Skagway

On By DbmakesIn Alaska August 2024, Cruising!

Wednesday, Aug 14, 2024

We started this day a little later as we needed to sleep in.  I’m getting too old to stay up so late!!

Our dock was closed due to a HUGE rock slide, so they tendered us to shore.  We walked about 1/4 mile into Skagway and had perfect timing to see the movie about the Klondike Gold Rush starting in 1898.  I hate to admit I was pretty clueless about all that and was astonished to see what those stompers did to find gold. 

Again, thanks to Eric & Amber, we made a bee line to the Red Onion
This is the original building.  I loved the server’s outfits!
That red light is the original from 1897!  And our guide was a HOOT as well as quite knowledgeable.
This is one of the original rooms and bed.  For $5.00, the man would get a whopping 15 minutes. 
Lysol was used as a douche.  I think they should have used it on the man instead

Each woman only made $1.50 out of each $5.00 John.  Women were not allowed to be miners, so they mined the men instead. 

We had time before our White Pass and Yukon Route train trip, so we stopped for a bite.  I got my Spruce Tip blonde
Oh that chowder, chili, and garlic bread was PERFECT for a chilly afternoon.

We boarded our train around 4:00 p.m. and had no idea what to expect.  The round trip lasted about 2 and 1/2 hours and we saw some incredible scenery.

In 1896, the first gold was discovered in the Klondike.  In 1897,  Gold Rush fever struck, and tens of thousands of men and women steamed up the inside passage waterway and arrived in Skagway. 

The stompers had two ways to get to the gold.  They could take the shorter but steeper Chilkoot trail, or the longer but less steep White Pass trail.  Either way, once they got up this trail they still had 500 miles ahead of them before they would reach gold.  UNBELIEVABLE.

Pack horses could be utilized on the White Pass Trail, but 3000 horses died in the process. 

Two men met in Skagway and decided overnight that they could build a railroad over the White Pass trail.  And unbelievably, they completed the construction of the narrow gauge railroad in just a little over 2 years.  It cost 10 million dollars, tens of thousands of men, and 450 tons of explosives, in a VERY HARSH climate.

The scenery on this 40 mike trip to the summit is overwhelming and my photos do not do it justice. 

The trip included 2 tunnels blasted into solid granite
At one point we could even still see the foot trail that was used. 
Inspiration Point.  WAY down there is water and the location of our ship.

This summit is on the border of the US and Canada.  The Canadian government insisted that a stomper have a year’s worth of food before crossing into Canada.  Remember …. The gold is still 500 mi away from the border!  This meant that a man would have to go over this pass at least 50 times to carry enough food to complete that obligation. 

We didn’t get back to the ship until around 7:30.  We ate a nice dinner in the dining room, listened to a comedian in the theater, and went to bed.

We were overwhelmed.

4 thoughts on “Skagway”

  3. Jennifer Leinhos's avatar Jennifer Leinhos

    Mark and I hiked the first two miles of the Chilkoot trail, where we met up with our our boats and guides for a ride down the river. I love how the rivers are so white from the glacier runoff. Also, fun fact-Tony Terry started The Gaslight Theater in Skagway one summer in a tent and marketed it to the tourists for just a few bucks a ticket.

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