Skagway History

Native Peoples of the Skagway Area

For thousands of years before European settlement in Alaska, the area around present-day Skagway was a favorite fishing and hunting ground for the native Tlingit Indians. This tribe, which was then known as the Auke and Taku tribes, enjoyed rich artistic traditions that included carving, weaving, orating, singing and dancing.

The Tlingit culture is multifaceted and complex, a characteristic of Northwest Pacific Coast peoples with access to easily exploited rich resources. In Tlingit culture a heavy emphasis is placed upon family and kinship, and on a rich tradition of oratory. Wealth and economic power are important indicators of status, but so is generosity and proper behavior, all signs of "good breeding" and ties to aristocracy. Art and spirituality are incorporated in nearly all areas of Tlingit culture, with even everyday objects such as spoons and storage boxes decorated and imbued with spiritual power and historical beliefs of the Tlingits.

Tlingit society is divided into two kinship groups, the Raven and the Eagle. These in turn are divided into numerous clans that are subdivided into lineages or house groups. These groups have heraldic crests, that are displayed on totem poles, canoes, feast dishes, house posts, weavings, jewelry and other art forms.

Tlingit Chief Ano-Tlosh

The Purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire

The first European contact with Alaska occurred in 1741, when Vitus Bering led an expedition for the Russian Navy aboard the St. Peter. After his crew returned to Russia bearing sea otter pelts judged to be the finest fur in the world, small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of Siberia towards the Aleutian islands.

The first permanent European settlement was established in 1784, and the Russian-American Company carried out an expanded colonization program during the early to mid-1800s. The city of New Archangel on Kodiak Island was Alaska's first capital, but beginning in 1808, Sitka was named the capital of the Russian territory. The Russians never fully colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable.

In the late 1850s, Russia was in a difficult financial position and feared losing Russian Alaska without compensation in some future conflict, especially to the British, whom they had fought a decade earlier in the Crimean War. While Alaska attracted little interest at the time, the population of nearby British Columbia began to increase rapidly in the late 1850s.

The Russians feared that in any future conflict with Britain, their hard-to-defend region might become a prime target, and would be easily captured. This Great Powers calculus led Tsar Alexander II to sell the territory. Perhaps in hopes of starting a bidding war, both the British and the Americans were approached. The British, however, expressed little interest in buying Alaska. The Russians then turned their attention to the United States.

Two years after the end of the Civil War, Secretary of State William H. Seward began negotiations with the Russians, and came to an agreement to purchase the Alaskan territory on March 30, 1867 for $7.2 million. While most public opinion was in favor of the purchase, several newspapers editorialized against the extravagant sums paid for the territory. They derided it as "Seward's Folly," "Seward's Icebox," and Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden."

The United States Senate ratified the treaty on April 9, 1867, by a vote of 37-2. However, the appropriation of money needed to purchase Alaska was delayed by more than a year due to opposition in the House of Representatives. The House finally approved the appropriation in July 1868, by a vote of 113-48.

William H. Seward

The Origins of Skagway and the Gold Rush

The boundary between the United States and Canada along the Alaska Panhandle was only vaguely defined during the 1880s, resulting in overlapping land claims by the British along the coast. Canada requested a survey after British Columbia confederation in 1871, but the United States rejected the idea, due to cost concerns.

The Canadian government established the Ogilvie survey party in 1877 to survey the Skagway area. In June 1877 Skookum Jim Mason, a Tlingit packer from Dyea and Tagish, led the survey over the Coast Mountains, which later became known as White Pass (in honor of Canada's Interior Minister).

Erstwhile steamboat captain William "Billy" Moore was a member of the survey. During most of British Columbia's gold rushes (from the Queen Charlottes in 1852 until the Cassiar Gold Rush in 1872), Moore could be found at the center of activity, either providing transportation to the miners, working claims or delivering mail and supplies. Moore believed that the area had all the hallmarks of a gold-producing region.

In October 1887, Moore and his son Ben claimed a 160-acre homestead at the mouth of the Skagway River. He believed that the area provided the most direct route to the potential goldfields in the Yukon Territory. Billy and Ben built a log cabin, a sawmill and a wharf in anticipation of future gold prospectors passing through the area.

In 1896, gold was discovered by Skookum Jim, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie on Rabbit Creek in the Klondike region of the Yukon Territory, 600 miles from Skagway.

In mid-July, 1897, the steamships Excelsior and Portland arrived in San Francisco and Seattle laden with the famed "Ton of Gold," setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. On July 29, 1897, the steamer Queen docked at Moore's wharf with the first boatload of prospectors.

Skookum Jim Mason

Captain William Moore

Skagway and the Klondike Gold Rush

The Moores were soon overrun by the hordes of prospectors. Their homestead was re-platted by surveyor Frank Reid as Skaguay in 1897. In that year a post office, the Union Church and a newspaper were established in the town. Entrepreneur George Brackett built a toll road to White Pass City, a tent encampment 15 miles up the valley.

By early 1898, the population of the area surpassed 30,000 people, most of them American miners. To service the demands of the miners, stores, saloons, offices and bordellos lined the muddy streets of Skaguay. Construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway began after its backers purchased the right of way from George Brackett. In the spring of 1898, the town's population reached 8,000, with over 1,000 miners passing through town each week. As such, it was the largest town in the Alaska territory. When the post office changed the town's name to Skagway, the locals reluctantly went along.

In 1898, the U.S. Army established a post near Dyea. The troops were mostly black Spanish American War veterans.

To get to the gold fields in Dawson, prospectors began their journey either provisioning at Skagway or at Dyea, northwest of Skagway. The prospectors would climb the mountains over the White Pass above Skagway and onward across the Canadian border to Bennett Lake, or one of its neighboring lakes, where they built barges and floated down the Yukon River to the gold fields around Dawson City. Those who disembarked at nearby Dyea climbed northward over the Chilkoot Pass, an existing Tlingit trade route, to reach the lakes. The Dyea route fell out of favor when larger ships began to arrive, as its harbor was too shallow for them except at high tide.

In the late summer of 1898, officials in Canada began requiring that each prospector entering Canada on the north side of the White Pass bring with him one ton of supplies, to ensure that he didn't starve during the winter. This placed a large burden on the prospectors and the pack animals climbing the steep pass.

By the fall of 1898, a 14-mile, steam-operated aerial tramway was constructed up the Skagway side of the White Pass, easing the burden of those prospectors who could afford the fee to use it. The Chilkoot Trail tramway also began to operate in the Chilkoot Pass above Dyea.

In May 1898, the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway began laying narrow gauge railroad tracks in Skagway. The railroad depot was constructed between September and December 1898. This destroyed the viability of Dyea, as Skagway had both the deep-water port and the railroad.

By 1899, the railroad was completed to the summit of White Pass in February, and to Lake Bennett by the summer. A golden spike ceremony took place on July 29 in Carcross. Skagway's building boom continued, witnessing the construction of the Arctic Brotherhood Hall and McCabe College, a preparatory school for high school-aged children.

Despite the activity in the town, the stream of gold-seekers had begun to diminish, and Skagway's economy suffered. By 1900, when the railroad was completed, the gold rush was nearly over. The census taken in 1900 pegged the population at 3,117 residents.

On June 28, 1900, Skagway was incorporated as the first city in the Alaska Territory, beating Juneau by a day.

The Legend of Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith

Between 1897 and 1898, Skagway was a lawless town, described by one member of the North-West Mounted Police as "little better than a hell on earth." Fights, prostitutes and liquor were ever-present on Skagway's streets.

The most colorful resident of this period was Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith. He was a sophisticated swindler who liked to think of himself as a kind and generous benefactor to the needy. He had gracious manners and gave money to widows and stopped lynchings, while at the same time operating a ring of thieves who swindled prospectors with cards, dice and shell games.

His telegraph office charged five dollars to send a message anywhere in the world. Prospectors sent news to their folks back home without realizing there was no telegraph service to or from Skagway until 1901.

Smith also controlled a comprehensive spy network, a private militia called the Skaguay Military Company, the newspaper, the Deputy U.S. Marshall and an array of thieves and con-men who roamed about the town.

Smith was shot and killed by Frank Reid and Jesse Murphy on July 8, 1898, in the famed Shootout on Juneau Wharf. Smith managed to return fire--some accounts claim the two men fired their weapons simultaneously--and Frank Reid died from his wounds twelve days later. Jesse Murphy was actually the one who killed Smith.

J. R. "Soapy" Smith

Skagway in the 20th Century

As Skagway's economy continued to collapse in the early years of the 1900s, McCabe College was closed and the building was sold to the U.S. Government to be used as a courthouse.

The boundary dispute between Canada and the US was finally settled in 1903, with the boundary set at the crest of the mountain passes between the two countries.

In 1908, a number of buildings were relocated to Broadway from other sites in town. These included the Red Onion Saloon and the Golden North Hotel.

The passage of the "Alaska Bone Dry Act," enacted prior to Prohibition in the rest of the country, closed the town's saloons in 1918.

President Warren Harding visited Skagway on a Navy ship in 1923 on his historic journey through Alaska. He was the first President of the United States to tour and travel to the Alaska Territory while in office. He died soon after his return to Washington.

Tourism to Skagway got a boost in the mid-1920s when the town's prominent citizens convinced ships to dock in the town for 36 hours so the visitors could ride the WP & YR railway from Skagway to Carcross, then transferring to a Yukon Lake steamer for a trip from Carcross to Ben-My-Chree. During this period, the townsfolk held a variety show to raise money for the hockey club. This would later become known as the "Days of '98 Show."

At the onset of World War II, in 1942, Skagway was "invaded" by troops from the US Army. The Army took control of the railroad to supply materials to build the Alcan Highway, and as many as 20 trains per day climbed the pass. The 3,000 troops who lived in the town were bivouacked in Quonset huts and H buildings.

In the post-war period, roads between Skagway and Carcross were built, and improvements were made to the WP & YR railway so as to be able to haul ore from a number of Canadian mines to Skagway's docks.

Alaska was granted statehood in 1959, yet Skagway was destined to remain hostage to the boom and bust cycle of a number of mine operators in Canada. In 1982, the WP & YR railway terminated operations due to the closure of the Faro mines, which generated over 70% of its revenues. Skagway went into a deep recession. It wasn't until 1988 that the railroad reopened as a summer-only attraction with three-hour round trips to the summit.

In 1985, Skagway saw the arrival of more than 100 cruise ships, the beginning of a tourism boom that helped revive the town's fortunes. Over the next decade, the number of cruise ships visiting Skagway grew to in excess of 300 per year by 1995. In 1999, Skagway becomes the 16th most visited cruise destination in the world, with nearly 450 cruise ship calls.

Today's Skagway

In the 21st century, the town of Skagway remains at heart a small town with a short, but lively, historical past and incomparable mountain scenery. With an official population of only around 850 persons, according to a census estimate, the town's population swells to around 2,500 during the busy summer tourism and cruise ship season. But the townsfolk of Skagway are very committed to keeping the heritage of the Yukon Gold Rush alive, all the better to attract tourists to the town.

Cruise ship tourism has had an indelible effect on the local economy. In 2012, the town is scheduled to host just over 715,000 cruise ship passengers sailing on 354 ships.