Northern Trails And Tales

We came over the infamous White Pass (referred to above) on Thursday socked in a murky fog that seemed virtually impossible to navigate, on a road too narrow to stop. Maybe, we could see twenty feet in front of the car. Slowly, exceedingly slowly, and with great care, we descended the 3,600 feet to Skagway, where the wind was blowing about 50 miles an hour. Two days later it slowed a bit, but not much, though today it’s merely a breeze. Some things never do change. Skagway, at least in one version, means “home of the north wind.”

Skagway was day one in Alaska for most of the gold rush stampeders. They’d come from literally the corners of the earth, most up by ship from Seattle. Now, they had the mountains to contend with, arching, rocky, wind-swept, steep, and cold. The trail out of Skagway area that led to Dawson City, where the gold supposedly awaited, was called the Chilkoot Pass. It was also known as “the meanest thirty two miles in history.” Today, some refer to it as the most beautiful thirty two miles in Alaska and British Columbia. Without question, whether they won or lost in the gold game, it was the Chilkoot Pass the stampeders talked about to the end of their days.

So let’s go back to August 1898. The steamer Portland, bound for San Francisco, was intercepted off Seattle by a reporter who had heard rumors of a gold strike in the Klondike. This rumor prove true. Aboard was nearly a ton and a half of gold. The next day the “Seattle Post Intelligencer” ran a simple headline: “GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! ” And the rush was on. For those of you who care to recall, these were the days of Coxey’s Army that followed on the heels of the Depression of 1894 which still lingered on, bringing to life the populist movement and William Jennings Bryan Times were mean and desperate, the so-called American dream had turned to a nightmare, and many people were unemployed, despairing, or restless. What better anodyne than a trip to the Yukon that held promises of riches? Within 24 hours, frantic men were lined up at West Coast seaports to purchase tickets to the north!

Credit for the discovery of gold in the Klondike probably belongs to a man named Skookum Jim. (It is instructive that though he was rich for a while, he died in poverty.) The place was Dawson City. (As some devoted readers will recall, we stopped there back in June.) As the magpie flies, it’s maybe 1500 miles from Seattle, from whence the majority of would-be’s departed to Dawson City. Most of it would be traveled by boat. Only those thirty or so miles from Skagway to Lake Bennett over the Chilkoot Trail would be on foot.

Skagway was a town built for a single purpose, to land stampeders in Alaska so they could begin the trek to the goldfields. For a couple years, the town boomed with tens of thousands of gold seekers stopping to prepare for the journey north. It became a rough and tumble waterfront town of bars, brothels and provisioners to the prospectors.

Most towns built for a single purpose disappear when the reason for its existence, in this case the gold rush, disappears. Somehow, mostly owing to the creation of a railroad, completed too late to assist most stampeders, Skagway muddled on. The population fell from roughly 15,000 people, mostly involved with the gold rush, to something under 500. These were primarily folks who had fallen in love with the place, or just had no where else to go. But slowly, Skagway emerged as the saltwater port and railroad connection to the Yukon territory. Through it passes heavy equipment for the mines and ore from the mines that is shipped throughout the world. But, actually, this requires few people and not much of a town. But as early as the 1920’s, vacationers discovered the Inside Passage to Alaska, and Skagway became the northern terminus. As the cruise business has burgeoned, so has Skagway. In 2005, just about one million visitors came through Skagway, at least for a day. Over 90% of these people came by cruise ship. Skagway boasts a permanent population of just 840, though approximately 200 of these folks leave for a good part of the winter. Thus, 650 year ’round. Contemplate this for a moment. Skagway is the WORLD’S largest tourist trap!!! Less than a thousand people hosting a million with only the assistance of some temporary summer workers.

The commercial downtown area is only three blocks wide and six or seven deep and located immediately in front of the cruise ship docks. It consists mostly of one story facaded and colorful wooden buildings reminiscent of a Hollywood western. The sidewalks are wooden planks, which, by the way, are easy on the feet and legs. This core area houses more than fifteen jewelry stores, a dozen or more art galleries, gift shops of every ilk including gold, ivory, silver, tee shirts, top-of-the-line clothing, plain junk, gizmos, doo-dads, native art, fabrics, books and on and on. Inter-mixed, to keep things legit, are a gold rush museum and a museum dedicated to the history of Skagway, There are somewhat lesser museums that trace the brothels and bars that flourished a hundred years ago. There are also numerous adventure tour offices offering everything from antique car rides to off-road jaunts to flightseeing trips. The star of these is the White Pass and Yukon Railroad which offers vintage parlor rail car tours of the mountains, glaciers, gorges, and waterfalls in the areas associated with the gold rush trails. It is no accident that the railroad ride begins virtually at the gangplank to the cruise ship dock! { I may have a further report on the railway as Dave and Dave are off on a ride now, among the spindly trestles and tunnels. I less-than-regretfully declined as I’m tired of dangling over chasms in the fog and figured it was a good chance to get off the first blog in a while.} Prices for a two or three hour ride begin at just under a hundred bucks, but most are well over. With a constant stream of cruise ship passengers, seats are pretty much filled. Mixed among the gift shops, museums, and tour operators are coffee shops, internet cafes, a few restaurants and other amenities of the twenty first century. All of this may be fairly familiar to those of you who have cruised the Caribbean and embarked at a number of similar ports. But, with the exception of a couple cruise line created “ports,” the towns there have a relationship to the rest of the island . Here, Skagway stands in splendid isolation, proud of its nexus to Alaska but pretty much alone and existing—again— a hundred years later— for one reason only: this time tourists.

There are some other things to note in Skagway, not the least of which are flower gardens. Many folks in Alaska cultivate nice flower gardens but in Skagway there are more than the usual. The area is blessed with a longer-than-normal growing season for these parts and people take advantage of it. So, Skagway also bills itself as “the garden city.” But the physical surroundings are dramatically beautiful as they are in so many Alaskan areas. There are echoes of the mountain/water theme we’ve previously noted in Seward, Kodiak, and Homer. But history stopped by, and though the gold rush might be a minor chord in most textbooks, Skagway has made the most if it. It is truly a vibrant town when the ships are in and tourists flood the streets. Not something you see in most places nowadays.

I probably should try to relate more of the gold rush story but my typing is slow and I’m running out of time here. It really was a fascinating phenomenon and the hardships endured for either the “muck called gold” or, in some instances, just for the sake of adventure, cannot be overstated. Nor can the ingenuity of the stampeders. Get yourself a book on the subject and be entertained and edified.

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Skagway is our last stop in Alaska. Later this week, we begin the journey home. Maybe it’s time. For two days earlier this week, we watched the snow falling in the Chugach Mountains. It never came down to the roads we were driving, but it was close enough to be a reminder that winter comes early up here. Already, we are losing seven minutes of daylight every twenty four hours. Most of the wild flowers have faded and the aspens are turning brown and yellow. In large numbers, the Rv’ers have left. Soon Alaska will belong to Alaskans again. …. In the meantime, we have a saltwater salmon trip planned for tomorrow, weather permitting. And, we hope to go to a theatre presentation, “The Days of Ninety-Eight” before we depart Skagway. So hang with us…..