Skagway near the northern end of the Lynn Canal
Morning found the Sea Lion heading north, towards her morning destination of the town of Skagway, a small community located at the northern end of the Lynn Canal. Our visit today was to the restored gold rush town and headquarters of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Skagway became the first incorporated city in Southeast Alaska in 1900; its population at the time was 3,117 making it the second-largest settlement in Alaska. Today, Skagway has 850 full-time residents and during the summer the populations booms to just over 1,700, made up mostly of employees working the tourist trade that is the main source of economy in this small community. Those tourists come to Skagway to witness the story of Skagway’s past, the focal point of the Klondike gold rush.
Skagway got its name from the Tlingit Native peoples’ name, “Skagua” which means “the place where the north wind blows.” The first non-native to settle in the area was Captain William Moore in 1887, who discovered the White Pass route into Interior Canada. It was on that route, heading into the Yukon Territory at the Klondike that gold was discovered on August 16, 1896. According to the Northwest Mounted Police Report, Skagway “had grown from a concourse of tents to a fair-sized town with well-laid-out streets and numerous frame buildings, stories, saloons, gambling house, and dance houses and a population of 20,000 people.”
Once the Sea Lion had finished tying up at the Broadway dock, we boarded streetcars heading for the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad depot. Traveling approximately twenty miles, we would climb from sea level to almost 3,000 feet at the White Pass summit. Our ride featured steep grades of 3.9%, tight curves, several tunnels and bridges and spectacular views in all directions.
On July 21, 1898, two months after construction began; the railroad’s first engine went into service over the first four miles of completed narrow gauge railroad line. The rails were three feet apart on a ten-foot wide roadbed allowing for lower construction costs. Building the one hundred and ten miles of track was a challenge in every way. Construction required cliff-hanging turns of 16 degrees, blasting of two tunnels and treacherous conditions for the building of trestles in several spots! The workers reached the summit of White Pass on February 20, 1899 and by July 6, 1899 construction reached Lake Bennett and the beginning of the river and lakes route heading into the Yukon River and the gold fields, another 550 miles for the prospectors! Thirty-five thousand men worked on the construction of the railroad – some for a day, others for a longer period but all shared in the dream and the hardship.
As our train made its way up in elevation we headed into early spring conditions at this elevation and latitude….snow everywhere. The tracks of the White Pass & Yukon railway had only been clear for two weeks of this year’s season. We could only imagine what it had been like for construction crews building this railway line, working the winter of 1899, in heavy snows and temperatures as low as 60 below zero. Continuing our journey up and east through yet another tunnel and several steep curves the valley of the Skagway River opened up revealing a phenomenal view both west towards Lynn Canal and east up to White Pass. Just ahead of us an earlier departing train crossed the Steel Cantilever Bridge. The White Pass & Yukon Route as a train railway was designated an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1994. This honor is shared by only 36 world civil engineering marvels such as the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty and the Panama Canal.
At the summit of White Pass our train stopped, while engines were moved on a side track to rear of our train and we began our journey back town from an elevation of 2,865 feet to sea level in the town of Skagway. Moving out of high alpine mostly rock and small vegetation and at least ten feet of snow, we descended into forests of Sitka spruce, birch, black cottonwood and the braided streams of the Skagway River. Our journey took only three hours and was made in comfortable warm train cars…a far cry from the journeys made by nearly 30,000 or more prospectors over 100 years ago. It is recorded in the five months, between July and November of 1898, the United States mints in Seattle and San Francisco received ten million dollars worth of Klondike Gold. By 1900, another thirty-eight million dollars had been recorded! The Klondike god rush was the largest the world had ever known!
Morning found the Sea Lion heading north, towards her morning destination of the town of Skagway, a small community located at the northern end of the Lynn Canal. Our visit today was to the restored gold rush town and headquarters of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Skagway became the first incorporated city in Southeast Alaska in 1900; its population at the time was 3,117 making it the second-largest settlement in Alaska. Today, Skagway has 850 full-time residents and during the summer the populations booms to just over 1,700, made up mostly of employees working the tourist trade that is the main source of economy in this small community. Those tourists come to Skagway to witness the story of Skagway’s past, the focal point of the Klondike gold rush.
Skagway got its name from the Tlingit Native peoples’ name, “Skagua” which means “the place where the north wind blows.” The first non-native to settle in the area was Captain William Moore in 1887, who discovered the White Pass route into Interior Canada. It was on that route, heading into the Yukon Territory at the Klondike that gold was discovered on August 16, 1896. According to the Northwest Mounted Police Report, Skagway “had grown from a concourse of tents to a fair-sized town with well-laid-out streets and numerous frame buildings, stories, saloons, gambling house, and dance houses and a population of 20,000 people.”
Once the Sea Lion had finished tying up at the Broadway dock, we boarded streetcars heading for the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad depot. Traveling approximately twenty miles, we would climb from sea level to almost 3,000 feet at the White Pass summit. Our ride featured steep grades of 3.9%, tight curves, several tunnels and bridges and spectacular views in all directions.
On July 21, 1898, two months after construction began; the railroad’s first engine went into service over the first four miles of completed narrow gauge railroad line. The rails were three feet apart on a ten-foot wide roadbed allowing for lower construction costs. Building the one hundred and ten miles of track was a challenge in every way. Construction required cliff-hanging turns of 16 degrees, blasting of two tunnels and treacherous conditions for the building of trestles in several spots! The workers reached the summit of White Pass on February 20, 1899 and by July 6, 1899 construction reached Lake Bennett and the beginning of the river and lakes route heading into the Yukon River and the gold fields, another 550 miles for the prospectors! Thirty-five thousand men worked on the construction of the railroad – some for a day, others for a longer period but all shared in the dream and the hardship.
As our train made its way up in elevation we headed into early spring conditions at this elevation and latitude….snow everywhere. The tracks of the White Pass & Yukon railway had only been clear for two weeks of this year’s season. We could only imagine what it had been like for construction crews building this railway line, working the winter of 1899, in heavy snows and temperatures as low as 60 below zero. Continuing our journey up and east through yet another tunnel and several steep curves the valley of the Skagway River opened up revealing a phenomenal view both west towards Lynn Canal and east up to White Pass. Just ahead of us an earlier departing train crossed the Steel Cantilever Bridge. The White Pass & Yukon Route as a train railway was designated an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1994. This honor is shared by only 36 world civil engineering marvels such as the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty and the Panama Canal.
At the summit of White Pass our train stopped, while engines were moved on a side track to rear of our train and we began our journey back town from an elevation of 2,865 feet to sea level in the town of Skagway. Moving out of high alpine mostly rock and small vegetation and at least ten feet of snow, we descended into forests of Sitka spruce, birch, black cottonwood and the braided streams of the Skagway River. Our journey took only three hours and was made in comfortable warm train cars…a far cry from the journeys made by nearly 30,000 or more prospectors over 100 years ago. It is recorded in the five months, between July and November of 1898, the United States mints in Seattle and San Francisco received ten million dollars worth of Klondike Gold. By 1900, another thirty-eight million dollars had been recorded! The Klondike god rush was the largest the world had ever known!
