Skagway
GOLD ! GOLD ! GOLD ! screamed the headline, launching 100,000 people on a quest for wealth in 1897 and 1898. Struggling against the time, each other, and the northern wilderness, the stampeders rushed to strike it rich because of an August 16, 1896 discovery near where the Klondike and Yukon rivers join in northwestern Canada. On this last grand adventure of its time, a few struck it rich, many discovered themselves, but none was unchanged by the experience. Skagway in the Gulf of Alaska became the "Gateway to the Klondike" one of the ways to the gold fields. It took three months to cross the mountains to the interior. Rains in the Fall of 1897 and the influx of hundreds of inexperienced stampeders transformed the White Pass trail into a quagmire. The carcasses of over 3,000 pack animals soon turned White Pass into Deadhorse trail.Then most of the stampeders sat out the winter of 1897-98 in tents by frozen lakes Lindemann, Bennett, and Tagish-still 550 miles from the gold fields . Here they built more than 7,000 boats and waited for the lake ice to melt. 150 boats were crushed in raging rapids near Whitehorse (see Yukon !). After Whitehorse it was a long, relatively easy trip on the Yukon, but bugs and 22-hour sunlit days drove boaters nearly mad.
Today the successful recipe for this trip is simple once the camperhome is packed, fueled and you're ready to go: camera; film; and plenty of time to stop en route. But prepare to be stunned by the breathtaking history and fascinating wilderness.
White Pass- borderline between Yukon and Alaska (Deadhorse Trail)
Skagway- Gateway to the Gold
Lynn Canal - Mini cruise to Haines
