Topographical Map Showing Mount Robson and Mountains of the Continental Divide North of Yellowhead Pass. Detail of Moose Lake. 1912
Victoria Library, University of Toronto

Water tower and locomotive at Red Pass station. Canadian National steam engine 6057 (manufactured by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1930 and scrapped in 1960, 4-8-2, U-1-e).
Valemount & Area Museum

Red Pass before 1949; colour tinted at a later date. Ishbel Cochrane.
Valemount & Area Museum

The Red Pass railway point is shown on Arthur Wheeler’s 1912 Topographical Map Showing Mount Robson and Mountains of the Continental Divide North of Yellowhead Pass, but near the middle of Moose Lake, not at the western end. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was the only railway through the pass at that time.

The railway junction at Mile 27 at the west end of Moose Lake was originally called Resplendent, a name also deriving from the color of the rocks. East of Red Pass, the tracks of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, descending to the Fraser River on route to Prince George in 1912, were kept as low as possible. The tracks of the Canadian Northern Railway, heading for Albreda, were kept high. After the consolidation of the railways in 1923 as the Canadian National Railway, Lucerne disappeared as a divisional point and Resplendent blossomed as Red Pass Junction, the point where the removal of the separate tracks stopped and where the two lines diverged. Red Pass probably had a GTP Type E station at one time.

During the 1930s, there was a hobo jungle at Red Pass where the vagabonds waited for trains. About 50 people lived at Red Pass in the 1940s. During World War II it was the site of a Japanese internment camp. The Red Pass hotel burned down in 1949. After the highway opened in 1962, the need for Red Pass diminished. Canadian National Railway still uses some buildings at Red Pass. The headquarters of Mount Robson Park were moved from Red Pass to Valemount in 1987.

The lower railway line was since discontinued and the junction was moved near Charles north of Valemount.

The post office was open from 1921 to 1976, when it was closed and moved to Valemount.
Postmasters:

C. W. Palmer 1921-1923
Earl Francis Woodley 1923-1946
Lloyd Francis Williams 1946-1967
Robert Francis McLeod 1967-1969
Lionel D. Young 1969-1972
Mrs Diane Audrey Rogers 1972-1973
Mrs Winnifred Lynn Castle 1973-1974
Mrs Margaret Wentzel 1974-1976
Mrs M. A. Watt 1976
Mrs P. Murphy 1976

Wrigleys 1918 Directory lists Red Pass junction as a “flag-station on the G. T. P. Ry., 22 miles west of Lucerne. Lucerne is nearest post office.”

The Jasper Booster weekly newspaper published a story on August 12, 1981, entitled “Mayor of Redpass Steps Down”:

Since the end of July, Red Pass has been without a mayor and it is doubtful that the position will be filled in the near future. In fact, the mayor’s residence and office will no longer be available to serve as town hall but will be purchased by the Province of B.C. and removed from Mt Robson provincial park. The mayor has moved to Cranbrook and so ends the last private residence on the shores of Moose Lake.

William Hallam (aka the mayor of Red Pass Junction or Old Bill) was a familiar face to most railroaders. Othern than the CN gangs he was the only person to wave to in Red Pass and he was often out with his dog Pard checking over the trains. Many residents of Jasper would recognize Bill from his monthly trips into town to buy pipe tobacco and “visit his girlfriends.” Anyone who has ever talked to Bill knows he’sbeen around and he has lots of stories to prove it.

Indicated on the map that Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] composed after the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition.

“Topographical Map Showing Mount Robson and Mountains of the Continental Divide North of Yellowhead Pass” shows the line of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.

Rainbow was among railway depots that were left vacant on the abandoned Grand Trunk Pacific Railway grade in 1917. Rainbow (GTP) was relocated to Red Pass junction in 1917.

Site of an internment camp for Canadians of Japanese descent during World War Two.

Charles Poser was resident engineer of construction on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway between McBride and Prince George during 1912 and 1913.

Moose City, at Mile 17. Photo: Byron Harmon, 1912
Canadian Alpine Journal 1912

Oxen pulling cart over bridge at Mile 17 BC, 1912
Exploration Place — Fraser Fort George Regional Museum

In 1912, during his expedition to Mount Robson, Arthur Oliver Wheeler stopped at a railway construction camp on the Moose River. He found “a collection of saloons and bunk-houses of the log-wall-canvas-roof type, for the edification and comfort, or discomfort, of travellers. It glorified in the appellation of ‘Moose City,’ or, in railway parlance, ‘Mile 17.’ There was a good time in town that night. A new brand of ‘soft drink’ had arrived and, about midnight, its arrival was celebrated by a violent beating of triangles and tin cans. There was another shooting that night, but little damage was done. The town was chiefly remarkable for its brand of slick thieves. Konrad Kain [sic] had his clothes stolen, almost off his back, a considerable quantity of grub was taken and the cook’s stove abstracted while he sat upon it. However, in this section one learns to accept trifles of this kind with true philosophy, which in our case meant, buy another stove, at twice the price — on account of the freight.”

During the railway construction, Moose City was for a time the terminus of the tote road and the center of a brief mining flurry. Although a pack trail, sometimes on the hillside, sometimes in the lake, continued along the north side of Moose Lake, the railway contractors Foley, Welch and Stewart decided to move their freight on scows instead of building eight miles of tote road. Showings of gold, silver and copper on the multicolored mountain nearby attracted prospectors, and 17 miles of pack trail was started up Moose River valley.

Moose City was the site of a Japanese internment camp during World War Two. Harold Britton was killed by a train on the Moose River bridge while on guard duty in the early 1940s.