Skagway, Alaska

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”

John Lubbock

We traveled up the Inside Passage to the scenic town of Skagway, Alaska, our northern most destination on our cruise ship, the Norwegian Star. This trip just gets more and more beautiful at every stop. On our way to Skagway, we stopped to see a glacier in Glacier National Park. It was an amazing site to see. As we got closer to the glacier, ice bergs floated by us. It got foggier as we got closer but still, we got the picture of how large this glacier really was.

After viewing the glacier, we headed to the city of Skagway a mere 90 miles northeast of Juneau. Skagway is a quaint town with a population of less that a thousand full time residents normally but is known to increase to over 3,000 in the summer to accommodate workers to take care of the cruise ships passengers coming into town. We talked to some of the workers who had came here year after year to work during the summer from all over the United States. They loved Skagway that much. Over a million tourists come to Skagway each summer.

The name Skagway is derived from the Tlingit term, “ShGagei” which means rough seas caused by strong north winds and literally, it means “beautiful woman”. Figurative meaning is ShGagei or Skagway is a nickname of Kanagoo who was a mythical woman who turned herself into a stone on the Skagway Bay and causes strong winds to be channeled towards Haines, Alaska. The Kanagoo Stone formation is visible from Skagway Bay, also referred to as Face Mountain.

Skagway has a very colorful unique past with many an interesting settlers who landed here. One of the earliest residents after the Native Americans, was William “Billy” Moore, who was a former steamboat captain. He believed gold was in the Klondike so in 1887, he and his son, J. Bernard “Ben” Moore laid claim to 160 acres of land at the mouth of the Skagway River. Gold was later found in 1896 during the Klondike Gold Rush and then the area started booming. Gold prospectors came from all over to strike it rich. Some had no idea that when they got off the steamers they still had a 500 mile difficult journey to the gold fields. Some thought the journey would be to difficult and decided to stay back. They opened stores, saloons, and offices along the muddy dirt roads in Skagway.

By 1898, the population of this town had increased to between 8,000 to 10,000 people with another 1,000 prospectors passing through each week. During that time, they said that the town of Skagway was a lawless town and little better than hell on earth. There were fights, prostitutes, and much liquor drinking on the streets. A known person of notoriety in town was “Soapy” Smith, who was a con man who did his best to swindle prospectors out of their money with cards, dice, and the shell game. He also charged anyone who wanted to send a telegram to anywhere in the world $5. He gamed the system there since there was no telegraph system in Skagway for another three years. Eventually, all his misdeeds caught up to him and Frank Reid and Jesse Murphy shot him on July 8, 1898 on Juneau Wharf. Smith was killed and Reid died 12 days later from his injuries. Jesse was credited with Smiths death maybe because he survived to tell the tale. By 1899, the gold seekers mostly left the town and the economy of Skagway began to collapse. It took many years before the town was to come back and became a tourist destination.

We enjoyed walking down the seven block area of town. Broadway Avenue is the main street in town and was a wide street lined with shops and businesses. The buildings were designed in an old west style and there were many unique shops and restaurants to explore. This town is so small there are no stop lights and we heard the closest stop light was a hundred miles away. That is hard to believe coming from Georgia where there are so many stop lights. We noted there were no franchised restaurants and the only chain store we saw was Radio Shack. The interesting thing about that store is it also carried frozen food and pizza. The town is only 464 square miles and the main industry now is tourism.

We walked by AB Hall, an interesting building that is covered with over 10,000 pieces of driftwood. The AB stands for Arctic Brotherhood and this building was used in 1899 as a fraternal local hall where white male gold prospectors, 18 years or older that lived in Skagway, North Alaska, the Yukon Territory, or anywhere north of parallel 54 degrees could be a member and get together. It started out with a small group of men but in time, the Brotherhood spread to other mining camps and swelled to 10,000 members. Honorary members were President Warren Harding, Teddy Roosevelt, William McKinley and even Prince Edward VII of England. It is now the Skagway Convention and Visitors Bureau. They recently had to renovate and replace thousands of rotted wood pieces in 2004.

The Golden North Hotel was built in 1898 and was built when the economy was booming in Skagway. It has since closed in 2002 after a long run and is now owned by Frontier Excursions and Adventures. Like all historic hotels, there has to be a good ghost story. That always makes a hotel more interesting. It was said that back in the gold rush days, a prospector who was nicknamed Klondike Ike, traveled to town with his fiance and stayed in room 23. They agreed she would stay there when he traveled the 500 miles to the gold camp to make their fortune. He told her he would return around a certain date. When he failed to show up, it was said, she locked herself in the room and was later found dead, wearing the dress she would have worn on her wedding day. “Scary Mary” supposedly still haunts the and building and has been seen in the hallways or looking out the window.

One of the restaurants/saloons we stopped in that day was the Red Onion Saloon which was a popular dance hall and brothel from the gold rush days. The customers would pick a doll that was on the bar and each doll represented a woman. When a woman was working upstairs, the doll would be placed laying down on the bar and not sat up until she was available again. Another ghost story? Yep. The former Madam, Lydia still haunts the place and some have smelled the perfume she wore and have felt many cold spots.

We passed the train station and positioned outside of it was a train with an unusual front. That front is for pushing the snow off the train tracks. That must be a sight to see. We walked through Blanchard Garden which is downtown and where the locals plant pretty flowers. This is a garden area that was started years ago but was in disrepair until the residents took it upon themselves to bring it back to life.

We enjoyed walking our walk around the town and neighborhoods as it was so different from home. One thing we thought was amazing, was where the residents stored their snowmobiles. They were perched up on top of sheds a good 6 feet or more off the ground. We heard that Skagway averages 262 inches of snow per year. I guess that explains the 

snowmobile placement.

We walked across the Skagway footbridge to Yakutania Point Area Trails. We enjoyed this easy trail that had nice views of Lynn Canal and the Chilkat Mountains. After hiking the trail, we headed back to the cruise ship.

One last interesting thing that is said to happen here on Juneau Wharf but I did not confirm is that when the last cruise ship is leaving after the summer season, the town residents come out, line the dock, and moon the last ship. That would be a hoot to see if it is true. Maybe someone out there, can verify this story for me.

It was a great day. This is a great little town that was fun and full of life. Till next time, Skagway.

Bye for now.