Skagway, White Pass, and the Gold Rush

After two days of cruising at sea, we began on June 7th visiting several of Alaska's ports. Our first port of call was Haines. This pretty little town of about 2,500 people, with its art galleries, microbreweries, and hiking trails, would have been fun to explore in detail. Two notable spots tourists often visit here include the Hammer Museum and the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. The Hammer Museum displays more than 1,200 hammers of various sizes used for a myriad of purposes, all set in their historical context from more than 800 years ago to today. Visit http://www.hammermuseum.org/ for more information.

The eagle preserve is located in the Chilkat and Klehini river valleys and serves as habitat to around 40 to 80 bald eagles year round, but this locale features the Fall Congregations from October through February, when more than 3,000 of this species of eagles gather. During October and November, the eagles are drawn there especially to feast on the state's last salmon run of the season. For more information about the preserve, visit http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/eagleprv.htm.

However, we did not have time to visit these places, since we had purchased a shore excursion that had nearby Skagway as its starting point. We descended the gangway and walked a few yards to the ferry, a covered boat that held about 100 people.

The ferry captain took us on a scenic 30-minute trip through the Lynn Canal, the deepest and longest fjord in the United States. By 1900, the canal had become a center for commercial fishing and canning because of the ample supply of fish. Along the way our narrator pointed out various spots of interest along our route.

When we arrived in Skagway, we travelled by bus to the train depot. There we showed our tickets and boarded the train cars of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway. It was established in 1898 as part of the Klondike Gold Rush. According to the railroad's official site, https://wpyr.com/, "This narrow gauge railroad is an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, a designation shared with the Panama Canal, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty."

Its construction took 26 months at a cost of $10 billion, financed by the British but carried out by American engineers. It was considered a monumental feat. The steep route ascends nearly 3,000 feet in 20 miles and includes tunnels, bridges, trestles, and sharp turns.

Originally 110 miles long, the route stretched from the port of Skagway to Whitehorse Yukon. The train route parallels the path of the former White Pass Trail, once used by prospectors and their pack animals in the Gold Rush. It was intended to serve the needs of the prospectors, but by the time it was completed in 1900, the Klondike Gold Rush episode was all but over. Later the train, along with other types of infrastructure, became a major integrated transportation system servicing the needs of the mining industry. Metals mined in the state of Alaska include zinc, copper, gold, silver, lead, and coal. The rail line closed briefly in 1982 due to the collapse of mining in the Yukon area. It reopened in 1988 as a line catering to tourists; it currently carries around 400,000 people each year for 67.5 miles on the route during the May to September time period.  The train was once powered by steam but now is diesel fueled. The cars themselves are a mixture of vintage cars from the original train and modern cars. The scenery is truly majestic, with views of rushing rivers, many waterfalls, deep chasms, and soaring mountains.

Our narrator added to our knowledge with historic information and human interest vignettes. We passed the simple burial grounds where the infamous con man Soapy Smith is buried.  We also saw the huge boulder which crushed two builders of the railroad who fell into a deep valley during the blasting of the route through the mountains. Since the boulder was so gigantic, the men's bodies could not be recovered; instead their place of rest was marked with a stone cross. We also saw Dead Horse Gulch, where numerous pack animals perished along the trail due to the steep terrain. The narrator also pointed out the old, crumbling wooden trestle which had been formerly used by the train but is now retired due to safety concerns.

We briefly crossed the United States-Canadian border where gold prospectors once were required to show the Canadian authorities that they had enough equipment and supplies to finish their journey, which was typically one ton of gear. A crude hut with a group of flags, including those of the United States, Alaska, British Columbia, and Canada, marks the original spot.

At the high point on the train route we lingered a few minutes while the train personnel uncoupled the cars and turned the train around for the journey back to Skagway.

At this time, the narrator asked us to switch places with the passengers on the opposite side of the train car so that we could enjoy the views we had missed on the way up. We also turned the seats the other direction so that everyone could look at the scenery from a forward position. The scenery on the return trip was just as spectacular as the first part of our journey.

When we returned to Skagway after our 6-hour trip, we had about 90 minutes to explore on our own. This picturesque town, once the gateway to the Gold Rush, currently owes its existence primarily to tourism. The buildings include the Red Onion Saloon, which has kept the original bar in the business which once doubled as a brothel.

The Arctic Brotherhood Hall has a façade made of thousands of pieces of driftwood.

Walking down the main street of Skagway felt a little bit like stepping back into time, although seeing the enormous cruise ship at the edge of the city reminded us that it was 2017, not 1898.

While we would have enjoyed visiting more museums, time only allowed us to visit one. We spent about 30 minutes at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park Visitors' Center, where we viewed a video and looked at various artifacts and photographs from the time period. We had time for a quick coffee at the train depot before heading back to the bus for the return trip by ferry to our cruise ship with memories of majestic mountain scenery.