Hooray - a wonderful, beautiful, mostly sunny day without rain! We had a great visit in Skagway today, even if the wind was blowing true to one of the nicknames for the town - “Home of the North Wind.”
Overnight, the bridge crew steered us into the so-called Inside Passage for our scheduled visits to Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan. As best we understand it, the Inside Passage refers to a network of protected water passages, weaving between islands along the Pacific coast from the Alaskan Panhandle, through the waters off western Canada (British Columbia), all the way to northwestern Washington state. Beginning in the old days (including the Klondike Gold Rush that we heard so much about today), ships went this route to avoid rough seas and bad weather in the open ocean. Skagway lies at the most northern end of the Inside Passage
We didn’t sign up for a shore excursion in Skagway today but decided to walk around town on our own. We visited here about 10 years ago, on an earlier cruise, and remembered it as an attractive small town with the cruise ship docked within walking distance to town. We arrived at 7:00 am and, true to our memory, we were docked adjacent to the train tracks within about ½-mile to the heart of town.
Skagway is a small town with a year-round population of approximately 1,000. Of course, during the summer tourist season that number rises, as there are close to 1 million visitors during the summer months.
There’s quite a history in Skagway, but it would take pages to describe it all. We’ll condense it by saying that before 1896 the population was a total of two people. Then gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory. Skagway became known as the “Gateway to the Gold Fields.” Soon ships starting arriving, with thousands of hopeful prospectors intending to make the 500-mile journey over the mountains to the gold fields in Canada. The population of the area increased enormously and reached more than 10,000 within one year. Prospectors lived in tents or shacks, and Skagway had become the largest city in Alaska. It also became lawless, becoming known as “one of the roughest towns on earth.” We read that during this period there were 80 saloons in town, and gambling, fights, prostitutes, thieves, and con men were common (scenes reminiscent of all those “wild west” stories).
The trek to Dawson City and the gold fields was extremely rough, and large loads had to be carried by each prospector in order to stay alive on the trail and at the gold fields. Eventually, entrepreneurs began building a 110-mile, narrow gauge railroad (known as the White Pass and Yukon Route) from Skagway over the mountains. By 1900, when the railroad was completed, most of the good Klondike claims had already been staked and the gold rush was nearly over. The train is still operating, but now almost exclusively for tourists during the summer months.
Many of our fellow guests decided to ride the White Pass and Yukon train for the 3½-hour round trip. There were two excursions offered, either morning or afternoon. When we were last here, 10 years ago, Jim rode on this train and enjoyed it, but we decided to skip it this time.
There was a local shuttle bus into town ($2 per person), but we decided to walk. We began our walk at about 9:45 and enjoyed the sunshine and bright green scenery. Leaves on deciduous trees covering the hillsides were just coming out. We hadn’t seen that colorful light green color in many years. This must mean Spring in this part of Alaska is late April.
Skagway has a historical district of many buildings restored to their former 1890’s appearance. The city does have some of the appeal of those Gold Rush days. We understand that the National Park Service (NPS) owns fifteen of these buildings and operates them as part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. We enjoyed visiting some of them, including the (1898) The Mascot Saloon, still in its original location as shown below:
There’s quite a history in Skagway, but it would take pages to describe it all. We’ll condense it by saying that before 1896 the population was a total of two people. Then gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory. Skagway became known as the “Gateway to the Gold Fields.” Soon ships starting arriving, with thousands of hopeful prospectors intending to make the 500-mile journey over the mountains to the gold fields in Canada. The population of the area increased enormously and reached more than 10,000 within one year. Prospectors lived in tents or shacks, and Skagway had become the largest city in Alaska. It also became lawless, becoming known as “one of the roughest towns on earth.” We read that during this period there were 80 saloons in town, and gambling, fights, prostitutes, thieves, and con men were common (scenes reminiscent of all those “wild west” stories).
The trek to Dawson City and the gold fields was extremely rough, and large loads had to be carried by each prospector in order to stay alive on the trail and at the gold fields. Eventually, entrepreneurs began building a 110-mile, narrow gauge railroad (known as the White Pass and Yukon Route) from Skagway over the mountains. By 1900, when the railroad was completed, most of the good Klondike claims had already been staked and the gold rush was nearly over. The train is still operating, but now almost exclusively for tourists during the summer months.
Many of our fellow guests decided to ride the White Pass and Yukon train for the 3½-hour round trip. There were two excursions offered, either morning or afternoon. When we were last here, 10 years ago, Jim rode on this train and enjoyed it, but we decided to skip it this time.
There was a local shuttle bus into town ($2 per person), but we decided to walk. We began our walk at about 9:45 and enjoyed the sunshine and bright green scenery. Leaves on deciduous trees covering the hillsides were just coming out. We hadn’t seen that colorful light green color in many years. This must mean Spring in this part of Alaska is late April.
Skagway has a historical district of many buildings restored to their former 1890’s appearance. The city does have some of the appeal of those Gold Rush days. We understand that the National Park Service (NPS) owns fifteen of these buildings and operates them as part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. We enjoyed visiting some of them, including the (1898) The Mascot Saloon, still in its original location as shown below:
Of course, in addition to restored buildings, the train station, and Park Service exhibits, there are other stores and functions in town. Almost everything worth visiting is on one street – Broadway. We saw some beautiful artwork by Alaskan native people in several of these stores but decided we don’t have room for anything more in our home; so we skipped that opportunity. We did visit the U.S. Postal Service and mailed a box home to ourselves with things we thought wouldn’t fit in our suitcases. Ginny also visited a bakery shop and had a lemon lavender cookie (even though there are plenty of cookies available on our ship).
This is a town that’s easy to visit on foot, and we enjoyed walking through town (especially because the weather was good). Almost all the stores close for the winter, but they opened for the summer season early, just for us. Clearly, we were the first ship of the season in Skagway, as the temperatures are still in the low 40’s.
This is a town that’s easy to visit on foot, and we enjoyed walking through town (especially because the weather was good). Almost all the stores close for the winter, but they opened for the summer season early, just for us. Clearly, we were the first ship of the season in Skagway, as the temperatures are still in the low 40’s.
Here’s a picture from dinner last night, with the three couples at our table and our Dining Room staff. On the back row: Jacques (head waiter for our section of Dining Room), Verner (our assistant waiter), Jerry, Dave, Petar (our head waiter), Jim. On the front row: Karen, Suzanne, Ginny. Husbands are behind the wives.
Following dinner, we attended a great show in the Galaxy Lounge featuring Zach Winningham, who played guitar, piano, and harmonica on various songs. He plays different styles of music, but they all seem to be happy songs – country and western and 50’s/60’s mostly – covering artists such as Roy Orbison, Ricky Nelson, Kenny Rodgers, John Denver, etc. He was very well received. In fact, there was the longest line of the World Cruise in the Apropos Shop to buy his CD’s.
Tomorrow we’ll be in Alaska’s capital city of Juneau.
Jim & Ginny
Tomorrow we’ll be in Alaska’s capital city of Juneau.
Jim & Ginny
