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With a population of about 841 people, Skagway was known to thousands as the
gateway to the gold fields.
Skagway is located 90 miles northeast of Juneau at the northernmost end of
Lynn Canal which is at the head of Taiya Inlet. It lies 108 road miles south
of Whitehorse, just west of the Canadian border at British Columbia.
Skagway experiences cool summers and mild winters. Average summer
temperatures range from 45 to 67; winter temperatures average 18 to 37.
Within the shadow of the mountains, Skagway receives less rain than is
typical of Southeast Alaska, averaging 26 inches of precipitation per year,
and 39 inches of snow.
Skagway is predominantly a tourist community with historical Tlingit
influences. Downtown buildings have been colorfully restored to reflect the
history of the gold rush through the Chilkoot Pass. The tourist industry
flourishes in Skagway; it's a popular place, the 17th most visited port in the
world and a transfer site for rail and interior bus tours. Over 600,000
cruise ship passengers and numerous State ferry travelers visit Skagway each
year. The Klondike Gold Rush Historical Park and White Pass and Yukon
Railroad are major attractions. An Economic Impact Study conducted by the
City of Skagway in 1999 found that 51% of the owners of visitor-related
businesses are not year-round residents.
The Klondike Highway and Alaska Highway provide a connection through British
Columbia and the Yukon Territory, Canada, to the lower 48 states or north to
Interior Alaska. Skagway is accessed by air, road, water, and rail services.
The State owns the paved runway and a seaplane base at the boat
harbor, with scheduled air taxis. Skagway receives regular State ferry and
barge services. A breakwater, ferry terminal, cruise ship dock, small boat
harbor, boat launch, and boat haul-out are available. The White Pass and
Yukon Route Company own two deep draft docks for cargo loading and storage.
Freight arrives by barge, ferry and truck.
Over a hundred years ago, the White Pass route through the Coast
Mountains and the shorter, but steeper, Chilkoot Trail were used by
countless stampeders The treacherous Chilkoot Trail, combined with the
area's cruel elements, left scores dead.
The gold rush was a boon to Skagway - by 1898 it was Alaska's largest
town with a population of about 20,000. The town's hotels, saloons, dance
halls and gambling houses prospered, drawing Skagway residents as well as
the 10,000 people living in the tent city of nearby Dyea. But when the gold
yield dwindled in 1900, so did the population of Skagway as the miners
quickly shifted to new finds in Nome.
Today Skagway has less than 1,000 residents but it retains the flavor of
the gold rush era especially on Broadway with its false front buildings, and
in the Trail of '98 Museum with its outstanding collection of memorabilia.
"Skagua" was the Tlingit name, which means "the place where the north wind
blows." Capt. William Moore and Skookum Jim, a Tlingit from the
Carcross-Tagish area of the Yukon Territory, discovered the White Pass route
into Interior Canada in June 1887. Capt. Moore and his son Bernard staked a
claim and built a cabin on the waterfront in October 1887. They called the
place "Mooresville." In July 1897, gold was discovered in the Klondike, and
the first boatload of prospectors landed. By October 1897, according to a
Northwest Mounted Police Report, Skagway "had grown from a concourse of
tents to a fair-sized town with well-laid-out streets and numerous frame
buildings, stores, saloons, gambling houses, dance houses and a population
of about 20,000." Five thousand stampeders alone landed in February 1898,
according to Customs Office records. Two trails were used by the gold
seekers to reach the headwaters of the Yukon River. The 33-mile-long
Chilkoot Trail began at nearby Dyea; and the 40-mile White Pass Trail began
at Skagway and paralleled the present-day route of the White Pass & Yukon
Railway. Thousands of men carried supplies up the 33-mile Chilkoot Trail, or
took the 40-mile White Pass trail to Lake Bennett, where they built boats to
float down the Yukon River to Dawson City and the gold fields, 500 miles
distant. In 1898 a 14-mile, steam-operated tramway was constructed, which
eased the burdens of those able to pay. Skagway became the first
incorporated City in Alaska in 1900; their population was 3,117 at that
time, the second-largest settlement in Alaska. Tales of fortune seekers,
lawlessness and Soapy Smith are legendary. The City was formed in 1900. Once
the gold rush ended in 1900, Skagway might have become a ghost town if not
for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad construction in 1898. The railroad was
the first in Alaska, and provided freight, fuel and transportation to
Whitehorse and served the Anvil Gold Mines in the Yukon. It employed many
locals until 1982, when the Mine closed. Construction of the Klondike Hwy.
in 1979 gave Skagway a link to the Alaska Highway and State ferry connection
to Southeast.
Skagway is a blast from the past.
The Spell of the Yukon
I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy—I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it—
Came out with a fortune last fall,
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn’t all.
— Robert Service
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