Yukon Register of Historic PlacesYRHP

The Robinson Roadhouse Historic Site landscape and built heritage evidences the sites use as a railway siding and association with the White Pass Railway, its role in supporting early 20th century mining in the Wheaton Mining District, its later use as an agricultural homestead, and its association with several prominent Yukoners.

Robinson Flag Station:

Euro-colonial settlement began at Robinson with the White Pass Railway, which was laid between Skagway and Whitehorse in 1898-99 to facilitate travel north for the Klondike Gold Rush. The White Pass Railway was completed from Skagway to Whitehorse in 1900. A parallel track, or siding, was built in the rail line here to allow trains to pass one another. Robinson siding was a designated “flag station” where the train stopped on an as-need or request basis although no station was built. During the 1906 Wheaton gold rush a railway box car was parked at Robinson to accommodate waiting passengers.

The Robinson siding was named for William “Stikine Bill” Robinson who worked on many railway projects including an ill-fated one from Glenora in the Stikine River area. Robinson was head of the grading crew during the White Pass Railway construction and then managed the Red Line Transportation Company that brought construction materials, supplies and commercial freight over the 1899 gap in rail service between the White Pass summit and Carcross.

The Wheaton district miners shipped their ore to Robinson over pack trails or a 1907 wagon road to the mines on Gold Hill, where it was shipped out on the railway. A mine on Carbon Hill shipped ten tons of antimony ore 35 km to Robinson in 1916 and in 1918 the Tally Ho mine brought 14.6 tons of gold/silver/lead ore from Mt. Stevens.

The first wagon road between Whitehorse and Carcross was constructed in 1904 and improved around 1908. The railway was the only means of reaching the coast until the Klondike Highway was completed in 1979. Robinson remained a flag station until the railway shut down in 1983.

Robinson Roadhouse:

The Wheaton and Watson district west of Robinson attracted miners during a staking rush in 1906. Robinson was the closest point on the railway, and it was the natural place to pick up freight and mail, ship out ore, and gather to hear news. At the peak of the rush, William Grainger and Herman Vance claimed 160 acres on each side of the railway as a townsite—although one never developed because the boom proved short lived. Louis Markel, who had owned the Bon Ton Café in Whitehorse founded the Gold Hill roadhouse and saloon on Grainger’s land.

In 1907 Louis left for Fairbanks and sold his interest in the roadhouse to his wife Catherine—formerly of the Dominion Hotel—and she immediately made plans to construct a new two storey building. This is likely Block-1 of the extant roadhouse—the oldest still standing structure on site. Catherine operated the roadhouse for the next seven years until in 1915 she moved with her sons to Skagway. Charles McConnell took over the property and owned it until his death in 1946, after which it was abandoned.

Charles was from PEI and had been firefighter and weightlifter in Maine before coming to the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush and worked freighting for the White Pass during the railway’s construction. In 1908 or 1909 he became the postmaster at Robinson until the office closed in 1915. During this time, he seems to have begun farming and assisted with operating the roadhouse. In 1915 he married Florence Parvin and during the next thirty years they operated a sawmill and ranch in addition to the roadhouse. Additionally, they established a boarding stable for horses of the White Pass & Yukon Route and the Canadian Geological Survey.

McConnell’s ranching represented some of the earliest agriculture in southern Yukon and helped establish a homesteading tradition in the Mt. Lorne area that continues today. During McConnell’s ownership, the roadhouse was altered and expanded, and today features three distinct gable-roofed sections, with several shed additions.

The Wheaton Mining District:

Prospectors located silver in the Wheaton River district in 1893 and shipped samples to Juneau, Alaska where they caused some excitement. There were no maps to the strike and none of the prospectors returned so their “lost mine” became legendary. In 1898, W. P. Schnabel located the early workings on Idaho Hill where he and his partners started a mine. They built an aerial tramway and shipped out ten tons of silver ore in 1905.

Overly optimistic reports from miners on Montana Mountain, south of Carcross, attracted more prospectors to the area in 1906. The discovery of free gold (not mixed with other minerals) led to a staking rush on Gold Hill. More than 700 claims were staked, and a few rich pockets of ore were found.

The Wheaton mining district is rich in other minerals as well. The price of antimony, used in batteries and solder, was very high during World War I. White Pass & Yukon Route offered relatively low shipment rates from Robinson to the port at Skagway to encourage development of the region. Silver and stibnite (the natural sulfide of antimony) were mined on Carbon Hill and Chieftain Hill, but the deposits were small and too expensive to mine after the war. Mineral exploration of the region continued with little success until 1981 when the price of gold increased and improved exploration techniques included geochemical prospecting. An underground mine north of Mount Skukum was developed and produced 78,000 ounces of gold between 1986 and 1988.

U.S Military:

In the early 1940s, the US Army operated a camp and sawmill at Robinson, during its extensive infrastructural work in southern Yukon building the Alaska Highway. During this period, the US Army leased the White Pass Railway and improved the Carcross-Whitehorse Wagon Road (now the South Klondike Highway). The buildings from the US Military are long gone, though can been seen in archival images, documenting their time here.

Traditional Ways and Places:

The landscape in this region contains many signs of human occupation from generations past: old camps, hunting blinds, ancient campfires and stone tools. Stories told by Carcross/ Tagish elders provide the link between the past and present. As Carcross/Tagish families travelled their territory places like the natural meadow at Robinson were valuable for trapping or hunting ground squirrels and other small game.

This area has long been a crossroads of First Nation travel routes. People travelled from Fish Lake southwest of Whitehorse overland to Robinson and from there to Tagish, Caribou Crossing and even over the mountain passes to the Pacific coast. Other routes led west to Kusawa and Dezadeash lakes. More recently, we know that several families were hunting and trapping in this area including Kitty and Billy Smith, the Burns family, Albert Sam, Eva Sam, and Mary Billy. Robinson marked one of the boundaries of the hunting territory of noted big game outfitter Johnnie Johns.

More research is required to obtain a fuller account of these stories as well as the indigenous names for landmarks in the area.