The popular service of the British Yukon Navigation Co., is gradually
being expanded, and the well-known Blue Pony Cruisers will be busy this summer on a tri-weekly schedule between Whitehorse and Dawson Creek. Effective May 12th, buses will leave Whitehorse and Dawson Creek at 9.00 a. m. each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, arriving at Dawson Creek at 7.40 p. m., and arriving Whitehorse at 6.00 p. m. each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Northbound there is a scheduled trip leaving Whitehorse each Monday and Thursday at 9.00 a. m. and arriving Dry Creek, M. P. 1184 (near Alaska border) in the evening. Returning buses leave Dry Creek 9.00 a. m. Tuesdays and Fridays, arriving Whitehorse evening of same days.
The Alaska Highway is gradually coming into its own. To take care of its passenger business the B. Y. N. Co. have constructed the following hotels and intermediate lunch and rest rooms:
Leaving Whitehorse southbound, they have a coffee shop, with limited
overnight accommodations at Rancheria, Mile Post 710. The first overnight stop is at "Liard Lodge", Lower Post, M. P. 620, a comfortable hostel providing rooms and meals for
40 persons. On the second day a pause is made at the Coal River lunch room, which also has limited overnight facilities, M. P. 533, and the bus passengers spend the second night in the restful "Fort Nelson Hotel", which accommodates 60 or more travellers. On the Northbound run passengers spend the night at the "Dry Creek Hotel," which has space for 38 people.
In addition to the passenger service, B. Y. N. Co. operate on the Whitehorse-Dawson Creek section, refrigerator trucks, leaving Whitehorse 9.00 a.m. each Friday, arriving Dawson Creek Sunday evening; returning leave Dawson Creek 9.00 a. m. each Tuesday, arrive Whitehorse Thursday evening.
It is interesting to note that this Company has been able to maintain an uninterrupted schedule between Whitehorse and Dawson Creek both summer and winter since the fall of 1945. During the extreme cold of the past wnter, they only cancelled one portion of a trip, viz. between Whitehorse and Lower Post.
During the coming summer many tourists are booked on the Whitehorse-Dawson Creek run. These visitors will all take some of the trips offered by the River and Rail Divisions of the White Pass & Yukon Route, such as Dawson steamer tour, the West Taku Arm, and the Skagway round trip.
A number of special plane tours are also coming to Whitehorse via C. P. A. and Pan American, and a Klondike tour is being inaugurated by Wien Alaska Airlines, covering plane service from Fairbanks to Dawson Cty, river trip to Whitehorse and O'Harra bus from Whitehorse to Fairbanks or the reverse. These tours will also take advantage of
highway, river and rail trips.
All in all it looks like a big year for tourists, not forgetting the hundreds who will be travelling over the Alaska Highway by private car, and the "plugged-full" steamships of the Canadian Pacific.
