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Skagway
See Skagway photos here
Skagway is located 90 miles northeast of
Juneau at the northernmost end of Lynn Canal, at the head of Taiya Inlet. It is
also 112 road miles south of Whitehorse, Yukon, and just west of the border with
British Columbia. It lies at approximately 59° 27' N Latitude, 135° 18' W
Longitude (Sec. 11, T028S, R059E, Copper River Meridian). The community is
located in the Skagway Recording District. The area encompasses 455 sq. miles of
land and 11 sq. miles of water.
 "Skagua"
was the Tlingit name, which means "the place where the north wind
blows." The first non-Native settler was Captain William Moore in 1887.
He is credited with being the first white man to use the White Pass
route between Skagway and the interior. In August 1896, gold was
discovered in the Klondike region, and the first boatload of prospectors
landed at Skagway the following summer. By October 1897, according to a
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, stores, saloons, gambling houses, dance houses and a
population of about 20,000." Five thousand stampeders alone landed in
February 1898, according to Customs Office records. Two trails were used
by the gold seekers to reach the headwaters of the Yukon River. The
33-mile-long Chilkoot Trail began at nearby Dyea; and the 40-mile White
Pass Trail began at Skagway and paralleled the present-day route of the
White Pass & Yukon Route railway (WP&YR). Thousands of men carried
supplies up the Chilkoot Trail, which was too steep for horses, or took
the 40-mile White Pass trail to Lake Bennett, where they built boats to
float down the Yukon River to Dawson City and the gold fields, 500 miles
distant. In 1898 a steam-operated aerial tramway was constructed on the
steepest section of the Chilkoot Trail, which eased the burdens of those
able to pay.
Skagway became the first incorporated City in Alaska in 1900; their
population was 3,117 at that time, the second-largest settlement in
Alaska. Tales of fortune seekers, lawlessness, and Soapy Smith are
legendary. Once the gold rush ended in 1900, Skagway might have become a
ghost town if not for the railroad construction that began in 1898. The
WPYR was the first major railroad in Alaska, and provided freight, fuel
and transportation to Whitehorse as well as serving the Anvil Gold Mines
in the Yukon. It employed many locals until 1982, when the mine closed.
Construction of the South Klondike Highway in 1979 gave Skagway a link
to the Alaska Highway. There is a State ferry connection to other
Southeast Alaska communities. Skagway is supported primarily by summer
tourism.
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