Carcross - An Exquisite Little Surprise

Carcross, a small town with population about 300, is an unincorporated community in Yukon, Canada, on Bennett Lake and Nares Lake. It is home to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation and was a fishing and hunting camp for Inland Tlingit and Tagish people for at least the last 4,500 years.

The town was originally named Caribou Crossing by miners who had reached this junction point of the Tagish and Bennett lakes en route to the Klondike gold fields at Dawson. Twice a year large herds of caribou migrated across the easily forded Nares Lake shallows east of the townsite. That caribou herd was decimated during the Klondike Gold Rush, but a recovery program has raised the number of animals to over 450.

The modern village began in 1896, during the Klondike Gold Rush. At the time, Caribou Crossing was a popular stopping place for prospectors going to and from the gold fields of Dawson City.  As a consequence, it also became an important stop on the route of the White Pass & Yukon Railway, which was constructed at the turn of the century to transport miners, other people and supplies between Skagway and Dawson City.

The name Caribou Crossing was changed to Carcross in 1902 due to the lobbying of Bishop Bompas, who had established a school there for First Nations children the year before. Bompas was infuriated that mail addressed to the school was being redirected to other Caribou Crossings in British Columbia and Alaska. While the post office adopted the name change, the White Pass & Yukon Railway retained the station name of Caribou Crossing until 1916.

Today, Carcross is the terminus of the current White Pass & Yukon Railway route, whose sole purpose today is to transport tourists between the cruise ship docks in Skagway and the shores of beautiful Lake Bennett - and back again.  Tourists who are in, or want to travel to, Whitehorse, to the north, must use bus service for the connection between Carcross and Whitehorse.

When we arrived in Carcross on our drive down the South Klondike Highway on May 31, 2016, we were lucky to see the train arrive at the depot:

Trying to avoid the flood of tourists, we beat a hasty retreat to our chosen lunchspot, Caribou Crossing Coffee, where we had the best lattes we've tasted, other than those prepared by our niece Hannah and her partner David at Tostaduria Bisetti in Lima, Peru, or those that were prepared with cream-filled New Zealand milk in the little village of Mairangi Bay near David's sister Lizzy's home on the North Shore of Auckland.  No kidding, this coffee tasted great, and we picked up a few packs of beans to take home for our own coffee-brewing pleasure:

Oh, yes, and the panini sandwiches were absolutely scrumptious, too!

One of the most scenic features of Carcross is its setting on the shore of beautiful Lake Bennett:

Carcross is located at the north end of Lake Bennett and has a grand view of Surprise Mountain:

Carcross also boasts access to Montana Mountain, which is said to have the best mountain biking trails in the northwest.  It appears that Carcross, and Lake Bennett attract many types of adventure-seekers, including these young people who dared each other to go for a (very short) swim in the frigid waters of Lake Bennett:

Lake Bennett empties into Tagish Lake, which in turn feeds into Marsh Lake and the mighty Yukon River.  The Railroad bridge spans the river that empties Lake Bennett:

The town boasts hundreds of quirky buildings, including many residences, some of which have been standing since the town's early days:

People have decorated their businesses and yards in Yukon style.  Here is one landowner that displays hand-painted, gigantic gold pans:

The town also is home to the S.S. Tutshi Memorial - what remains of a steamboat that plied the waters of Lake Bennett and nearby lakes.  The southern lakes sternwheelers were constructed on the shores of Lake Bennett during the Klondike Gold Rush. They carried freight and passengers from Bennett City to Canyon City at the head of Miles Canyon just upstream from present-day Whitehorse.  Most of this boat service became obsolete when the White Pass & Yukon Railway began operation just before 1900.

The Bennett Lake and Klondike Navigation Company sternwheelers were called the "mosquito fleet". Interestingly, these boats were modeled after the "swift water" vessels that operated on the Snake, Williamette, and Upper Columbia rivers in the late 1800's.

The S. S. Tutshi, after being retired from service, was completely refurbished and opened for tourists in 1988.  However, in 1990, a fire broke out and burned nearly the entire vessel, leaving only its bow. Heartbroken, the citizens of Carcross paid for a memorial framework that helps a visitor imagine the shape and size of the original vessel, while preserving what is left of it.

We found Carcross an interesting stop because it played such a central role in the Yukon Gold Rush. The visit only whetted our appetite to see Skagway and Dyea, where all of the stampeders started their ill-fated odyssey to Dawson City.