Skagway--June 28th--Historical Walking tour in town and hike to lake

Marty, Marsha and I went back into town after lunch and followed the historical walk (23 stops on a very good map that we got at the visitors' center) through town.  (Ruthy and Fred went to a melodrama on the history of the town and then took the bus to the summit.)

Skagway played a key role in the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898.  For several hectic months, thousands poured through these streets o their way north.  They were headed for Dawson City in the Yukon region of Canada, more than 500 miles inland.  Conditions were so rough that fewer than half of those that arrived in Skagways reached the gold fields.For the first year of its existence, Skagway was a rought-and-tumble frontier port with more than 80 saloons and gun play was common.  It was run by a gang of organized criminals at first but settled down a bit when the RR construction began in 1898 and the criminals were purged 2 months later.  The RR was completed by the summer of 1900 but by then the gold rush was over.

Since then, it has served as a port and RR town.  Life there was relatively sedate except for World War II when thousands of Army troops were stationed there.  The RR was the main industry in town until it closed in 1982.  It reopened in the 1988 just for summers for tourists.

Stop 1 in town was the old Railroad Depot which now serves as the visitors' center.  It where I got the map for the historical walk. There is also a Gold Rush Museum in the building, but I did not go in.

Stop 2 is Jeff Smith's Parlor.  Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith was a con man who took over the town from 1897 to 1898.  After arrival, he controlled an underworld of over 200 gamblers, swindlers, and thugs.  
Howard had been into town, walking about int he morning and also climbed up to Lower lake.  On July 8, 1898, he got into a shoot out with Frank Reid and came in 2nd, and died instantly.

Stop 3, the Red Onion Saloon, functioned as a saloon, dance hall and bordello, after being built in 1898.

At this point I separated from M & M and went to see if I could find a charger for my new camera.  I went to "Radio Shack" and found out that there was a universal charger for digital cameras and it solved my problem.  Yay!! 

Stop 4 is the Artic Brotherhood Hall and may be the most photographed building in Alaska.  It was a frnternal organization and the building opened in 1899.  The organization's symbol, a gold pan and nuggets, is up near the roof line.  Lodge members collected over 8800 pieces of drift sticks along the shore of Skagway Bay and nailed them to the front wall.  More were nailed to the reception desk inside. 

The building was restored about 7 years ago, and 40% of the sticks had to be replaced as they had rotted but the rest still held up well after 100+ years!

Stop 5 was the Golden North Hotel.  The third story with a dome were added when the building was moved to its curent site in 1908.  The dome appears to be of Russian or Slavic origin was constructed by a carpenter from Montana.

Stop 6 is the Mascot Block, now a row of three separate business busineses. The Mascot Saloon on the corner dates back to 1898 and as one of more than 80 saloons in a town once described as the roughest place in the world.  It stayed open until 1916 when Prohibition closed it down.

Stop 7, the three-story Pack Train Building is the tallest historic building in Skagway. The building were originally baracks  built in 1900 and relocated to the present site later.

Stop 11 is Captain Moore's home in what was originally called "Mooresville."  It is the oldest building in Skagway, built in 1887 by Capt. William More and his son.  Moore was 65 when he arrived. 

Ben Moore's Wife and Children

 Moore had scouted the Tlingit route through the coastal mountains to what became known as White Pass which led to the Canadian interior.    He had followed gold rushes all his life and settled there for one last time to find his fortune.  When the rush came, he prospered beause he owned a dock, warehouse. and sawmill.  He stayed in Skagway until 1906.  His son Ben built the main (blue house) to the right of the old cabin.  That house was restored a few years ago and is now a museum.

Ben Moore's Desk

Parlor

Sign in Moore House Museum

Moore Family trained moose

The Moore son and his wife later divorced and left town.

Stop 12 is the Eagles' Hall where a historic melodrama is presented in summer.  Fred and Ruthy saw it.

Stop 13 is a small bust of Molly Walsh just west of the public bathrooms and near a children's playground/park.  Walsh was single and relatively respectable when she came to town and after a few months moved north to open a restaurant along the White Pass trail.  One man expressed his love for her but she married another and had a child.  That marriage was quite rocky and she fled but in 1902 her husband murdered her.  The bust was built by the jilted lover in 1930.

 

 This park is dedicated to Walsh and the "courageous women" of the Gold Rush.

Stop 15 is the McCabe Women's College (built in 1900) building which is now the Skagway Museum and City Hall.

McCabe College/Town Museum

Close-up of  Local Tour Guide

  It is a small but interesting museum.  It was the first granite building in Alaska.

The museum has both history and art.

Boys in goat cart, 1899

Baleen in Natural Form

On the wall facing the entry way is a huge duck neck quilt, made by a Swedish missionary from necks of ducks that were killed for food.  She lived in Yakutat until 1914 and learned skills from their Tlingit neighbors.

Black bears are smaller than brown bears.  To the left is the skull of a black bear and to the right is the skull of a brown bear.

Modern artist--Natives canoeing

The museum helps sponsor local artists.  The one above started carving fossil ivory in 1991.

Wooly Mammoth Tusk

Size of Wooly Mammoth Tusks

Northern Lights Photo

the main street in town today

same street in 1900

As I walked through town, including some of the residential neighborhoods, I took more photos.  I also went in the grocery store, an IGA.

Cute bench made out of old skis

Please dispose of smoking materials properly

Butter and Eggs Flowers

As early as 1904, people in Skagway started developing nice gardens, and at one time the town was known as the "garden city" of Alaska.  Still one can see pretty gardens.

Rhubarb is plentiful in Alaska!

Mural on a local store side.

I went into a jam and jelly store and was tempted to buy some special kinds of jams.  I tasted both the spruce jelly and the salmonberry jelly and didn't find them tasty enough to buy.  The salmonberry jelly talsted just like sugar jelly.  The spruce jelly did have a delicate spruce flavor.  It was useful in preventing rickets.

I discovered a Hatley clothing store--mostly kids stuff. The brand is Canadian and they had some hilarios stuff.

After touring town, I walked up to Lower lake…quite a hike!  Howard had done it earlier in the day. It was really a very pretty walk, although a lot of it was uphill on narrow switchbacks.  Three blocks from town center I crossed the bridge below and started the switch back path up.

You can see Skagway in the map above.  I walked up the slightly squiggly path to to top end of Lower Dewey Lake.  It took about 30 minutes to go up.

A bridge early on the path

Water pipes to town

Salmonberries forming

The path began with very steep parts like the photo above and then alternated a while between steep pats and less steep ones with dropoffs like the photo below.

As I got closer to the lake, I started to see puddles along side the path.  The smells and sounds around me were really peaceful.

First View of lake

The photo above was taken by some friendly hikers who offered to take my photo after I had offered to take theirs.

As I started to head down, I noticed a bird alongside the path sitting on a tree limb.  It was close and didn't move.  I think it thought it was camouflaged and truthfully, it can be a bit hard to see!

I thought I might have to sit on my tush a bit on the steep path down, but I did find standing. 

It was great exercise and a lovely view.  There are a number of hikes around the area, very close to town.

After getting back to the ship, I put on my bathing suit, wrapped myself in the nice bathrobe supplied, and heading to the covered pool deck to sit in the hot tub to relax muscles.

After dinner, I listened to the Neptunes ensemble (trio) that played dance music.    After hearing them, Marsha and I went to another nearby lounge and listened to the Adagio Strings—a lovely quartet.