Klondike Fever (06-14-14)

In 1896, when the lower 48 states heard about the discovery of gold in the Klondike River, in Yukon Territory, Canada, more than a hundred thousand adventurers headed north to strike it rich.  One of the “easiest” jumping off points to the Yukon was Skagway, Alaska, and the town boomed and became the biggest city in the state.






The trek to the Klondike was anything but easy, and one of the popular routes involved walking over Chilkoot Pass, which was actually easier in the winter when 1500 steps were cut into the ice.

Making that trek once would be tough enough, but to prevent famine, the Canadian government decided that anyone crossing at the nearby border had to bring a year’s worth of supplies with them.  That meant each stampeder, as they were called, made that climb 30-40 times.

From there, it was another 400 miles to get to Dawson, where the gold had been found.

Of the 100,000 who attempted the trip, only 30,000 had the fortitude to actually make it to Dawson. Unfortunately for them, by the time they got there, all the gold laden land had been claimed by others. Klondike Gold Fever was a short phenomenon.

   The town of Skagway still survived though, and many of the buildings here are original.  There are also still quite a few saloons in town, although not quite the 80 that there were in 1898.

The White Pass and Yukon Railway was built just in time to witness the end of the gold rush in Skagway.
For many years it serviced the freight and passenger needs of the Yukon, but now it caters to the tourist industry.

They offer several different sight seeing trips and we decided that it would be nice for Paul to take the backseat and relax while driving through the mountains, so we took a trip to White Pass Summit.

The scenery was great, and with very few clouds, the mountains were very visible.

We were even allowed to walk outside, although we couldn't move from car to car. Luckily the weather that day was better than it has been, and we even saw the sun for a little while.

We saw several bears along the way.  This guy started to run off, but then turned to watch the train go by.

After eating at several restaurants over the last two days, including the Red Onion, which has been in business since 1898, and having discovered that the local Elks, with their cheap drinks, is well within walking distance of the RV Park, we tried to fit in a few hikes.

The first hike, to a waterfall, was done partially in the rain, but hey, at least it wasn’t snow.

The trail also passed by the old town cemetery, where we had the chance to read the histories of some of the early townspeople.  This particular “unknown” grave was of a man who, in 1902 walked into the bank to rob it.  Under his coat he had a gun and two sticks of dynamite. When he told the teller to hand over her money, she fled to the back room.  He pulled out the gun to  threaten her, and in the process it discharged, igniting the dynamite.  There wasn’t enough of him left to figure out who he was!

Our second hike was a 4 mile loop around Lower Dewey Lake. It looks serene, but I’m not sure why they call it “lower” lake, since the trail to get to it was straight up.

Paul and I laughed and thought of our “motorcycle enthusiast” friends Mike and Julie when we read the sign posted that said the activities allowed on this trail include motorcycling.

I enjoyed our short stay in this small town of about 900 people.  With its historic buildings and wooden sidewalks, it seems to have retained some of that “old west” feel. That is, IF you can ignore the 2-5 

cruise ships in the harbor!