pxrxllxls: Well paid engineers had better working and living conditions, 1883. Courtesy of Canadian
pxrxllxls: Well paid engineers had better working and living conditions, 1883. Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Archives; Front Street, Yale, BC, during the construction of the CPR, c. 1882. Courtesy of Royal BC Museum, BC Archives; Chinese railway camp; from the Onderdonk albums, c. mid-1880s. Courtesy of Royal BC Museum, BC After a long and difficult voyage across the Pacific Ocean, a short trip across the Georgia Strait to mainland British Columbia, and a boat ride up the Fraser River, the new arrivals disembarked at Yale where they would begin their work for the CPR. During the gold rush Yale was a prosperous town, but declined when the gold rush ended. It regained its prosperity during the time of the railroad construction. The town was the site of Onderdonk’s household and headquarters, and of a large camp that housed as many as a 1,000 workers. Other similar sized camps were located at Savona’s Ferry and Port Moody. The treacherous Fraser Canyon and Hell’s Gate lay north of Yale, and the river beyond the town was impossible to navigate. The rest of the journey to the work sites was on foot. The Chinese were divided into groups of 30 men. Each group had a cook, an assistant cook, a Chinese record keeper who kept track of work hours and other details, and a white foreman or “herder” who dealt directly with the record keeper. Once the groups were formed they made their way to Lytton on uphill mountain trails with supplies suspended on shoulder poles or in large packs on their backs. Often holding onto a rope, they climbed in single file up the mountains to the work sites. Two sections of the railroad - Port Moody to Yale (145 km, 90 mi.) and Lytton to Savona’s Ferry - (113 km, 70 mi.) were built using primarily Chinese labour. Chinese, white and aboriginal labour worked on the section from North Bend to Lytton (42 km, 26 mi.), while mostly white labour worked on the section from Yale to North Bend (45 km, 27 mi.). The Ties That Bind -- source link