SKAGWAY, ALASKA

A town that relives its 1898 gold fever history daily!

During the Klondike Gold Rush, Skagway (first spelled Skaguay) was the gateway to Canada and the Yukon River system for most of the adventurers who traveled north to seek their fortunes. The town still capitalizes on the 1898 stampede, but now as a tourist center with an outstanding heritage restoration.Skagway is reached by road, and from the sea.

Alaska ferries arrive daily during the summer months, augmenting the population by thousands of cruise ship passengers who disembark for a few hours to walk around the town and to shop.

Skagway by Streetcar 
No one goes to greater lengths to give visitors a unique experience than the Skagway Streetcar Company, which uses antique touring vehicles and costumed guides performing "theater without walls." The very personal and amusing 2-hour streetcar tour, based on a tour originally given to President Harding in 1923.

White Pass Trail in Skagway
The Klondike Highway follows one of the two main routes from the port of Skagway to the Klondike gold fields, taken by thousands of prospectors and adventurers during the Klondike Gold Rush, beginning in the winter of 1897/98. This is the White Pass route, and the modern highway is a far cry from the muddy, treacherous trail which climbed the extremely steep mountainside, resulting in the death of hundreds of pack horses as they carried the prospectors' supplies to the summit of the White Pass.

Chilkoot Trail in Skagway
The other "poor-man's" route was the Chilkoot Trail which began at the town of Dyea at the head of Taiya Inlet. This trail followed an old Indian passage from tidewater to Lindeman and Bennett Lakes: the headwaters of the Yukon River. Pictures taken during the stampede show hundreds of men struggling up the ice steps of the Chilkoot Pass, carrying their supplies -- over and over again -- to get their ton of goods up to the Canadian border.

Touring the Historic Park
The main thing to do in Skagway is to see the old buildings and historic gold rush places. Do it with the Skagway Walking Tour Map or join a fascinating National Park Service guided walking tour.