The Road to the City

The long blacktop road, Yellowhead Highway 16, that links Prince George and Jasper through the Robson Valley is officially forty years old this year. The story of this road begins when the Grand Trunk Pacific railway was being built. People in the new towns of Dome Creek, McBride, Dunster, Lucerne and smaller settlements in the valley soon realized that they were at the mercy of the railways for freight and passenger costs.

A tote road was built during railway construction for hauling materials, but most of it was abandoned when the railway was completed. When politicians came to the valley the biggest issue was the need for a road connecting east and west. When no politicians were available letters flooded from all the organizations. A road did gradually creep from McBride towards Tete Jaune and every new stretch was hailed with enthusiasm and a race to be the first to try it out.

During the 1930s depression, road camps were set up for unemployed men. Little was achieved, but by 1935 there was a wagon road to Valemount which could be used in good weather. Camps for Japanese internees were set up between Tete Jaune and Jasper in the early 1940s. The men worked clearing brush on the Canadian Northern rail bed which had been abandoned when the railways went bankrupt after WWI. This was the beginning of the present road through the Yellowhead Pass, but there were many more years farmers who lived near infamous mud holes needed to have their teams or tractors at the ready.

By 1943, daring or desperate travellers made it through from Jasper to McBride. This trail was open in dry summer weather in some years and often maintained by local travellers. Later in the 1940s the McBride and Jasper Boards of Trade got together to promote building a proper highway. To this end they held a rally, the Mount Robson Caravan, almost every year for nearly twenty years. Hundreds of people worked their way to the site  repairing bridges and washouts, to enjoy themselves with a picnic and listen to politicians promising new and improved roads.

In the mid-1950s some serious road building took place. A new bridge and approaches were built at King Creek, only to be replaced again when the final highway was built. A seven mile stretch of wide straight gravel road was built west of McBride. It stopped at McIntosh Creek and remained so for at least ten years, used mainly by teenagers showing off in their parents' cars. It was 1968 before vehicles could finally make it through to Prince George.

August 1970 saw about 400 people at Mount Robson celebrating the opening of Highways 16 and 5 under brilliant sunshine. After 55 years the people of the Robson Valley could drive out both east and west.

Marilyn Wheeler, March 2010