| Submitted by: Evelyn C. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 14 February 2005 |
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Well, it is an Alaskan design, or at least a design by an Alaskan! Many of the souvenirs we saw were made elsewhere: all the caps were made in China, Taiwan, or the Philippines (in increasing order of cost), the T-shirts are almost all Chinese, and even the ulu knives often had parts made in China. (Wm Spear's web site is http://www.carmelnet.com. Web sites are ubiquitous. We saw a street artist in Vancouver who had his web site URL posted.)
Dinner was Smoked Wild Salmon, Caesar Salad, Sautéed Orange Roughy with Lime-Caper Sauce, Granny Smith Sorbet with Apples Soaked in Calvados, and coffee. Most of our group had the Bananas Flambé, but they were not flambéd at the table. The food is good, but not (to me) outstanding. The potions are on the small side, probably because there are six courses. Not that anyone leaves hungry, of course.
After dinner we re-watched the lecture on the Trail of 98.
July 30 (59N, 135W, sunrise 4:41 ADT, sunset 21:32 ADT): 'When Skookum Jim found gold, that's the time everything changed.' (Native elder Annie Ned, 1975)
Lawrence said that the 1890s weren't the 'Gay 90s' for everyone; there was a worldwide depression, and this contributed to the last of the great international gold rushes. When Secretary of State William Seward paid $7,200,000 for a million square miles of Alaska in 1867, people called it 'Seward's Folly.' But the Russians had been more interested in fur than in gold, and sold it only because the fur (and the trappers) were giving out. Then gold was discovered gold in Rabbit Creek (now Bonanza Creek) in 1896. Word couldn't get out until the next year, and most prospectors couldn't get there until the next year because of the preparation time. A million people talked about going to the Klondike; 100,000 actually went.
Lawrence talked about all the dishonesty that occurred: bartenders with moist hands to which extra gold dust would stick when they measured out the price of a drink, or long fingernails under which it would lodge, or panning the sawdust in bars for gold dust that fell there. The biggest con artists was Jefferson Randall 'Soapy' Smith, about whom Mark will undoubtedly write a lot. Suffice it to say that at the height of his power he had three hundred men working a variety of scams, cheats, frauds, and robberies. For example, he set up a telegraph office and charged five dollars to send a telegram. Within a few hours a reply would arrive, collect. No one noticed, apparently, that there were no telegraph wires into the town or the office.
'I looked up at the pass. I can see it yet-that upward trail, outlined on an almost perpendicular wall of ice-covered rock, alive with clinging human beings and animals, slowly mounting, single file, to the summit.' (Martha Black)
There was much dispute over the benefits of the White Pass versus the shorter but higher Chilkoot Trail. The major advantage of the White Pass was that one could bring pack animals over it, while the Chilkoot Trail was strictly people only. When the railroad was built over the White Pass, that was the end of the Chilkoot Trail. But the Chilkoot Trail is what people remember, mostly because of the photograph of the line of people, shoulder to shoulder, up the entire length of the trail to the top.
'In single file we swing along
and soon we strike the stride,
That climbs the trail that stands on end
against the mountain side.' (Fred Crewe)
'It was like climbing an icy stairway to hell!' (Ed Lung)
Because starvation faced the first arrivals into the Yukon, Canada soon required a years' worth of supplies (about a ton) be brought before anyone was allowed in. This meant that people had to make twenty or thirty trips to carry all that over the pass, and often walked six hundred miles without actually making any real progress. Jack London was one of these, and while he didn't strike it rich in the gold fields, his experiences, transcribed into stories and novels, did eventually make him a fortune.
'I cannot say too much in favor of this wonderful body of men.... I am a good American, but I take my hat off to the Canadian North-West Mounted Police as I knew them.' (Arthur Walden, 1898)
During this time, the White Pass had a real traffic backup, and the horses used there were enormously mistreated. Over three thousand horses died by falling (or, some say, committed suicide by jumping over the edge) into Dead Horse Gulch.
On Palm Sunday, April 3, 1898, the prospectors were warned by locals not to attempt to climb White Pass, as there was fresh snow and the temperature was warming up, and they feared a snow slide. Sixty people ignored this advice. There was a snow slide and all sixty were killed.
In 1899 gold was discovered on the beach at Nome, and this caused all the new prospectors (and many of the old ones who couldn't find any unclaimed land in the Yukon) to head there, leaving Skagway a shadow of its former self.
We docked in Skagway early. Mark and I decided to try breakfast in the dining room today. I think I'll stick to the Horizon Court. It's faster, there's a bigger selection, and I can sequence the food my way. (I want the cereal last, not first. Yes, I probably could ask for that, though our other requests have not been successful.) I asked for three pieces of sausage. I got four. (Another failed request.) And they were very greasy, not just internally, but also from the oil they were fried in. I will skip them from now on.
We went out about 8:45 AM. Unlike Ketchikan (where the dock is right downtown) or Juneau (where the dock is a couple of blocks away from downtown), in Skagway the dock, at least our dock, is almost a mile from town. On the rock outcropping opposite the ship were painted various ships' names and arrival dates; this is no longer allowed. It's like the rock in Arizona where all the explorers used to carve their names, but can't any more. We're really glad that people did it years ago, and call it history, but forbid people from doing it now and leaving any history to the future.
The White Pass and Yukon narrow-gauge railway was all ready to leave and we saw David L on it. (Susan, Sara, Jack, David G, and Sherry were also there, though we didn't see them.) This is probably the most popular excursion in Skagway.
At the end of the dock were people selling tours (similar to those bookable on the ship) at somewhat lower prices. We booked a tour that included the Gold Rush Cemetery and White Pass, but not the downtown area. This was closer to what we wanted, as we could do the downtown ourselves. That's because Skagway is twenty-two blocks long and five blocks wide, but the historic/touristy downtown is about six blocks on one street. It has a Starbucks. (But the nearest McDonalds is in White Horse, two hours' drive away.) We weren't able to see the film 'Days of Adventure, Dreams of Gold' at the National Park Service building (the old train depot) because of our tour, but suspect it would just repeat much of the information we already had.
We did get to the Arctic Brotherhood Hall, covered with 20,000 pieces of driftwood and housing the Trail of '98 Museum (US$2 each). We looked into the Mascot Saloon (a recreation of a famous saloon, though lacking the sawdust and general grungy atmosphere that would probably be more authentic). We bought a few post cards, went into Kirmse's Jewelry Store to see Soapy Smith's revolver.
One thing we see a lot of in Alaska is lines at pay phones. Because calling from shipboard is so expensive (about US$10 a minute), all the passengers (2000 on the Dawn Princess alone) and the crew (880 on the Dawn Princess alone) rush to the phones during dockings to call home.
At 10:20 AM we were waiting in front of the Golden North Hotel, waiting for Dr. Fun Tours. After a bit, a woman from Skaguay Tours came over asking if we were waiting for the 10:30 tour. It seems Dr. Fun Tours is now Skaguay Tours.
Our tour guide Susan drove us around town first, pointing out some of the sights we had seen, as well as Jeff Smith's Saloon, shops patterned after old prostitute's 'cribs' (one called the 'House of Negotiable Affection'), the Post Office (where everyone gathers for news and gossip), and the City Hall (which was originally the McCabe College for Girls, but closed for lack of students).
Susan also reminded us that Attu and Kiska Islands in Alaska were attacked in World War II. (Most people think Pearl Harbor was the only place on American soil attacked by the Japanese.)
Skagway is so small (700 people in the summer, and about 300 in the winter) that they have no doctor. People who need a doctor have to be medivacked to Juneau by air or sea, or to White Horse (two hours by car). Homes are not cheap (about $175,000 for an existing home). The school has 130 students in kindergarten through high school; the average class size is ten, and the graduating class is four to eight. In the winter the only businesses that stay open are the Sourdough Restaurant, the hardware store, the grocery store, and the bars. The rest is not only closed, but boarded up.
At the Gold Rush Cemetery, Susan showed us a few graves outside the cemetery. There was Martin Itjen, the first tour guide in Skagway, along with his 'Largest Nugget in the World'-a rock painted gold and chained to a tree. Itjen's wife Lucy loved ships and wanted a house with portholes instead of windows, so there is such a house downtown. There was the grave of William John 'Mull' Mulvihill, a train dispatcher of White Pass Railroad. He is buried near the track and trains toot each time they go by.
And there is Soapy Smith, for whom the local ministers wouldn't even say a funeral service. Finally a passing Baptist minister was prevailed upon. He opened the Bible, said the verse 'The wages of sin are death' and closed the Bible; that was the entire service.
Inside the cemetery is Frank Reid, who shot Smith and 'who gave his life for the honor of Skagway.' There is also Ella Wilson, a notorious prostitute 'who gave her honor for the life of Skagway.'
We saw the White Pass train on the way up by bus, as well as Pitchfork Falls (with its hydroelectric project), Bridal Veil Falls, and the falls which form the boundary between the United States and Canada. We went into Canada; the signs indicated the Yukon Territory, though the map seemed to indicate it was British Columbia.
Susan said that for the Gold Rush, 1,000,000 people prepared to come, 100,000 actually came to Alaska, 40,000 made it to White Horse (where 2000 died of frostbite), 20,000 actually searched for gold, 400 struck it rich-and 50 stayed rich. Those fifty included Nordstrom (who founded the department store) and Mack (of Mack Truck, whose symbol is his dog who save his life in the Klondike).
You think of fjords as Norwegian (in fact, in Norway they claimed they didn't exist anywhere else), but the longest fjord in the world is from Bellingham, Washington, to Skagway, Alaska.
Based on our experience, it's probably best to book special tours or very popular ones (such as the helicopter tours) on board, but book city-type tours locally. They are bound to be available, are probably cheaper, and can be scheduled based on how you feel that day, what the weather is, etc.
We got back to the ship at 1:20 PM and had to be at the end of the dock by 1:50 PM for our 'Horseback Riding Adventure,' so we made quick sandwiches in the Horizon Court and rushed back out. We rode out in a van to the horses, in a forest and meadow area. They gave us helmets and a quick talk on mounting, riding, etc.; assigned us horses (Mark's was Gypsy; mine was Crystal); and we mounted up. Unfortunately, the stirrups on mine were adjusted too low. This meant that every time Crystal trotted and I tried to stand in the stirrups to cushion the ride, I was standing too low and got slammed into the saddle with each step. The solution was not to allow Crystal to trot, although she definitely had a mind of her own on when she wanted to go, stop, walk, or trot. In spite of all this, I enjoyed the hour-and-a-half ride: it was beautiful country and very peaceful. |
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