The marshy flat beside the railway tracks filled with buildings -- hotels, restaurants, and saloons to serve passengers on the railway and warehouses to accommodate freight. During navigation season, freight was transferred to steamers for its trip downriver. In winter, freight sleighs drawn by horses hauled it through to Lake-Laberge where it stayed until break-up.
However, as the railway pushed toward White Horse, Bennett was clearly doomed. In the spring of 1900, businesses began to leave the community. By early summer, with the railway almost at White Horse, Bennett had dwindled to about 80 people, from 2000 a few months earlier. A couple of years later, it was deserted, a Gold Rush ghost town.
