Rocky Mountain Express Page #5

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At least 250 men would die in

avalanches in Rogers Pass alone

in the first few years

of operation.

When construction began,

few could have imagined

the terrible sacrifices

the southern route would entail.

The new railway

and the country itself

hung on the thinnest of threads.

The mountain sections were

ruinously expensive to operate

and the company teetered

on bankruptcy.

It would take a miracle to save

the Canadian Pacific Railway.

A miracle did occur.

Just over the top

of the Continental Divide,

on the east face

of the Rocky Mountains,

was a place the surveyors called

the most beautiful on earth.

They named it Banff.

Pa'?

The toughest route

through the mountains

was also the most spectacular.

This simple irony

would help save the railway

and perhaps the country itself.

A national park system

followed the railway.

Banff, Lake Louise,

Jasper, Glacier, Yoho.

News of a wilderness Shangri-La

spread around the globe,

and the company had a thriving

new business:
tourism.

Van Horne built

a series of great hotels,

including the most famous,

at Lake Louise...

...followed by a fleet

of legendary passenger trains

to bring in the tourists.

(bell clanging)

From the summit

of the Rocky Mountains,

the big-wheeled

Hudson locomotives ran down

the long, fast mountain slope

to the prairie below.

A hundred miles an hour

was routine

for the great express trains

in the Age of Steam.

(easy, bright jazz playing)

Pa'?

As the railway grew and

prospered, the country followed.

Trains brought in settlers,

opening up the land.

They hauled produce to market,

they built towns and cities.

(whistle blowing)

They took soldiers away

to war...

...remembered

by those left behind

by the sound of a lonesome wail.

(train whistle blows)

Pa'?

Van Home's railway grew

into a vast network.

The great express trains

flowed day and night

across the high grass prairie,

the granite shores

of Lake Superior,

the rich farmland

of the St. Lawrence Valley,

and finally down

to the seaport of Montreal.

(bell clanging)

(clanging continues)

Van Horne completed

the impossible railroad

in half the time

required by the contract.

The son

of an American dirt farmer,

he rose to become

one of the greatest figures

in all of Canadian history.

(birds chirping)

But here in Rogers Pass, in

the valley of the lllecillewaet,

the legend of Van Horne

and his railway

might have had

a much different ending.

Their names are worn from wood

and stone and lost forever.

They were young and strong.

With bare hands they endured

unimaginable hardship.

Pa'?

The route chosen

was nearly impossible,

yet they had faith in the future

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