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.

Character Defining Elements

Key elements that express the historical and aesthetic value of the site as an example of a Yukon roadhouse complex include:

• The complex of five interrelated buildings with their scale and form, which reflect the prominence of the roadhouse and auxiliary nature of the adjacent buildings.

• The spatial relationship between the extant structures, remnant foundations, and features including sections of fencing that once surrounded the site.

• Elements that indicate the historic uses of each building, including:

o The massing of the roadhouse (Building 1) which dominates the smaller buildings of the site; and

o The stalls and trough at Building 2 (Stable).

• Rough hand-hewn horizontal log construction with notched corners and chinking of oakum, textile scraps, and mud daubing.

• Varied rooflines with various pitches clad with metal, plank boards, and sod.

• The weathered quality of the buildings and their various stages of decay.

Key elements that express the historical and cultural value of the site’s association with resource extraction, infrastructure development and homesteading in southern Yukon in the early 20th century include:

• Proximity to South Klondike Highway, which was originally the Carcross to Whitehorse Road, and part of the Alaska Highway from 1942 to 1943.

• Foundations, including those of buildings built by the United States Army.

• Its location to the west side of the WP&YR, and the Annie Lake Road to the north.

• Railway tracks and remnants of removed railway siding.

• Its location in a valley-floor meadow (created by agricultural use of the site) surrounded by pine and spruce.

Key elements that express the social value of the site as a place of traditional use, recreation and point of interest include:

• The publicly-accessible nature of the site.

• Picturesque view of Mount Lorne, and the views across the field to the complex.

• Its location along an extensive recreational trail network.

• Its location within an open, grassy meadow on the valley floor, traditionally important for trapping or hunting ground squirrels and other small game

• Its location within the Carcross Tagish First Nation and Kwanlin Dun First Nations traditional territories.

Description of Boundaries

Lots 268, 269, 272 Parcel A, 272 Parcel B, 272 Parcel C, and 273 Parcel A & 273 Parcel B, Group 804, YT, Plan No. 19940

Construction Style

2 storey squared log structure, saddle notched at corners with medium pitched gable roof constructed with frame rafters. and minimal eaves. Gables are flush planks. Wood frame windows/door openings with plain 1X6" trim. Foundation is concrete pads and sill beams. Wired for electricity with a single light receptacle ceiling on the north side. Plain interior trim is painted. Second floor west and south walls and the southwest corner of the roof have remnants of "cellulose" insulation and are encased in black paper and "donacona" that is water stained and in pieces. A kerosene or gas can is on the dirt floor. Stacks of lumber stored on the second floor. Sections of flowered linoleum are scattered on first floor.

Middle section - addition off south wall of 2 storey roadhouse has donacona covering 1X 6 lumber. Ceiling sagging, new bracing installed but ineffective and the ground has shifted. Walls are round log and saddle notched at corners. South section of east wall and west wall has frame area at door height and open framing under eaves. Plywood gable on south wall, sections missing. Logs are chinked with mud and moss, however most of the chinking is gone. Logs are beveled at window/door openings. Vertical log nailed in corner at cut joint where building is joined to 2 storey addition off west wall.

Two storey addition off west wall.

Two storey log addition with squared logs saddle notched at corners and a medium pitch gable roof clad with corrugated metal. Framing around window/door openings has remnants of red paint. 2 foot space between bldgs. Exterior bracing installed on north/south walls. Vertical 1 X 10 on west gable. 3 window openings and a door on the first floor have plain trim and horizontal 1 X 8 around lower part of the window to grade. Connecting doorway between addition and main cabin has an oversize door. Floor is covered with fir tongue and groove strip flooring, where sections are missing it is apparent there is a 4 foot crawlspace below floor. North face of roof charred from fire near chimney hole. 2 windows east gable - some detailing on west gable - difficult to determine if rafters are original. Window 2nd floor SE corner has cardboard and coloured paper remnants still attached and there is burlap hanging from between logs. Newspaper chinking in corners. Frame addition off north wall addition and east wall of main cabin. Timber uprights with 1 X 8 external cladding, door in the west wall. Shed roof with 1 X 6 sheathing covered with flattened cans. Shelving in SW corner - wood rotted, scattered lumber with exposed nails. Open wall in main cabin with a partial door jam left.

Cultural History

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.