As the most northern ice-free, deep-water port in North America, Skagway is an important year-round link in the transportation network connecting Alaska, the Yukon Territory, Northern British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and Europe. Skagway Borough has 452 square miles as a municipality.
Tourists are rarely let down by Skagway. Most of the seven blocks of Broadway that make up the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park have been rebuilt and feature traditional false-front stores and restaurants, wooden walkways, people in period costumes, and historic plaques. More than forty thousand gold-rush stampeders set out from Skagway and the nearby ghost town of Dyea in 1897, most of them on the Chilkoot Trail to the Yukon.
Rangers from the National Park Service give free 45-minute walking tours of Skagway’s historic area five times a day in the summer. They visit places like the Mascot Saloon Museum, the first cabin built in Skagway, and one of the town’s early brothels.
Since U.S. President Warren G. Harding rode on the first Skagway Street Car tour in July 1923, thousands of visitors have taken advantage of this fun and informative way to learn about Skagway’s history as a Klondike Gold Rush town. Guests will ride in a yellow 1927 sightseeing bus driven by a costumed guide as they see the Waterfront, National Park Historic District, and Scenic Overlook. Bring your camera to the Gold Rush Cemetery to hear the story of the Soapy Smith gunfight and to the Residential District to snap photos of its beautiful flowers.
Thousands of railroad construction workers endured severe weather and difficult terrain to build the White Pass and Yukon Route in 1898, during the Klondike Gold Rush. The White Pass and Yukon Route Railway is celebrating its 200th anniversary by taking passengers on a journey back in time to the days of the gold rush. From Skagway’s waterfront, this round-trip train journey travels 40 miles to the top of the 2,865-foot White Pass. This narrow gauge railroad is a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark because it was constructed in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush. Travel in style across the scenic landscape in a classic parlor car and take in the sights of mountains, glaciers, gorges, waterfalls, tunnels, trestles, and historic places.
