Courtesy Skagway Convention & Visitors Bureau
SKAGWAY
KLONDIKE BOOM TOWN
S
kagway, Alaska is the northernmost point in Alaska’s Inside Passage. One of the first white residents of Skagway was Billy Moore, a former steamboat captain. He believed that gold would be found in the Yukon and in 1887 built a dock and a trading post in anticipation of the gold rush. He was proved correct and Skagway became the boomtown gateway to the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. The population has since dwindled from 20,000 feverish gold seekers to around 1,000 year-round citizens. Prospectors arrived on steamships and prepared for their overland journey north into the Yukon to Dawson City. The first part of their expedition was certainly the most difficult. Prospectors had to transport more than 2000 pounds of provisions over the Chilkoot Pass to Carcross. This proverbial “Ton of goods” was required for each person by the Canadian government to prevent starvation in the remote Yukon Territory. In order to transport such large amounts of food and supplies stampeders were required to make many trips over the treacherous Chilkoot Pass. Once in Carcross they would need to build a boat capable of making the 600 mile journey north to Dawson City, via the Yukon River.
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Inside Passage
Skagway’s neighboring town of Dyea was at the beginning of the Chilkoot Trail and what began as a tent city in 1897 quickly grew into a town of 3,500 with restaurants, hotels and saloons. However, with the building of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad from Skagway in 1898, Dyea quickly faded away. The old townsite is now recognized as a National Historic Landmark even though there is hardly any evidence that the town ever existed. Skagway’s streets, once choked with gold-crazed prospectors clamoring to get to the Klondike and strike it rich, are now just as busy with thousands of visitors that arrive by cruise ship every day! On a busy ship day, Skagway reverberates with many of the same feelings that must have been present during the gold rush. On June 28, 1900 Skagway became the first incorporated city in Alaska. Skagway is home of the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, the “Scenic Railway of the World” one of Alaska’s most popular visitor attractions and not to be missed. It is also the home of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park, which honors the brave stampeders of the Klondike by protecting the historic buildings and trails of the gold rush era. Bell’s Travel Guides
