May 21. Skagway. My mother always told me that if you don’t have something nice to say about something, don’t say anything at all.
The end.
No, that’s not fair. Sal and I had been in Skagway years ago and taken a National Parks tour of the town that was really interesting. This trip, it was too early in the season for the NPS tours to be offered, so we just wandered the town, which seemed to be almost entirely gift shops. We did have a fun stop at Skagway Brewing Company, where we enjoyed beers and conversation with the servers and saw my favorite tee shirt of the trip.
And the Visitors Center at Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park presented a good look at the town’s history.
Skagway was an important port during the Klondike gold rush. In 1896, gold was found in the Klondike region of Canada’s Yukon Territory. On July 29, 1897, the steamer Queen arrived in Skagway with the first boat load of prospectors. More ships brought thousands of hopeful miners into the new town to prepare for the 500+ mile journey to the gold fields in Canada. From Skagway, miners could choose the Chilkoot or White Pass* routes to the Yukon River, then build a boat and sail down to Klondike. Canadian authorities required each prospector to bring a year’s supply of food in order to prevent starvation. In all, equipment for each miner weighed close to a ton, which was carried by each miner in stages. Performing that task and contending with the mountainous terrain, rivers and cold climate meant many did not reach the gold field until summer 1989. By then, few opportunities remained. Of about 100,000 prospectors who set out, about 30,000 arrived to the Klondike and about 4,000 found gold.
Some realized how difficult the trek to the Klondike would be and chose to stay behind in Skagway to supply goods and services to miners. Within weeks, stores, saloons and offices lined the muddy streets, The population was estimated at 8,000 residents in the spring of 1898, with approximately 1,000 prospectors passing through town each week. However, it had become a lawless town, described by a member of the North-West Mounted Police as “little better than hell on earth.” The town was run by a sophisticated swindler and con man, “Soapy” Smith* who became the head of an ambitious criminal underworld, and he and his gang fleeced thousands of gullible miners. Fights, liquor and prostitution were ever present on Skagway’s streets. Honest citizens became angry, and Smith was shot and killed in 1898 when he tried to crash a vigilante meeting on the Skagway wharf.
In 1896, before the gold rush had begun, a group of investors saw an opportunity for a railroad over the White Pass. In 1898 the White Pass and Yukon Route began laying track in Skagway; however, the gold rush was over before it was completed. The railroad remained in operation and for decades carried significant amounts of ore to Skagway to be loaded onto ships. During WWII it was the chief supplier for the US Army’s Alaska Highway project. In 1982, metal prices plummeted, the mines and the rail lines were closed. In 1988, the White Pass and Yukon Route reinvented itself as a tourist attraction and operates now as a narrow gauge excursion railway between Skagway and White Pass Summit. It’s supposed to be a really pretty and fun trip. Kind of wish I had done that.
Today, Skagway is one of three Southeast Alaska communities that are connected to the road system. Skagway’s connection is via the Klondike Highway, completed in 1978. This allows access to the lower 48, Whitehorse, Yukon, northern British Columbia and the Alaska Highway. It also makes Skagway an important port-of-call for the Alaska Marine Highway (Alaska’s ferry system). Haines and Hyder are the other SE Alaskan communities with road access. In 2023, Skagway had a population of 1,217.
* White Pass and “Soapy” Smith were the two other questions we missed on the Alaska Trivia game.
No comments:
Post a Comment