Bennett, British Columbia

Bennett
Ghost town
View of Bennett Railway station, British Columbia
Bennett Railway station

Location of Bennett within British Columbia
Coordinates: 59°51′N 135°00′W / 59.850°N 135.000°W / 59.850; -135.000Coordinates: 59°51′N 135°00′W / 59.850°N 135.000°W / 59.850; -135.000[1]
Country Canada
Province British Columbia
Location Bennett Lake at border between British Columbia and Yukon, Canada
Tent camp for klondikers 1897–1899

Bennett, British Columbia, Canada, is an abandoned town next to Bennett Lake.[1]

Today, the historic Bennett townsite is part of the Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site of Canada and managed by Parks Canada.[2] Bennett is also a stop on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad during the summer months.

History

Bennett, 1 June 1898, during the Klondike Gold Rush

Bennett was built during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897–99 at the end of the White Pass and Chilkoot Trails from the 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. When the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad was completed in 1900 it went right to Whitehorse, passing the port town. This led the entire economy of Bennett, based on stampeders and river travelers, to collapse.[3]

One of the establishments in Bennett was the Arctic Hotel, a combination saloon, restaurant, and hotel[4] set up by Friedrich "Fred" Trump (grandfather of Donald Trump) and Ernest Levin. [3] One biographer wrote that the original establishment included a brothel, a portrayal that Donald Trump said was "totally false".[4]

References

  1. 1 2 "Bennett". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  2. ↑ "Campground Guide". Hiking the Chilkoot Trail. Parks Canada. Retrieved 2016-10-28.
  3. 1 2 Markusoff, Jason (October 13, 2016). "Inside the wild Canadian past of the Trump family". Maclean's.
  4. 1 2 Pearson, Natalie Obiko. "Trump's Family Fortune Originated in a Canadian Gold-Rush Brothel". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
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