian National and Canadian Pacific advertised their steamships to “Alaska and the Yukon,” the emphasis may have been on Alaska for U.S. passengers but the real point was the Yukon for Canadian passengers.

Click image to download a 9.5-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet.

The red and blue on the cover of this booklet is eye-catching, but inside is filled with muddy black-and-white photos with some chartreuse trim. The booklet emphasizes that steamship journeys start in Vancouver, which is underscored by a photo of Canadian National’s magnificent train station in that city (now the VIA station; a corner of Great Northern’s station is on the left side of the photo).

The emphasis on Vancouver seems strange because the steamships also stop in Prince Rupert, the terminus of Canadian Pacific’s predecessor, Grand Trunk Pacific. Although it required a change of trains in Jasper, passengers could save at least a day going straight to Prince Rupert and catching the steamship there. Perhaps CN was just trying to get the extra fares from carrying people between Vancouver and Prince Rupert.


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