Red Pass Junction came into existence with the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian Northern railway companies. The two railways were often within a stones throw of each other heading west from Edmonton to the Yellowhead Pass and along Moose Lake to Red Pass. Along Moose Lake you could reach out and touch a train; in fact, several sideswipes did occur. Here the railways parted company, the GTP northbound and east to Prince Rupert and the CNoR continued west to Vancouver.
The town site was originally surveyed with streets running parallel to the railway tracks; 4th.Avenue was the present day Yellowhead Highway. John Ashbridge arriving in 1951 declared, “Red Pass was every bit as beautiful a spot as on God’s green earth.”
After the fledgling railways had merged to become the Canadian National Railways, the community boasted of a 10-room hotel constructed in 1924 by Earl Woodley. Hotel Red Pass had a large dining room, lobby, children’s room, kitchen, pantry and a 20-seat beer parlor. The hotel accommodated travelers changing trains between the diverging lines for $7.00 per night. Grandpa Woodley tended the bar. The Woodleys also built the store and post office. The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1949.
A B.C. Provincial Police Barracks was built at Red Pass due to the transient nature of construction crews and the illegal transport of liquor; at the time the railway was the only means of transportation. A lone policeman would act as Game Warden, register births and deaths, dispense licenses and collect Poll Tax. The barracks was poorly insulated and pipes froze, requiring a fire to be built outdoors to boil water that was then poured over the frozen pipes and thus restoring the building’s heating system. A Driver’s License could be obtained without a written exam, no blanks to fill in, no driving test to do, no road signs to read; the policeman would ask a few questions and handed out a license “good for all time”. There was a large hobo jungle nearby; policemen on horseback would kick the bums off trains and chase them east to Rainbow Station and beyond to Alberta. The R.C.M.P. took over in the early 1950’s. The barracks was turned over to the Parks Branch in 1962 and, having no purpose for the building, it was torn down.
A school was built in 1935. The population varied reaching 96 persons in 1958, 18 were school age. The school closed in 1965 and remained boarded up in 1972.
Several Japanese Internment Camps existed throughout the Yellowhead Pass in 1942; the camp at Red Pass became a Road Construction Camp. Until then the poor trail used by the Overlanders in 1862 and the slightly improved “tote” road used to haul railway construction materials was maintained by local residents. By 1962 the C.N.R. had demolished the Rainbow and Yellowhead stations, removing a vital refuge for Red Pass residents who dared travel in poor conditions. Construction of the present day Yellowhead Route reached Red Pass in 1965.
Long distance telephone replaced the use of the railway telephone system in 1965. A telephone booth was installed and the B.C. Telephone Company officials toured the new unit and explained how the system worked.
Lloyd and Barbara Williams owned and operated the Red Pass Store. Barbara recounts in the book Yellowhead Pass And It’s People; there were bad times of heavy snow, 11 pm and 4 am mail trains and of good friends leaving but mostly good times, good friends meeting at the station, beautiful scenery, hunting and fishing, school concerts, picnics, work parties, caravans, bridge games, dances, births and husband Lloyd’s airplane. The Williams’ sold the store in 1967; the building met the same fate of the R.C.M.P Barracks.
Red Pass is a special place for me; today all the buildings are gone save the old generator shack at the Mile 44 bridge and a boxcar on the grounds of the old store site. I worked in Red Pass for two summers, smoked cigars on the store porch and fished in the lake. The scenery is still the best on God’s green earth.
The words are mine; historical facts were gathered from the book, “Yellowhead Pass And It’s People,” a project of local people supported by the New Horizons and Heritage Trust.
Max Jacquiard has captured the essence of Red Pass in his latest release, “Red Pass Junction”. (see page 35)
