Skagway, Alaska

 I am continuing with our family the Alaskan cruise we took in July to celebrate our 50th wedding Anniversary. 

This was the second time my husband and I visited Skagway, Alaska. On our last trip in 2019, where we toured both land and sea, we took an 8-hour bus tour excursion from Skagway into the stunning Canadian Yukon, which you can view in this post. 

On this visit, my husband and I decided to see more of the town of Skagway by taking a Skagway Alaska Street Tour. The tour guide was a costumed conductor who drove a retrofitted yellow 1927 sightseeing bus.  As we comfortably toured through Skagway, he narrated the story behind this very historic Alaska gold rush town.

Skagway, Alaska, is located at the northernmost point of the Inside Passage in Southeast Alaska. It's home to many gold-rush-era buildings that have been preserved as part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. The streets are lined with wooden boardwalks and colorful, restored buildings, looking much as they did over 100 years ago. 

Our tour also drove through the residential area of Skagway, where our driver, who is a school teacher during the school year, showed us his residence and told us an amusing story about a house a lottery millionaire from the Midwest who had a beautiful house built in Skagway but only stayed in it for one year. He said life in the dark, cold, and snowy Alaska winter days is not for everyone!

The tour took us to a high overlook of Skagway, where we could view the historic and residential areas as well as the inner passage inlet, which was filled with visiting cruise ships. Skagway is a popular stop for cruise ships, and the tourist trade is a big part of the town's annual business.

As the tour progressed, our tour guide passed around vintage photos and told us the history of Skagway, including the Klondike Gold Rush, which brought an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of the Yukon in northwestern Canada between 1896 and 1899.  Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896; when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered what was called a stampede of prospectors.

The "Klondikers" could follow either the Chilkoot or White Pass trail to the Yukon River and sail down to the Klondike. The Canadian authorities required each person to bring a year's supply of food in order to prevent starvation. In all, the Klondikers' equipment weighed close to a ton, which most carried themselves in stages. Performing this task and contending with the mountainous terrain and cold climate meant that most of those who persisted did not arrive until the summer of 1898. Once there, they found few opportunities, and many left disappointed.

We visited a gold rush era cemetery, located high above town. Observing the ages on the gravestones, it was easy to see the hard and short lives many Skagway gold rush residents endured during that era.

Our tour guide told us the tale about a gold rush era swindler and scammer, Jefferson Randolph Smith, who went by the nickname "Soapy Smith." Smith gained notoriety through his "prize soap racket," in which he would sell bars of soap with prize money hidden in some of the bars' packaging in order to increase sales. However, through sleight of hand, he ensured that only members of his gang purchased "prize" soap. The racket led to his title of "Soapy."

Our guide explained that on the evening of July 8, a vigilance committee organized a meeting on the Juneau Wharf in Skagway. With a rifle draped over his shoulder, Smith began an argument with Frank H. Reid, one of four guards blocking his way to the wharf. A gunfight followed, and both men were fatally wounded. They are both buried in this city cemetery, although Soapy's grave was deliberately located on the unconsecrated land a few yards off to the side.

Our tour ended back in the town, and my husband and I had time to walk around to visit some of the exhibits. I made sure to visit the Arctic Brotherhood Building to take a close-up. During the gold rush era, Charles O. Walker gathered over 8,800 driftwood sticks on the shores of Skagway Bay and nailed them to the front wall of the hall!

We visited a replica of a gold rush era saloon and ...

...and the exhibits about one of the engineering marvels of the world, the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad! Built in 1898, the scenic railroad travels up the Coastal Mountains’ White Pass, into the wilderness of Canada’s British Columbia & the Yukon Territory.

Both of our children and families took a long railroad ride on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, and they all marveled at the beautiful sights they saw along the way and back!

Alongside the Railroad Dock in Skagway is an impressive wall of solid granite that is home to one of the most unique art collections in Alaska. Since 1928, the crews of ships have been "autographing" this wall to commemorate their first voyage to Skagway.

We were soon back at the Skagway port, where we boarded our Princess Discovery cruise ship again.

That evening, we enjoyed listening to "Puppies on the Plaza" as our cruise director, Jayson, and his assistant, interviewed an Alaskan Iditarod race winner who told us about his race win and showed the new Alaska Sled Dog puppies he was raising to run in the race in the future.

Our ship was headed back to Seattle the next day, after a brief late afternoon stop in Victoria, Canada. It was a wonderful cruise, and sharing all the fun with our children and grandchildren made our special anniversary very memorable! 

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