Skagway, Alaska, United StatesSkagway – White Pass
Pullen RV Park
Ok we discovered one thing Skagway is
pricy: first we pay a lot for our site – then you have to pay for the showers
and there is no wifi. Then Gine discovered that we can get wifi for a month and
Paul can’t sign up – so a lot of phone calls and we still haven’t figured it
out.
So why do we come here: it is so close
you can watch the cruiseship come and go and it is less than 5 Min into the
historic old town. There is no overnight parking in this town at all – and the
only other campsite or free camping is on the long gravelroad towards Dyea.
Paul repairs and Gine checks
After we set up Paul said something is
still wrong with the electrical set up and he wants to check the cable and take
it all apart and no he does not want any input from gine. So Gine said, then I
will check out where to find everything. So Paul is under the truck and Gine
checks out the best spots to view the cruise ships, the visitor info, the white
pass train station and downtown… Back we have another coffee and relax. I may
should mention it is hot today!!!
We eat in the famous Red Onion
Ok so Gine read that the Red onion
salon was the most exclusive bordello and is now a NHS – now we don’t want to
pay 10 $ to see the pictures upstairs – but eating a pizza in a bordello sounds
great. And that is what we did
We also walked up and down the tourist
made up old downtown – I think it looks super cute but I don’t think it is
super real.
An evening at the small ship harbour
After being back we decided to sit on
the benches in the sun and only enjoy the mountains, the cruiseship and the
evening sun – it is super nice and we love it.
Skagway – the gateway to the Klondike:
- Shgagwei is Tlingit and means roughed up water
- It is at the Taiya Inlet on Lynn Canal – the longest in North America
- During the Klondike goldrush it was Alaska’s largest city with a population of 20.000 as where a few years earlier only 2 people lived here and today there are around 850 residents
- The Canadian Mounted Police described it the lawless town as little better than a hell on earth: it was famous for its saloons, brothels and hotels (good thing we checked out one of the brothels” – today it is a restored gld rush town
- The gold rush brought Alaska to the world’s attention with over 40.000 gold rush stampeders coming through here
- When the Banner headline of the Seattle Post bellowed “GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! – 68 rich men on the Steamer Portland ” on July 17, 1897: the news spread like wildfire and the country went gold crazy. thousands of people quiet their jobs and sold their homes to finance a trip to the newly created boomtown of Skagway: in 1899 it had over 300 businesses, 33 saloons, 5 bakeries, 3 breweries, 7 dressmakers, 4 dentists: life was good as long as the boom lasted
- Politically the Gold rush was the beginning of true Alaskan State Building: railroads were built, governing bodies created, industries established – but still the men outnumbered women by 5 to 1 and there were fewpeople building their homes here
- Did you know that when they run out of land here they started to fill mudlands, wetlands and today the shoreline is way more inside the channel
- From Skagway it is around 800km to the goldfields and you have tow ways: the Chilkoot or the White Pass: “there aren’t no choice: one’s hell and the other is damnation”
Good morning Sunshine:
We woke up to beautiful sunshine – we
didn’t had sun near our camper – but that meant that we were on the go fairly
early and we are heading into town.
We discover “old” or new Skagway
- Today Stagway is restored with nice buildings, wooden boardwalks and it is like an Alaskan Disney world for tourists
Stop #1 was not historic, as we tried
to get a internet pass and it didn’t work that meant we went in Person there
and got it – now we are ready for the next few days. Since we are already here
we start to check out some of the historic part of Skagway and we started with
the:
Moore House: you can’t
go in the old original cabin – which is the oldest building in Skagway built in
1887, but we could have a look into the new one, which was super nice – Gine
thought it is interesting that also the ceiling has wall paper, but then who is
this Mr Moore:
- Captain William Moore followed the gold rushes all his life and settled here to pursue one more chance at a fortune. When the big rush came his land was overrun by a flood of gold seekers
- I may should mention he was born in Germany in 1822 – operated steamboats on the Mississippi in 1842, was in the Mexican war, was a steamboat captain in BC in 1858
- He came over the “White Pass” with a native guide – he was thinking that soon there will be a gold rush in the Yukon and that Skagway would be the perfect gateway – he named it Mooreville
- He prospered because he owned a dock, a warehouse and a sawmill and improved the White pass with blasting the trail
- His son Ben built the big main house, he also married a Tlingit woman from a wealthy family Klinget-sai became Minnie and adapted to Europamerican Style, likely this helped with their bussiness– by 1906 no-one of the Moore family lived in skagway anymore, in 1977 it was bought by the National Park Service
- “There are thousands of people here – all mad and crazy, just like us”
We then went back to the Main road and
today there are more people around, as there are 3 cruise ships in the harbour
and we have “royal day in Skagway”.
Arctic Brotherhood Hall: ok this
building is super cool as it has a lot of driftwood on the outside, today it’s
the tourist info (which by the way is closed on weekends – really!!!)
- Built in 1899 the front is made of 9000 pieces of driftwood collected on the beaches of skagway – in case you won’t remember how old it is the year is with driftwood written there. By the way this front was completed in 1900
- the brotherhood first met here in 1899, you can see the goldpan and a nugget their symbol at the top
Broadway – Skagway display: in between
the buildings they had this display – when you look at the tent city which was
once broadway and compare it to todays tourist shops – wow!! Here they also
asked the question:
“How
far would you go to fulfill your dream”
Actually each building has it’s own
story – but those are too many stories for us to remember. We loved to watch
the people, poke our heads in some of the stores. We did found the best store –
but by that time it was so close to our train ride, that we decided to head
back and have a snack and drink and come back later.
The Building of the Railway over the
white Pass:
- The White Pass was not as steep but it was narrow, and clogged and slippery with mud and many animals got stuck and died – it then got the nickname “the dead horse trail” – around 3000 horses died on that trail
- William Moore was hired by a Canadian Survey party to map the 141st Meridian: the boundary between the US and Canada. Because of the rough known Chilkoot Pass they headed over uncharted ground to look for an easier route: he called the potential route White Pass for the Canadian Minister of the Interior Sir Thomas White
- Most railroads have colorful beginnings: tor the White pass it was the gold, It was soon clear that the Klondike could not be served without a permanent transportation system
- George Bracket a construction engineer built a 12 mile toll road up the canyon of the White Pass in Fall 1897 – the toll gates were ignored and it was a failure. But he got 110.000 US$ for the right of way to his road.
- The Clos Bros investors from London send sir Thomas Trancede to check if it was possible to built a railroad and he had his doubt.
- A young Canadian Engineer Michael Heney (born in 1864) did an independent survey and was convinced it can be built. By Chance he met Sir Thomas Trancede in a hotel in Skagway in 1898 and was arguing with him through the night until Sir Thomas was finally convinced that it is possible.
- Heney said “Give me enough dynamite and snooze and I’ll built a railroad to hell. Before he built railsroads in Canada and Washington. He run away from home when he was 14 and worked on a Canadian roailroad and learned to lay rail, measure grades, blast cliffs, built tunnels and had natural cliff for leadership.
- The total cost of built it was 10 Mill Dollars, even it’s not as steep withing 20 miles the pass goes up 3000 ft and has steep grades of 3.9 %. 35.000 men worked on the construction on the railroad, they used 450 tons of explosive
- The tight curves called for a narrow gauge railroad: the rails are only 3 ft wide which lowered the costs
- Construction started in May 1898 and in July a train went on the tracks and run for 4 miles from Skagway: this was the first train in Alaska, in Feb 1899 the train already went up on the White Pass and in July 1899 it reached Lake Bennett. The railway was completed in July 1900 and the first train completed it’s journey from Skagway to Whitehorse: Samuel Graves, the president of the railroad put in the golden Spike in Carcross. (by the way we did see the original golden spike)
- And who was W.B. Close: he founded the London Merchant Bank, they initiated and funded the White Pass and Yukon railway and had part ownership until 1947. When they send out surveyors the first one told them that it is not possible
- Once it was completed you could with the combination of steamers and the train go from Seattle to Dawson City in 8 days
- During WWII this route was used to bring manpower and material needed for the Alaskan Highway
- It operated on steam until 1954 and then got diesel-electric engines
- Until 1982 the train was used to haul merchandise, once the Klondike Highway was built there was less demand and the White Pass suspended operation in 1982. It then resumed operation in 1988 and invented itself as a tourist attraction up to the White Pass and then in 2007 all the way to Carcross (except now with COVID). With the arriving of the cruise ships they built new cruise ship docks.
- In 1994 the White Pass became an international historic Civil Engineering Landmark
- How about the trains: they have today 20 Diesel-electric locomotives: the Alco is from the 1960s and GE are from the 1950s (those are the nice yellow-green ones). The 6 new black ones are new engines from 2020
- And the coaches: they have 86 restored and replica passenger coaches – they are all named after lakes and rivers in Alaska, Yukon and BC – the oldest Lake Emerald was built in 1883, the 1893 Lake Yuyshi was in a movie and the Lake Lebarge carried Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philipp in 1959
With the Train up to the White Pass
Yesterday when we bought the train
ticket – we really hoped that it will be worth as it was not cheap and after
our 2.5 hour ride we have to say: it was so worth it. It was super amazing.
First we saw today a lots of trains going in and out of the station which was
fun by itself, but then we were standing on the platform with hundreds of
people and found a super spot in the 2nd last cart (yes the last one
is for first class which we are not). We had a seat on each side lots of space
and could go on the platform (where we spend most of the time) to enjoy
fantastic views. We saw super scenery – heard a lot of cool info, saw even
better scenery, talked with nice people and had an amazing time. And no at the
moment you are not able to take a train to Carcross, because you would have to
cross the border to Canada and every one of the passengers would need to be
checked for vaccination and arrive can app – which is nearly impossible and if
one of the passenger wouldn’t have it complete, the train would have to turn
around – really!!!!
So what did we all see:
Gold rush cemetery: after
leaving we had quick glimpses on it on the side
Along the Skagway river: which
was super cool, as there is lots of water and it has that greeny color with
nice views in the background and then we came through a lot of forest with
glimpses
Rocky Point: from here we could see
all the way down to Skagway and the Cruiseships – as well if you were on the
mountain side of the platform you were so close to the rock you could touch it
if you would put out your arm, after it we came through a section called the
Bracket road, the Wagon road was often advertised as an easy route but you also
had to pay toll.
Buchanan Rock – US Border: as we
climbed higher we could see on the other side of the Valley the Border station
(yes we were there yesterday) – underneath it on a huge rock you can read “on
to Alaska with Buchanan” – they painted it on their and they did tour groups
and visited Skagway each year from 1920-30
Waterfalls: depending
on which side you are: on the mountainside you could see a lot of smaller
waterfalls very close on the other side we could see the Bridal Veil falls:
yesterday we stopped here, but today we discovered that we only saw like a
teeny tiny portion of that huge waterfall or waterfall series – overall it is
6000 ft.
Steep up with a view: the train turned
then into a valley and from here we went up steep, we saw across on the other
side of the valley way up a bridge where we will be soon, we could see amazing
mountains and glaciers. At one spot we came by where in 1898 a blasting accident
buried 2 railroad workers under 500 ton of granite rock
Through the tunnel: we did the turn
and we drove over the bridge from here it drops 1000 ft into the valley and it
is difficult to decide which side has the nicer view it goes down steep and
when you hang out and you see the bridge and how it goes into the tunnel it is
super amazing.
It’s called inspiration Point:
I thought it is a funny name, we are 17 Miles up and when you look back you can
see the ocean (ok let’s say the Lynn Channel or the longest Fjord of North
America). Super cool – by the way you can take on this train ride a lot of
pictures – which we (or Gine) .id
Dead Horse Gulch: when you
remember the history you know a lot of horses died on the White Pass, when
riding along here in the rocks on this steep and narrow area you know why.
Over the Steel Bridge: as we
went up higher we could see a gigantic steel bridge coming up – only a part was
missing and we were wondering if you need full steam to shoot over, this old
1909 bridge was the tallest cantilever bridge in the world and was used until
1969 – yes lucky for us they built a new one, but we had the perfect view on
this old bridge – again super cool
At the White Pass Summit: as we
head towards the White Pass Summit we come by the supercool rocky moonlike
landscape with lots of lakes with snow and ice, so beautiful we can only look
and look. A short stop at the top and then we head back down again. Now we can
relive it all over again, look at all the cool points we maybe missed earlier.
Also we can talk with our fellow travellers and have fun. A lot of the people
stay now inside and relax as it is super hot, but I think there is nothing
nicer then being out on the platform have some wind and lots of sun, the best
views and plenty opportunities to take pictures.
And then we are back – it was amazing
– clearly a highlight.
We go shopping like the Cruisers
Time to check on Mandy and have a
coffee and we are ready to head out to do some shopping – ok that ends up that
Skagway becomes so far our most expensive day.
We did also walk towards the cruise
ships and admire them, stop at the 129 ton rotary snowplow which carved it’s
way through 12 ft high snow and the #69 from 1908 old steam engine who run for
48 years over the White Pass, there are also some statues to remember all the
people walking over the mountains and what I thought super cute was a little
memorial to the “Dead which are speaking:
in memory of the 3000 pack animals”
Learning more about the Gold Rush
If you are in Skagway a town which
only exist because of the gold rush, then yes there is a big exhibition to it
by the National Park – Paul enjoyed the sunshine and people watching, I don’t
think he was that interested in the history – but it was super cool, they had
really great displays and you can learn a lot about it: the best is they have a
wheel you can spin and then you get the point on how easy it is to find gold:
like in the whole gold rush only 20 people left the area with money, the others
either didn’t find enough gold or gambled it away in brothels and bars.
- "One who had never been in the hot bed of a gold excitement cannot realize how crazy men get. It is worse than the stampede of wild Cattle"
- In 1896 the first Gold was found by George Carmack and his tow Indian companion in the Klondike
- Interestingly the first people to discover gold didn’t look for it, they were on a fishing trip: when this 4 people discovered the Gold – thousands came to get rich: the story here can inspire us to wonder how far we would go to built the life we seek
- At that time in 1896 the US was emerging from a depression and wealth was out of reach for 98% of the people living in the US they struggled through pour working conditions, economic depression and unequal rights., cities were growing and frontier was disappearing making the Alaska wilderness appealing: with the Gold as an promise to instant wealth if you are able to make the journey
- How to go there: you could choose the all boat route: via St. Michael and then up the Yukon river: it was super expensive and the Yukon is frozen in the winter. Option 2 was via Skagway: an ice-free harbour
- The number of miners who made fortunes was small, but the tales and legends that emerged were endless
- Stampeders – that’s how they nicknamed the people who came here to seek for gold
- The Tlingits: got crammed in their trade routes, their places became boomtowns – some became packers to carry the gear of the stampeders, some got cheated out of their profit or the they were overpowered by the frenzy.
- Women: were not allowed to own property, some stepped out of their traditional roles here, they staked gold claims or ran business or went into prostitution. Like Harriet Pullen who came to skagway with 7$ and went from pie-seller to profitable owner of businesses
- The Black US Army troops founded in 1899 helped to maintain law and order and protect the Tlingit from settlers and miners abuse – but they were still mostly discriminated
Seeing the Cruise ships sail away in
the sunshine
We still have time and we discovered
that 2 cruiseships are leaving at 5, we walked to the end of the little harbour
and had there the most amazing views on the cruiseships leaving – the channel,
the mountains, the ships and the sun – all together it was amazing. Yes I think
it would be awesome to sail through this channel and enjoy the views.
It’s hot and we make fresh buns
And today we are making the first time
buns in our stove, Gine made the dough in the morning – now Paul has to turn on
our gas stove – perfect and then we bake them with lots of checking and they
were amazing.
Afterwards we met more fellow RV’s
here and talk some more. It is so cool to find so many fellow travellers around
here and it is amazing on how many of them come back and back to Alaska. Let’s
see if it will be a once in a life time or not. Mandy is definitely always
bringing attention to herself and a good starting point to talk.
It’s time to leave
We get up to another sunny morning,
today we are woken up by a lot of train whistles and noise, but then there are
4 cruiseships in town today. A relaxed morning with internet, coffee and
breakfast.
As our internet is a bit spotty and we
can’t log in with the kindle we spend some time in front of the library so we
are up to date again.
2025-05-22