Skagway

We decided to take a slight detour down to Skagway because there was so much history around the town. There is a National Historic Park that has lots of information about the gold rush, which is the entire reason that Skagway is a town. One of the cheapest ways to make it to Dawson City to try to get a claim was to take a boat into Skagway and then try to forge your way over the white pass.

One of the most interesting facts about the gold rush is that it only lasted one season in Skagway. By the time anyone made it up to Dawson City all of the claims were gone, so not only did no one strike it rich off gold, very few even got the chance to look. Everyone who managed to get rich in the gold rush did so off of money spent by other people there to look. There were lots of hotels, restaurants, brothels and scams. 

While the history was very interesting we were struck by how much tourist traffic they get! The summer population is double the winter population, and while they have one of the highest unemployment rates in Alaska in the winter, they have one of the lowest in the summer.  Skagway's population is estimated to be 1,148 yet they see as many as 8,000 cruise passengers in a single day. While were there, which was not even the peak of tourist season, there were three huge cruises.

The area is also naturally quite stunning. The quick decent from large peaks down to sea levels is spectacular. Overall, it was worth the single day jaunt down to see the town.