Mount Halcon, on the White Pass and Yukon route before 1900

This photograph titled, 'Mount Halcon, on the White Pass and Yukon Route' by E.G. Hegg, is found within a descriptive book about America. This image invites us to consider the cultural and economic imperatives behind the construction of the White Pass and Yukon Route, a railway built during the Klondike Gold Rush. The unforgiving landscape becomes a backdrop to the ambitions of prospectors and corporations seeking to extract resources from the Yukon. It hints at the environmental impact of such endeavors. The visual codes of the photograph such as the lone tree in the foreground, and the train disappearing into the distance, serve as a commentary on man's relationship with nature. By looking into archival material and institutional records relating to the railway, we can better understand the complex history of this region and the social and political forces that shaped it.