Sights & Sounds
Bennett, British Columbia
Lake Bennett, darkened once by the rafts of gold-seekers, but disturbed now by no more than a ruffling wind or the spatter of water-drops behind a string of ducks rising to fly.
Bennett, British Columbia, Canada is an abandoned historical town next to Lake Bennett. It was built during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897–99 at the end of the White Pass and Chilkoot Trails from nearby ports of Skagway and Dyea in Alaska. Gold prospectors would pack their supplies over the Coast Mountains from the ports and then build or purchase rafts to take them down the Yukon River to the gold fields around Dawson City, Yukon.
Lake Bennett, High in the Mountains
Today White Pass & Yukon Route features Bennett as part of the Yukon Adventure excursion and also as a charter package for meetings/events & weddings.
The Yukon Adventure Excursion stops in Bennett.
Special Charters
For information regarding charter trains with White Pass, please email Jacqueline Taylor-Rose, Marketing Manager at jtaylor-rose@wpyr.com
Location
The Bennett Experience can be easily built into any existing itinerary.
Bennett Panoramic
Carcross Fraser Panoramic
Lunch Included
Scheduled train excursions visiting Bennett include an onboard boxed lunch along Lake Bennett.
Walking Tour Map
Come, step outside the station into a unique sub-alpine ecosystem. Walk in a landscape carved by glaciers millennia ago, and see it much as it was when coastal Tlingit traders first slipped over the Chilkoot Pass to meet their trading partners, the interior Tagish First Nations peoples.
Imagine you were here in 1874 when prospector George Holt became the first outsider to arrive at Bennett’s shore. As the trickle of hardened “Sourdough” prospectors over the mountains continued to grow, in 1897 they were joined by thousands of “Cheechacko” newcomers.
Come with us and explore Bennett, the gold rush town that formed at the junction of the White Pass and Chilkoot trails! Although these hills once resounded with the sounds of 10,000 voices, today it is a serene trek with little but the church to remind us of its gold rush past.
Stop No.1: Lakeshore in front of Railroad Depot
Stop No.2: Parks Canada Boundary
Stop No.3: Bennett Street
Stop No. 4: St. Andrew’s Church
Stop No.5: Chilkoot Trail
Stop No.6: Government Hill
Stop No.7: Front Street