Digital Bob Archive

Road to Atlin

Days Of Yore - 07/22/1989

The Alaska Board of Road Commissioners was created by Congress in 1905 as an agency of the War Department and charged with the duty of building trails and roads in the then District of Alaska. Among the first to take notice of this new agency were the members of the Atlin Chamber of Commerce.

Scarcely three weeks after the Board of Road Commissioners was created, the Juneau Chamber of Commerce received a letter from the Atlin group, asking that Juneau cooperate in establishing a trail between the two towns. The letter suggested that the Juneau Chamber petition the road board to put in a trail from the upper end of Sliver Bow Basin to the boundary. \"That is claimed to be the most feasible route to connect Juneau and Atlin,\" the letter said.

The idea that a trail to the Taku River via Silver Bow Basin would be the most feasible may have been generated by a news story in a Juneau paper a couple of years earlier, on March 15, 1903. It said: \"Two large parties of Atlin Indians arrived last evening laden with furs which they will trade here. The two parties traveled together as far as the mouth of the Taku River. They then split up and made a race of it to see which could reach Juneau first. One bunch came over a pass in the mountains and down Silver Bow Basin and Gold Creek Valley. The other party took to canoes and came around Point Bishop and up the channel. The mountain climbers reached the city a full hour ahead of those who came by water.\"

While the Juneau Chamber was pondering how to respond to its Atlin counterpart, it received another communication, this time from the Atlin Council. A subcommittee of the Council, the letter said, had been studying the feasibility of an Atlin-Juneau wagon road. The subcommittee had reported favorably and the support of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce for the project was solicited.

\"Such a road would be less costly than a road from Atlin to Carcross,\" the Atlin Council wrote, \"and it would reach salt water. The camp has suffered because of having only one outlet, via the lake and railroad system to Skagway, and that route is closed much of the year because of the lake freezing.

\"The Juneau route would be open all year and is one-third the distance. It would provide an uninterrupted mail and express route and a route for shipping ore. This camp will be a gold producer for many years.

\"Little bridging will be necessary and good timber is available. From Atlin to the boundary is approximately 80 miles and it is reported that steamers could reach a landing within the Canadian boundary.\"

Between the trail via Silver Bow Basin and the steamer landing within the Canadian boundary, it must have been clear to the members of the Juneau Chambers that the Atlin people had little acquaintance with the Juneau terrain and were unaware that only very shallow draft vessels could travel up the Taku, and could do that only during the summer months.

That may be the reason that no news report of a response by the Juneau Chamber has been found. It may be that the letters were never answered.