CN Skeena Line

The Skeena Line is a CN branch which leaves the main line just near the provincial border west of Jasper, AB, and runs across northern British Columbia to the terminus at Prince Rupert.

At Kitwanga, on this line, is a former Hudson’s Bay fort. At Hardscrabble Creek in the 1970s, there was a giant washout that buried several locomotives in the process.

At mile 107 is Quick General Store. Originally, it was a telegraph shack built in 1898 and operated by Harry Fink. Another building two miles north of the shack became a notorious road house managed by Popcorn Kate, a heavy-set woman. She always carried a flask and was renowned for her beans and bannock at $1.50. Her blind pig and sporting goods were more expensive. Quick station was named for Sam Quick, the first section man there. He reportedly died from an overdose of beans, bannock, and popcorn. The store still exists today and rooms are now rented, but the town faded away when the post office closed in 1968.

New Hazelton was the scene of an early bank robbery. It took place on April 7, 1914, the same day the last spike on the Grand Trunk Pacific was being driven at Fraser Lake, 200 miles to the east. A gunfight ensued and, when the smoke cleared, three robbers were dead and three others were wounded, but one had escaped with $1.400.