Skagway has a year-round population of approximately 1,050 inhabitants, which triples in summer months to accommodate the million or more visitors each year. Today’s temperature ranged between 44 and 49 degrees so it was a bit chillier than the last few days. The weather on this day was extraordinarily gray with low clouds, fog and some afternoon light rain. The locals were even complaining that it was foggier than they could ever remember.
Skagway was a part of the Klondike gold rush frenzy when, in 1896, gold was found in the Klondike region of Canada’s Yukon Territory. Ships began bringing thousands of hopeful miners to Skagway and they prepared to make the 500-mile journey to the Canadian gold fields. The town population soon grew to 30,000, mostly American gold prospectors. Within weeks the town was filled with trading posts, guest houses, stores, and saloons; offices lined the streets of Skagway and it was the largest city in Alaska. Along with its fast growth came fights, prostitutes, liquor and con-men, all taking advantage of the hopeful prospectors. Canada began imposing new restrictions on the prospectors and by 1899 the town’s economy began to collapse as the stream of gold seekers dried up.
Much of the town has been preserved as part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and rangers offer free walking tours around the historic district. The National Parks office has several store fronts in the small town set up as museums showing the times of the goldrush including a saloon. There was very nice historical information about the town and easy to understand.
The main street of town is called Broadway and it began just at the bow of the ships in port. A few years ago, there was a landslide which closed access to one of the piers so we had to take a very short tender boat to get from our ship to shore. The main street is very wide and filled with shops on both sides of the street. Many of the buildings are from the goldrush days and most are filled with jewelry and souvenir shops for the summer tourists. Most of the merchandise was similar to what we had seen in other shops along the way in other ports on our tour.
Our excursion on this day was a ride on a vintage train that once carried miners into the gold fields of the Canadian wilderness. The White Pass and Yukon Route Railway is an historic narrow-gauge railroad built during the Gold Rush in 1898 and is now a scenic excursion. We were on the White Pass Summit Excursion that climbs 3,000 feet over a 20-mile span to the summit. They have a narrator who highlights the iconic landmarks like the Bridal Veil Falls (a dramatic waterfall cascading from Carmack Glacier), Inspiration Point (panoramic views of Lynn Canal and surrounding mountains), Dead Horse Gulch (an historic site named for the pack animals lost during the Gold Rush), Cantilever Bridge (an historic site named for other pack animals lost during the Gold Rush) and the Trail of 1898 (remnants of the original Klondike Gold Rush Trail).
We took a 40-minute motorcoach ride from the port to the town of Fraser, in Canada, where we caught the train for the ride back to Skagway. We thought we might see more scenery taking the bus one direction and the train in the other direction, but the clouds and fog were so bad there was little for us to see. We had to take our passports with us as we had to cross the border into Canada and then upon our return to the U.S., we had to show our passports again for customs officials.
The evening’s entertainment was another performance by Paulette Ivory titled Divas Unleashed. This was a celebration of the musical hits of the world’s biggest divas from Barbra to Tina. The audience was quite small, so I’m not sure if people didn’t like her first show or if they were tired and went to bed early.