Skagway

We’re settled into our hotel for the night. Our Tour Director is Juli, a wonderful, energetic college senior from Texas. She has spent the last three summers up here working with Holland America Line Tours. We look forward to spending the next nine days with her. Today we learned about the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush that was launched from Skagway. Skagway never had any gold, it was 600 miles away in Dawson City, Yukon Territory Canada.
Skagway is four blocks wide and twenty-three blocks long. It was home to a notorious character by the name of Soapy Smith – if there was angle to get the gold speculators’ money, Soapy had figured it out. For example, he would offer to send a telegram back home for people who had arrived so their loved ones would know that they arrived safely. There was only one problem, there were not any telegraph lines in Skagway. He died in a gun battle with another man who was working with the people in the town to get rid of Soapy and his gang.