Skagway, AK
Skagway is an i
nteresting town. It has a lot of old buildings that have been taken care of, refurbished with new businesses in them, but with the goldmining town look. Skagway has a population of 834 except when the cruise ships tie into port and then the population swells by 2,000 or more. Skagway is a bustling little town when the
ships dock but they still roll up the sidewalks before 7:00 pm - most nights.The name Skaguay - original spelling - is said to mean "stiffly wind rippled water" in
Tlingit. In July 1897 the first boatloads of stampeders bound for the Klondike landed. By October 1897, according
to a North West Mounted Police report, the town had grown to a population of about 20,000. By the summer of 1899 the stampede was all but over and Skagway's population dwindled to 500. But the small town held on and became an important port and a ferry terminal.We went to the dock several times - whenever we would hear a cruise ship's h
orn just to see the docking procedure or the departure. Interesting ho
w each one has their own way of coming into port. Some tie up nose in and then they have to back out into the bay and some of them turn around in the bay and come in backwards. Once they dock, hundreds of passengers depart to catch either the train or a bus to go north to Carcross.
orn just to see the docking procedure or the departure. Interesting ho
w each one has their own way of coming into port. Some tie up nose in and then they have to back out into the bay and some of them turn around in the bay and come in backwards. Once they dock, hundreds of passengers depart to catch either the train or a bus to go north to Carcross.
The one very interesting thing in Skagway that wasn't a building was the rotary snowplow on display. This attached to the front end of the train to plow the snow off the tracks in the pass - on the track that went from Skagway to Whitehorse.
The first night there we discovered we had no electric in the RV. Ken spent almost the entire next day tracing down where the short was while I did the wash and read. Finally, he discovered that the electric brake wire that if the trailer disconnects from the hitch, it will lock up the trailer brakes was rubbing on the frame - thereby shorting out the electric in the RV. Electric is an essential item when you sleep with a C-PAP machine like Ken does. We were relieved to have that taken care of but didn't plan on spending an extra day in Skagway.
Skagway isn't very big, but we will explore what there is tomorrow then head for Whitehorse the next day.
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