The AR&T, under the jurisdiction of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, showered interest in the Chilkoot Trail area around December 1897 by purchasing tidewater property for a wharf in Dyea and building freight depots at both Dyea and near Sheep Camp. The company's intentions, as its name reveals, was to build a railroad up to The Scales and construct an aerial tram from there over the pass. While it is not known how the concept of a railroad was dropped soon after the company's creation, the railroad portion of construction was no longer pursued.