Today we woke up in Skagway, AK. It is another beautiful day. We are going on a bus ride and train ride today up into the White Pass and Yukon Route Rail Pass.
We had an informative driver who told us many facts about the Klondike Gold Rush also known as the Yukon Gold Rush.
The discovery of gold in the late 1800s set off a chain of unprecedented events. When the first prospectors stepped off the boats in San Francisco and Seattle weighted down with gold, people immediately quit jobs, and loaded up to strike it rich in the hills of the Yukon. In a matter of weeks, over 30,000 people were ready to go find gold. There were two passes used by the prospectors to reach their destination----White Pass and Chilkoot. Today we saw the White Pass trail.
Canadian authorities required each person to bring a years worth of food and supplies. The supplies could weigh up to 1000 lbs. What the people, men and women, didn't realize was that they would be trekking all this in and all the while climbing mountain after mountain. The lines going up the mountains were so long with people that if a person stepped aside to tie his shoe, it may be as long as 3 hours before he could get back in line. Many people died or went insane as they traveled on these mountain passes. What was touted as ten days to two weeks to reach the gold fields, actually took months. Each mountain required several trips up and down as supplies were hauled up in stages.
The trail ended at Lake Bennett. Here the people would buy or build rafts or boats to float down the Yukon River to the Klondike gold fields near Dawson City.
Then along comes the Yukon Route Railroad. Taking 26 months to complete using tens of thousands of men, the narrow guage railroad climbs 3000 feet, taking 16 degree turns over steep cliffs. It took 450 tons of explosives to complete the railroad.
Once completed, more and more people trekked north in the hopes of getting rich. Small communities of 500 suddenly swelled to 30,000 people. The majority of the people did not make money. Only about 3-4000 struck it rich.
So, as we rode along today, we were able to see the mountain pass, many other mountains, and rock after rock after rock. We did stop for lunch in Carcross. Located there is the smallest desert in the world. We got stickers which allowed us to fall in line for a BBQ chicken lunch and then time to stroll around and look at the attractions. We found out this little town's only residents are the owners of the food place and their employees. They have a good thing going with the cruise passengers that roll in by the hundreds everyday! All in all, today was good, but not as good as what we've done so far. But that's all right, too.
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| Slab of jade. |
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| Another train down below us |
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| The light green is where snow slides have occurred, taking down everything in its path. |
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| Snow melt |
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| Suspension bridge |
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| Typical scene at every stop |
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| And the rocks begin...... |
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| One of the two black bears we saw today |
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| These gates come down when the road is impassable |
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| Carcross, or Caribou Passing, home of the world's smallest desert |
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| Wonder what it's like to spend a winter in this home |
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| This tag gave us a BBQ chicken lunch |
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| Lunch tags, no longer needed |
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| Don't know what this was, but it is still standing |
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| Plants learned to survive in the rocks |
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| This structure didn't last. Saw several piles of wood like this alongside the railroad tracks. |
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| I've always had a picture of the mounties on horses and in their red uniforms. Nobody home, so maybe they were out riding their horses. |
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