Welcome to Skagway. Located on the northern tip of the Inside Passage is this unique gold rush town of Skagway. With the cry of "Gold in the Yukon!", thousands of prospectors gathered their supplies headed north looking for their fortunes. Skagway's location provided a port and resting point for gold seekers before they embarked on the very difficult ascent up to the Chilkoot and White Passes.
This is our third time in Skagway and having done the highly recommended White Pass Rail twice we thought we would take a look and do the other way the gold seekers set up and searched for their fortunes, the Chilkoot trial. You see before the White Pass Rail was built these prospectors would actually land in a port town just on the other side of Skagway, a place called, Dyea. The Chilkoot trail begins here and travels I believe 12 miles to a lake and river system taking the prospectors to Dawson city. Before the prospectors could go up this mountain goat trail they had to ensure they could sustain themselves for one year with supplies, which meant that had to collect the supplies stock it and then transfer the approximate one tonne (2,000 lbs) of supplies up this 12 mile trail. Carrying about 100 lbs per trip meant that each had to go up and down this trail 20 times. For us today I had about 10 pounds in my pack and we strolled comfortably for about 2 miles of this trail before floating back by raft, I would say a much easier time considering that the prospectors did this in the winter. Sam from Skagway Shore Tours did an excellent job in safely driving us and guiding us along the entire excursion. Sam loves what he does and it shows. We had nine in our group from three of the four ships in port. Sam loves nature and this environment, he is keen about mushrooms and this area had a plethora of this fungi to choose from. We made many stops along our hike and we not only became better informed of this environment but were also thourghly entertained along the way. Thanks Sam and Skagway Tours.
So overnight this town of Dyea died, literally. The White Pass railroad went into operation and the next day everyone left including all the supply stations and businesses. There was no need for them anymore. They took just about every piece of wood from all the wood structures and moved them all to Skagway.
Not surprisingly this pushed Skagway's population from about 2,000 to 10,000 making it Alaska's largest metropolis, with all the amenities of any large city. This included some unsavoury elements such as 80 saloons, several bordellos along with plenty of sly thieves.
This leads us to our next stop of the day, "the days of '98 show" featuring the life story of one of the most notorious sly thieves, Soapy Smith. This was a great production and highly recommended for anyone looking for a great visual history lesson on Skagway. Skagway's current population rests at about 800 full time residents.
Tonight was another wonderful dinner at the Pinnacle featuring today, Alaska King Crab legs and Baked Alaska for dessert. You know what they, when in Alaska you just got to have this combo. A few pics of the day and evening, hope you enjoy. Shot out to our new followers from our tour today and the other day in Ketchiken. Safe travels and welcome along.
Tomorrow, Glacier Bay, yes...
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