Robinson Roadhouse
Construction Period: From 1906 to 1939
Designation Level: Territorial
in Robinson
The Robinson Roadhouse is located at kilometre 139.6 of the South Klondike Highway, approximately halfway between Carcross and Whitehorse. The site consists of five early 20th century vernacular log buildings and a number of building foundations located within a grassy meadow. The buildings include a c.1906 roadhouse (Building 1) and four early 20th century ancillary buildings (Building 2-5). Located on the west side of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway (“WP&YR”) just south of Annie Lake Road, the Robinson Roadhouse site served as the departure point for a staking rush to the Wheaton Valley in 1906, as a small settlement between 1907-1946, and as a flag station on the WP&YR until 1983. The Robinson Roadhouse site is located on the traditional territories of the Carcross/Tagish and Kwanlin Dün First Nations. The site is located on surveyed parcels lots 268, 269, 272A-C, and 273 A-B, Group 805, Robinson Station, 41571 CLSR YT.
Construction Period: From 1906 to 1939 Designation Level: Territorial
The Robinson Roadhouse site holds historical and aesthetic value as the most complete remaining example of a roadhouse complex in Yukon. Its c.1906 roadhouse and ancillary buildings, constructed of rough-hewn logs, are representative of the roadhouse complexes constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries along settler-colonial transportation routes throughout Yukon.
The Robinson Roadhouse site holds historical and cultural value for its association with resource extraction, infrastructure development, and homesteading in southern Yukon in the early 20th century. Robinson was originally established in 1900 as a flag station and railway siding by the WP&YR, where waiting passengers could signal the train to stop by raising a flag. Following the discovery of gold in the nearby Wheaton Valley in 1906, William Grainger and H. W. Vance staked a 320- acre town plot on either side of the WP&YR at Robinson. In the same year, the government constructed a wagon road connecting Wheaton Valley to the WP&YR railway siding at Robinson, and Lewis Napoleon Markle began construction of a roadhouse.
Although the town of Robinson was never developed, the Robinson Roadhouse served as a community hub for the miners of Wheaton Valley and surrounding homesteaders in the Mount Lorne area, who used the flag station to ship extracted ore and import supplies by rail. Between 1942 and 1943, Robinson was occupied with a camp and sawmill by the United States Army during the construction of the Alaska Highway and improvement of the Carcross-Whitehorse Wagon Road (today’s South Klondike Highway).
The Robinson Roadhouse site carries social value today as a well-used recreational site and point of interest along the South Klondike Highway, and as a hub within an extensive recreational trail network in the Mount Lorne area. Since the abandonment of the roadhouse in 1946, the site’s open grassy meadow and historic ‘spirit of place’ has contributed to its ongoing use as an informal picnic site and location for planned recreational events.
Located in the Carcross Tagish First Nation and Kwanlin Dun First Nations traditional territories, Robinson Roadhouse is situated within a broader first nation landscape, important for travel, trade, and cultural and traditional uses. The region contains many signs of human occupation from generations past. Places like this natural meadow at Robinson were important for trapping or hunting ground squirrels and other small game. Today, Yukon First Nations people still have close ties to this land. The site holds cultural value for its association with both past and continued indigenous use of the area.
