Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 152, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1915 — BEARS MADE TROUBLE [ARTICLE]

BEARS MADE TROUBLE

HAMPERED WORK OF RAILROAD BUILDERB IN ALASKA. Intense Cold Also Made Construction of White Pass A Yukon Line a Difficult Matter, but It Was Accomplished. The White Pass St Yukon railroad was built at the time of the famous gold rush and is one of the most remarkable enterprises of its kind in the world. Leaving Skagway it ascends the dreary and dreaded White pass to the headwaters of the Yukon, from which in summer boat may be taken to Dawson City. While making the surveys over the pass and subsequently during the work of construction, the railway builders were brought into close relations with the bears, who were the original inhabitants of the mountain sides along which the line runs.

Prompted by curiosity and hunger, the bears used to investigate the camps of the railway, and soon became so cunning and expert that nothing edible was safe from them unless it was watched day and night. The continuous heavy blasting at first frightened the animals, but they sbon learned how to shelter themselves from the falling rocks and stones. They also learned to recognize the warning Bhouts of the foreman and to post themselves so as to take advantage of the temporary absence of the men in order to steal the contents of their dinner pails. Actual construction commenced in June, 1898, and trains were running by August 25 over the first 14 miles of the line. The working force had increased to nearly 2,000 men August 8, when the news of the gold discoveries at Atlin reached the construction camps and reduced the number to. under 700 in two days. It was October before the working strength could be restored, by which time the work was almost entirely above the timbgr line and exposed to the full force of the Arctic winter storms. In many places the men had to be roped while working in order to prevent them being blown off +ae steep mountain sides, where the granite was so smooth and Blippery that the only foothold was often obtained from logs chained to thin bars drilled into the rock.

The cold and action of the wind were so intense that the men had to be relieved every hour, as longer exposure numbed not merely their bodies, but their minds, so that they had not sense enough left to tie a knot securely or do other simple things of similar nature. Throughout the winter the thermometer ranged from 20 to 40 degrees below zero, and sometimes even lower, at the construction camps. Nevertheless, the work was pushed rapidly forward, and February 18, 1899, the first train reached the summit of the White Pass, 2,866 feet above sea level and 20 miles from Skaguay.