1 mile east of Fort Fraser on Highway 16
The last spike in Canada’s second trans-continental railroad was driven near this site on April 7, 1914. The Grand Truck Pacific became the most important factor in the development of Central British Columbia. However, financial problems plagued the company, forcing it in 1923 to amalgamate with the expanding Canadian Northern Railway system.
It was not until 1903 that the federal government passed a bill authorizing the creation of a new transcontinental railway across the northern part of the country. A contract was signed with the Grand Trunk Railroad, one of Canada's oldest railways, to go ahead with the project.
Work began in Manitoba in 1905 and in Eastern Canada the following year. In B.C. construction started in 1908 at Prince Rupert, a town which was created by the railway. Laying the line up the Skeena River was one of the most difficult construction projects ever undertaken in North America - 10 million pounds of explosives were used to move 12 million tons of rock on the first 100 miles. A very expensive venture. The last spike was driven one mile east of Fort Fraser, BC on April 7, 1914.
A Royal Commission in 1913 reported that $75 million had been wasted during the construction of the Eastern division alone. By 1917, the interest on the railway's debts was increasing at a rate of $21 a minute. By 1919 it was obvious that the GTPR was not paying its way when its parent company, the Grand Trunk Railway, defaulted on repayment of construction loans to the federal government. The GTPR was nationalized and its management taken over by a board appointed by the federal government. In 1920 the GTPR was placed under the management of Canadian National Railway (CNR), a federal crown corporation, and in 1923 was completely absorbed into the CNR.
Resources:
Click here for more about Grand Trunk Pacific Railway stations with illustrations from Michael Kluckner's book Vanishing British Columbia:
http://www.michaelkluckner.com/bciw10gtp.html
