RedPass B.C. is in the middle of Mount Robson provincial park and is about 48 miles west of Jasper Alberta.

The importance of RedPass was that it was the junction of the "C.N. mainline" from Edmonton AB to Vancouver B.C. and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. http://collections.ic.gc.ca/cnphoto/english/gtp3_ang.html

 

The pictures in the "RedPass" album were taken by me in 1965 while Dad was still an operator for the C.N.R.  The last I heard, all of the buildings were gone and even the station had been replaced with an Atco trailer.

 

We moved there in in 1964 from Ruthilda Saskatchewan. Dad was senior operator there and in 1965 became the station agent. In 1968 we purchased the general store and he left the railway. We had plans to rebuild the store or to move it up to the highway. When we applied for a new lease, were told that the existing lease was up in 2 years and were given the choice of selling what we could and leaving with nothing to show for our time other than what we could manage to sell, or the province would buy us out and we could leave with a bit to show for our efforts.

 

The provincial Parks and Recreation had decided that they didn't want any commercial outlets of any type in the park and were not renewing any of the leases. We sold out, taking what we could and left. The parks people even tried to get rid of people, (4 cabins on Moose lake) that had been there long before the park was created.

 

I have no idea what became of the stuff we didn't take with us other than a lot of it wound up in the garbage or was destroyed. There were items stuff that dated back over 50 years when we took the place over. There had been a wooden wall behind the door as you came in and it was covered with names, dates and where the authors came from and where they were going to. There was a lot of stuff that had historical value that dissappered one way or another.

 

We were the first business that was put out of existance.

 

The second business that was affected was Mount Robson Guest Ranch.

The ranch had a steady stream of people from around the world as guests. The majority of them arrived by train and a few flew in. The main attraction of the ranch was the Berg Lake Chalet that was behind Mount Robson and accessed by either walking, or by horseback. (The ranch guests rode up and supplies went in by pack train.) 

The part of the ranch that suffered was when the origional buildings at Berg lake were closed. I don't know a lot more about their situation at that time.