Skagway, AK- Year 1898
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2008
1
12
21
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
Skagway,
Alaska,
United States
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Skagway, Alaska, and the White Pass and Yukon Rail way
7/12/08
Last night was totally hysterical, we went to the "Days of 98 Show" featuring Soapy Smith the infamous con man of the Klondike. The show was really good and it was kind of a musical/ play with lots of singing and dancing. I thought it was really good. Let me start to what happened prior to the show. You purchase you ticket and are given a dollar bill for one thousand dollars (fake) and are sent in to the parlor for games. The games are black jack, 4,5,6 and roulette. Dad and I opted to play black jack and mom played roulette. In the short time we had to play, which was about 6 rounds, I went from $1,000 to $5,800 dollars. Not bad, of course it helps that that is the only gambling game I know. The show started about the 6th round and we proceeded to the show, during the show the cast was very interactive with the audience and one of the show girls during her song took a fancy to dad and started to flirt with dad and then later in the show another of the dance hall girls came and got mom to have her come up and do the Can-Can with the girls on stage. I have fantastic video and pictures of both and of course will post them. Like I said the whole experience was really cool and I feel like I have a new respect for what people did and how they lived back in the 1800's.
Today, I went and got an antique picture taken of me as a dance hall girl, that was fun and of course I didn't let mom and dad come around when that was being done, because well, would it have been as much fun that way.
Another pic of Dawn as a dance hall girl
Probably not, I got a chance to be a little risque. Any way the picture is cool and it was a fun experience, there is not way I could have live back then with corsets etc.We visited the Klondike Gold Rush cemetery and saw the graves of William Jefferson Smith (aka. Soapy Smith), Frank Reid (the town "hero" who killed soapy and was killed in the process in the duel with Soapy) and some of the other famous people from back in the 1800's of the Klondike days. We also stopped at the marker noting the spot where the duel took place and both Reid and Smith were killed, Smith was killed instantly by a gun shot to the heart (by Reid) and Reid died 12 days later from the gun shot by Smith to the abdomen. Both guns were fired simultaneously in this duel. The play, The days of 98, explained the whole story and I think it really helped put everything together for me.
We went and took the White Pass and Yukon train tour up to the White Pass, the summit of White Pass and the summit of one of the trails the Klondike gold seekers used. Quite the steep climb and we saw six mountain goats while up there. Lots of glaciers, water falls and remnants of the past. As well as getting to see a marker set out to mark the crossing between Canada and the US, for the miners and the cabin used by the North West Mounted Police and the trail sign for the trail of 98 and you could distinctly see the trail path of the white pass trail. We went through 2 tunnels that once in them was totally pitch black and crossed the only wooden trestle on the tracks.
Dad with the Dance hall girl at the days of 98
I got some fantastic pictures as well.Once we disembarked the train, I convinced the parent's to go for ice cream and then we headed out to Dyea, a ghost town that was at the head of the Chilkoot Trail. Not much was let of the town but some remnants and then the parents hiked a little bit of the Chilkoot Trail and I hiked up to the top of the first summit of the trail which then proceeded to go up some more, and then a little more, and then some more and then even further up. Lets just say that after hiking probably 3/4 of mile up and then doing the 3/4 of a mile down and not even making it the 16 or 17 miles to the Golden Staircase, aka Chilkoot Pass (think White Fang), (and the miners having to carry a ton of goods, literally a ton, in order to pass into Canada), I can't even imagine. It must really have been a type of Gold Fever that they had in order to do this. Canada required all the gold seekers to carry enough goods of food and clothing to last a year (a ton) in order to pass in to Canada, (at the top of the Golden Staircase) and if you didn't you got sent back to Dyea. It not a wonder after just hiking the part of the trail I did that many didn't make it and many died.
We are still staying at Sgt Preston's and tomorrow are supposed to be going to Juneau, on the Juneau Fjord Express. The morning will be wildlife watching, followed by free time to explore Juneau and then being taken to Mendenhall Glacier and return to the boat for a seafood diner on the return to Skagway. Monday we are going to be going panning for gold with a guide, have lunch at the famous Red Onion Saloon followed by a tour of the Saloon, do laundry at the laundry mat and then head for the ferry terminal to get checked in and put in line for boarding to start our trip down the Inside Passage. We will stop in Sitka and disembark in Ketchikan with the van and then re-board with the van onto the Columbia. That another story unto its self that we were supposed to be on the Columbia the whole way but due to an engine failure it is in dry dock and will be returning to service the day we board. So have of the trip will be on the Kennecott and the other half will be on the Columbia.
