Skagway, delightful little town (852 residents the sign says), clean, bright, decked out for tourists. But once it was the staging area, the supplies depot, for the Klondike Gold Rush, those gold seekers who braved the Chilkoot Trail. With in a few months, the stakes were all claimed and the second wave had to work for someone else or find a way to make money off the folks who had working gold claims. There's lots of history, lots of stories told in the museums and the promotional materials.
It's amazing how so much of the town is organized around tourism. The cruise ships come into town. Folks have various options of what to do. If they chose to take the historic train up the mountain toward the old gold fields, the trains pull up right beside the ship's gangplanks. Likewise with the buses that go to other tourist spots. The tourists fill the town in waves, incoming in the morning, outgoing in the evening. The cruise ships dock around six in the morning, pull out by eight p.m.
Part of the town is part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, so there is planning in the restoration of the buildings. This makes the downtown very attractive, and interesting. We bicycled this morning, went to the cemetary, the river, the train yards. This afternoon I did the "walking history tour" following a brochure, and still haven't seen it all.
Helen
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