White Pass Railroad

Skookum Jim found gold in Bonanza Creek
In 1896
Within a year the Seattle Post screamed
Gold Gold Gold Get Rich!
A hundred thousand miners headed north to Alaska
To brave the ice and cold
But more got paid by the White Pass Line than
Those who ever found gold

In 97 the only way inland
Was to climb up Chilkoot Pass
Each miner had to carry up a ton of supplies
Before the Mounties would let ‘em past.
Sir Thomas Tancrede and old Michael Heney
Shook hands in a Skagway Bar
To build them a railroad and send off the miners
In the seat of a railway car.

Chorus
It took 30,000 workers and a million pounds of powder
Just to lay 100 mile of track
35 men and 3,000 horses
Went to work and never came back
Rising more than half a mile
Through the mountains and glaciers
Bringing back those sacks of gold
That shiny steam engine and the narrow gauge cars
Of the White Pass Railroad

The workers swung from ropes
On cold granite mountains
As they built them a wooden bridge
And blasted off sections of solid rock walls
Carving tunnels through the ridge
The thunder and the roar would
Echo through the valleys
As the sides of those mountains fell
Heney cried out “Give me dynamite enough
I’ll build a track from here to Hell”

Chorus

Now the gold’s all gone there’s no more miners
But the rail still runs there
You can ride between the cars watch eagles fly
As you roll past moose and bear
A majestic sight but just hold on tight
When that bridge creaks ‘neath your weight
Your heart in awe at what the miners saw
In the days of 98!

Chorus