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At last, a place in Southeast Alaska with little rain! But
Skagway, the northern terminus of the Alaska Marine Highway
ferry also goes by the moniker – Home of the North Wind – which
means it is likely to be chilly, brr…
So it was that I arrived at the historical Gateway to the Golden
Interior one nippy morning and got off the ferry
for the last time. Unlike the other ports where there was always
that niggling transport problem, I found myself walking straight
into town here and literally transported into the gold-rush era,
with the streets and buildings looking like a ‘Wild Wild West’
movie set. The only thing missing was the bustle and cowboys as
it was still wee hours and this was, after all, the tail end of the
tourist season.
From a population of 20,000 in the 1890s boom days when the Klondike Gold
Rush gave birth to the town and neighbouring ,
the residents today number only some 800 with tourism as its
mainstay. But the spirit and humour remain very much intact. I was
welcomed to the “ghost town” and told that there would be only three
shops open the following week. The first snow appearing on the
mountain peaks was jokingly referred to as “termination dust”,
because it spells the end of the summer jobs generated by the brief
3-month window period, during which Skagway has to make a living
for the entire year.
Much of Skagway is actually part of the Klondike Gold Rush
National Historical Park, that has units extending
from Seattle
to Dawson in the Yukon Territory,
tracing the arduous journey of the gold-seeker who boarded a
voyage in Seattle and had to disembark at either Skagway to cross
the treacherous White Pass or at Dyea to follow
the Chilkoot
Trail into Canada. The 33-mile Chilkoot Trail was the
more popular because it was several miles shorter but the White
Pass summit was less steep and 600 feet lower. Either way, the poor
miner had to scale the pass in the wintry conditions not once,
but back and forth 20 to 40 times, because of Canada’s entry
requirement that he must carry along a ton of
goods as a year’s supply.
The free ½-hour film, Days of Adventure, Dreams of
Gold, at Skagway’s Visitor Center provides a vivid
account of the gold-rush days, with footage of the unforgettable
image that became the icon of the 1897-98 Klondike Gold Rush – an
endless streak of prospectors struggling under enormous loads like
worker ants trudging up the snow-laden Golden Stairs, Chilkoot’s fabled
obstacle of a daunting ¼-mile climb up 1,000 vertical feet. Dyea
eventually “died” as a town when the stampede ended and the
White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad was completed. It is today an
archaeological site (read: ghost town), but the Chilkoot Trail
starting there remains the single most popular hike in the
Southeast.
Skagway, on the other hand, survived as a port and railroad town
despite its early infamous lawless stint as the roughest place in the
world. A certain Jefferson Randolph ‘Soapy’ Smith
and his gang had cooked up so many ingenuous scams to swindle
miners, both poor arriving newcomers as well as returning successful
stampeders alike. His reign finally ended when a mob of angry
citizens removed him from power, with the hero being the city
engineer, one Frank
Reid. Smith and Reid slugged it out in a gun duel
and killed each other. One can get a colourful, and amusing, account
of this dramatic incident and Soapy’s thieving ways from the free
45-minute Walking Tours conducted by the rangers from the Visitor
Center.
The Walking Tour also provides a good guide to the Historic
District, where the National Park Service has
restored many old shop fronts and buildings. During its heyday,
Skagway had 80 saloons, 3 breweries, many brothels and countless
service and supply businesses. The restored Mascot
Saloon had life-size exhibits depicting the wild days
of that era, whilst the Red Onion Saloon, with a
provocative past, is still very much a lively bar today. These
businesses, legitimate or not, were where the real money was made
– off the hapless miners. The enterprising ones put
advertisements up on the cliff face overlooking the town. To
facilitate the railway development that would bring more traffic
and business, the flexible shop owners even had no qualms
shifting addresses, and this means literally lifting and
moving their buildings around!
Besides the Chilkoot Trail, there are a number of good hikes
around Skagway. I started by taking a nice afternoon stroll to
Yakutania
Point which begins near the airport runway, after
crossing a footbridge.
The trail, though short, was surprisingly pleasant, through a
forest dotted with luscious-looking mushrooms and overlooking a
lovely coastline. At the end of the path was a picturesque cove
with pretty boulders and pebbles, a wonderful reward for the
hike.
East of Skagway, beyond the railway tracks, lies a series of
trails which lead to a handful of alpine and subalpine lakes,
waterfalls and historic sites. I decided to hike up to the Lower Dewey
Lake which was a moderate 500-feet ascent. The lake
itself was two miles in circumference. After taking a leisurely half
loop to the south end, I embarked on the 7-mile roundtrip Sturgill’s Landing
Trail.
It seemed like one endless walk in the woods, with squirrels
abound, scampering about the mix of spruce, hemlock and
lodgepole pine. What was more unusual, however, was the spectacle of
even more varieties of interesting mushrooms, literally
“mushrooming” all over the forest floor – yellow ones, white ones,
red-top ones, gigantic brown ones looking like loaves of bread, and
even complex multi-tiered “condominiums” of really tiny
ones.
The fascinating “mushroom museum” finally came to an end when I
reached a stream where the trail turned sharply right. I seemed to
be getting higher and higher above the stream gully when the path
turned into loose rocks and boulders. Yikes! Now that I was out in
the open with strong winds and all, it wasn’t fun navigating the
rocks while balancing on the narrow ledge and then scrambling down a
steep slope to the landing.
But it was a decent picnic spot that greeted me at the campsite,
where I had my yummy lunch of milk and cookies and re-energized,
sigh, for the long walk back…
At long last, I went on Skagway’s flagship attraction – the
pricey White Pass
& Yukon Route Railway ride. And what an
exhilarating adventure it turned out to be! Aptly dubbed the
Scenic Railway of
the World, the 3-hour roundtrip from Skagway covers a
climb of 2,865 feet in just 20 miles to the White Pass
summit.
The narrow gauge railroad was built over the White Pass Trail to
Bennett
Lake and Whitehorse
at the height of the gold rush by British investors. Given the
perilous switchbacks, nearly vertical hillsides and rugged canyons
of the coastal mountain terrain, the construction was a super
engineering feat at the time. And it was completed in double quick
time in 2 years from May 1898 to July 1900. Even though the stampede
was over by then, the railway ensured Skagway’s survival by
transporting ore and concentrates en route from the Klondike mines
to the Skagway port. In World War II, it also played the role of
chief supplier for the U.S. Army’s Alaska Highway construction
project.
By 1982, however, world metal prices plunged and the major Yukon
mines shut down, forcing the railway line to halt as well.
Fortunately, for visitors like myself, it was re-opened in 1988 as
an excursion train and again served to revive Skagway’s fortunes –
this time as a tourist attraction.
We started out mildly enough, chugging along lazily past the
Gold Rush
Cemetery – resting place of both hero Reid and
villain Soapy – into the narrow canyon along the Skagway
River, with the luxuriant Tongass National
Forest providing an exquisite
backdrop.
Then came the dramatic parts where the beautiful sheer cliffs
started to emanate bright colours – resplendent subalpine meadows of
red and gold adding to the fine greenery of the coniferous forests.
That was when I started snapping like crazy, coming out of the
enclosed part of the train carriage and trying to capture all the
twists and turns while the train traveled at breakneck speed. I
missed all the broadcast narration in the cabin as a result but
thoroughly enjoyed myself.
It was all worth it as the scenery became even more spectacular,
especially just before we entered the two tunnels. We were
treated to the astonishing sight of deep plunging ravines and
stunning chasms, even as fog started to creep in and gave the views
a mystic feel. By the time we reached the legendary White Pass
Summit, everybody was at an intoxicating high, as
the misty landscape became surrealistic with alpine lakes and exotic
vegetation of dwarf shrubs, mosses and lichens.
It was now too cold to stand outside in the subarctic climate.
Yes, we had reached the border to Canada whereupon many a hardy, or
foolhardy, miner had struggled to reach again and again on foot,
enduring the freezing temperatures and harsh conditions, risking his
life to carry across piecemeal, his ton of goods. Such was the power
of shimmering, glimmering gold… driving the intense will of the over
40,000 hopeful stampeders who passed through Chilkoot or White Pass.
In the end, only some 4,000 or so prospectors actually found gold in
the Klondike gold fields with a few hundred becoming rich. Yet,
out of these, only a mere handful managed to hang on to their
wealth.
Hey, come to think of it, the last grand adventure of the 19th
century is, in fact, the Last Great Scam ! R.I.P.,
Soapy.
do visit yen's art blog for works inspired by north america
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