Image

Album: Seattle, Washington 2007
Image: 478 / 545
Date: 2007-09-03 11:10:46
Tags: Seattle

The Treacherous Passes

Ethel Anderson's Story

Ethel, her mother, and two brothers arrived in Skagway in the late fall of 1898, following her father, a stampeder who preceeded them. The four traveled over White Pass where a train route, which was under construction, would not be completed for another ten months. In later years, Ethel Anderson describes the hardships of the trip:

"We arrived in Skagway, a peaked mother and three small children, ... I do not remember much of the trip to Whitehorse. ... A little red hood and wool coat were poor protection.

The ground was frozen and snow had fallen on the upper levels. Packers, pack trains and horses, all top-heavy with freight, choked the trails, hoping to gain the headwater of the Yukon before the river froze.

Somehow mother fed us and washed us, diapered Clay, and soothed him to sleep ... but it was an experience she would never talk about in later years. Hundreds of men turned back on that White Pass Trail. ... But that pioneer mama of ours was re-uniting her family. ... What greater urge is there?"