How the Sinking of the Titanic Effected the Robson Valley

    When one hears about the sinking of the Titanic, their thoughts mostly concern the horrific loss of life and the trauma of those that were lucky enough to be rescued, but with something as monumental as the Titanic’s sinking, there can be ripples of effects that can reach some unexpected places.  After the sinking, one of those ripples reached the Robson Valley.

    At the time, in 1912, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was constructing a rail line across Canada.  One of the ways railways made their money was by constructing big fancy hotels in beautiful places, to entice people to buy railway tickets to travel to those exotic hotels.  Examples of those exquisite hotels in Western Canada include The Banff Springs Hotel in Banff National Park and the Jasper Park Lodge in Jasper National Park.  

    The Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad, as it constructed its way across Western Canada, also planned to build a big fancy tourist hotel at the foot of Mt. Robson, the spectacular, highest mountain peak in the Canadian Rockies.  Such a destination hotel would have totally changed the future economic base of the Robson Valley and put it on the tourist map, however the Hotel Mount Robson was never built.

    The President of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a man named Charles Melville Hays.  Unfortunately, Mr. Hays booked a ticket on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, and went down with the ship.  His loss threw a wrench into the Grand Trunk Pacific’s plans.  The company managed to finish the railway from Eastern Canada, passing through the Robson Valley all the way to Prince Rupert, BC on the Pacific Coast, however monetary problems caused them to scrap the building of Hotel Mount Robson.  

    Places like Banff and Jasper (before this summer’s fire) became very popular tourist destinations, but Mt. Robson, while extraordinarily beautiful, pretty much stayed off of the tourist radar.  One can only imagine how the future of the Robson Valley might have changed, if it hadn’t been for an iceberg floating out in the faraway Atlantic Ocean.

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