South Klondike Highway

Km 142.4 - Robinson Roadhouse

Robinson

Robinson was the flag station on the White Pass and Yukon Route railway (WP&YR) . The railway was built in the days of the gold rush to connect with Skagway, on the Alaskan coast, with Whitehorse, at the head of navigation on the Yukon River. This section of the railway, from Carcross to Whitepass, was built in the winter of 1899-1900. The Wheaten River district, approximately 30 km west of here, was the site of many mineral claims, most staked in the rush of 1906.

Valley of Gold

Just west of here is the Wheaton River district, an area that is home to deposits of gold, silver and antimony. Prospectors first investigated the area in 1893, three years before the Klondike Gold Rush, but it wasn't until 1906 that promising discoveries were found. That year saw a striking rush, with 500 claims filed in 90 days. Several wagon roads to the district were built from Robinson, described as a "city in embryo...which at present is composed of a log cabin roadhouse with its inseparable saloon and two or three tents." Two men surveyed a 320-acre townsite at Robinson in 1906; for part of that summer the North-west Mounted Police posted "a man with a saddle horse" here. The expected mining boom didn't come about, however, and Robinson remained a small settlement. Mining did continue sporadically and in recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the area.

“Stikine Bill” Robinson

Robinson station was named after William C. Robinson. He was known as “Stikine Bill” from his days in British Columbia's Stikine River country. Robinson was general manager of the Red Line Transportation Company, set up by WP&YR during construction of the railway. In the winter of 1898-99, when the railway was only completed as far as the Summit, the Red Line worked under contract to WP&YR, "filling the gap" by hauling freight and supplies between the end of rail and Lake Bennett. Once the railway reached Bennett, Robinson designed the “Torpedo Catcher,” a huge scow built to carry materials, supplies and rolling stock down the lake to Carcross for use in building the Carcross-Whitehorse section of the railway. Robinson also ran the grading crew along this stretch of railway during its construction in the bitterly cold early months of 1900. According to the railway's president, Samuel Graves, Robinson had “...a considerable reputation as a taskmaster whose bulk and mastery of profanity could provoke the indolent toiler into spirited action.”

Charlie McConnell: Robinson was also a post office from February 1909 until May 1915 and Charles McConnell was the postmaster. McConnell stayed on here and operated one of the few ranches in the territory. Robinson was a flag station until the railway shut down in 1983.

In 1942 McConnell was described as “an alert and active old gentleman who still drove a 1924 Ford touring car with brass radiator and planetary transmission. To start the car he jacked up one rear wheel, cranked the engine as there was no self-starter, and away he rolled.”

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