The influence of the White Pass & Yukon Route on Yukon transportation and economic development extends from shortly after the Gold Rush to the present day. The company is best known for carving a railway through the mountains to enable easier access to the Klondike goldfields. It seized other business opportunities in river, air, and overland stage travel, and even tourism, sometimes causing resentment at its influence.
White Pass completed the first section of its railway from Skagway to Bennett in 1899, extending it to White Horse by 1900. The company's directors had wisely chartered the company as a general transportation line, Which gave it the right to build wharfage and docking facilities. In 1900 a White Pass subsidiary entered the river transport business. White Pass also held the winter mail contract and operated horse-drawn vehicles from 1902-1920 on the Yukon Stage Line.
In 1937 the company took to the air, transporting mail and passengers by airplane for several years, before selling its air division to Canadian Pacific Airlines in 1941. White Pass branched into petroleum products in 1927, expanding its facilities in 1941 to handle military and commercial demand. And for several years from 1945 on, company buses carried passengers, freight, and mail on the Alaska Highway.
