Yellowhead Pass

The Yellowhead Pass is a mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Americas in the Canadian Rockies. It is on the provincial boundary between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and lies within Jasper National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park.

File:Yellowhead Pass gscmcm 0748 e 1901 mn01.pdf

Topological map of the proposed, never-built Canadian Pacific Railway line from East Selkirk to Kamloops, passing through the Yellowhead Pass.

Due to its modest elevation of and its gradual approaches, the pass was recommended by Sir Sandford Fleming as a route across the Rocky Mountains for the planned Canadian Pacific Railway. The proposal was rejected in favour of a more direct and southerly route, through the more difficult Kicking Horse Pass, which was opened in 1886. Later the Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian Northern Railway used the Yellowhead Pass for their main lines, built c. 1910–1913. The main line of their successor, the Canadian National Railway, still follows the route. Via Rail's premier passenger train, the Canadian; the Jasper – Prince Rupert train; and the Jasper section of the Rocky Mountaineer use the Yellowhead Pass, which is now used also by the Yellowhead Highway.

The Yellowhead Pass was explored by fur-trading companies in 1810, and in 1813 Jasper House was established by the North West Company, as the route became well used to access furs in interior BC. In spring 1814 Gabriel Franchere, accompanying a Bay-bound fur brigade, departed from Fort George (formerly Fort Astoria) at the mouth of the Columbia River and arrived at Jasper House from the west. At that time, Jasper House was located on the west side of the Athabasca River on Brule Lake.

It is believed that the pass was named for Pierre Bostonais (nicknamed Tête Jaune, French for "yellow head", because of his blond hair), an Iroquois-Métis trapper employed as a guide by the Hudson's Bay Company. Bostonais led one of the first expeditions for the company into what is now the interior of British Columbia through the pass in 1820.

See also

• List of railroad crossings of the North American continental divide
• List of Rocky Mountain passes on the continental divide
• List of mountain passes

External links

• Template:Cite cgndb
• Template:Cite cgndb
• Jasper Alberta Yellowhead Pass History
• Yellowhead Pass and its People. Valemount Historic Society