I set the alarm for 6:30am so I'd have time to have a leisurely breakfast and then go on shore before the crazy cruise crowds descended en mass. In town, at the National Parks office, I signed up for the early morning Ranger-led walking tour of Skagway's Klondike Gold Rush Historic District with the hilarious Jay Proetto (also fondly called "Ranger Jay" by any passing local), who took us around town, showed us many of the renovated buildings and wove entertaining tales about the people that made this inhospitable place their home during the Gold Rush era. As it turns out, truth really is stranger than fiction!

The Lynn Fjord provides Skagway with a deep water harbour ideally suited to large ships (and nowadays, cruise ships) but it is a very windy location and surrounded by huge, steep mountains all around. On the day we were there, the gale force winds were relentless and pierced through my clothing like frosty daggers. No wonder the Tlingit, the local Native American tribe of the area, called the place Skagway which means "wind rippled water".

Ranger Jay gleefully mentioned that, in 1867, the USA bought Alaska from Russia for about 2 cents an acre. Less than 30 years later, gold was found in the area heralding the Klondike Gold Rush which brought thousands of desperate stampeders on an often dangerous quest for wealth. The places where the gold was found were given hopeful and descriptive names like Eldorado and Bonanza Creek. News spread fast when the boat 'Portland' docked in Seattle carrying the first miners and their haul of over 2 tons of gold. The newspaper headlines read "Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!", prompting even the mayor of Seattle to quit his job to come up to Skagway to seek his fortune!

Permafrost is hard work to dig through and the gold's remote location a remote location, high altitude and inhospitable climate meant that gold diggers had to bring and carry their own supplies and equipment. Subsisting mainly on a diet of beans, bacon and bread, the average prospector had to carry a year's supply of food and all equipment such as bedding, guns, picks, shovels and saws. All in all, 1 ton worth of goods which had to be carried up the mountains. Sometimes, this meant 20 to 40 trips! If they couldn't carry their supplies on their own, then they had to have enough money to pay porters to help them carry their loads up the dangerous mountain passes.

The Klondike River is 1980miles long. The Chilkoot Trails and Klondike Trails were the only way to get to the gold areas. Traditionally, the Eulachon fish had been hunted and processed for oil in Dyea, a neighbouring place, and traded for furs and copper. The Tlingit people didn't want foreigners on their trail as this would cut their trade route and source of income. Captain Moore and Ogilvy mapped out the White Pass Trail to the gold and used Skagway as a base because it's a deep water harbour - it was called Mooresville at the time.

Unbelievably, electricity was started in Skagway, 1 year before New York City. According to Jay, "We needed it to see what we were shooting at! Skagway wasn't a place to bring the kids in those days!". Once the Gold Rush started, it rapidly developed a reputation for lawlessness, shootings and murder. Although it's not hard to figure out why in a place where, in 1897, there were as many as 80 saloons and only 1 church.

The Skagway "shuffle" meant that buildings were moved to make space for a railway and more businesses downtown. Captain Moore built a mill to provide the timber to builders so that the town could expand to accommodate all the people that were coming in. As is often the case, the people who made the most money were those who supplied goods (legal or otherwise) to prospective miners and new arrivals.

Although the White Pass Trail from Skagway was 10miles longer than the Chilkoot Trail from neighbouring Dyea, more people took this option as the gradient was not as steep and the summit was 600feet lower. After months of constant use, the trail was destroyed and became too dangerous to attempt. It was, perhaps for these reasons that British investors decided to build the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad along the same route.

By the time it was completed, however, the rush was over. After a few decades, it became inefficient and uneconomical for the trains to operate and service was discontinued. The trains were resurrected with the increase in tourism brought by popularity in the cruise ship route. At over $130 for an adult ticket to ride the train to the Yukon and back, it is not hard to see why the train service has made a comeback! Personally, I thought that this was overpriced and didn't fancy paying that kind of silly money for a train trip to nowhere and back, so I opted, instead to continue exploring Skagway on foot and finding out more about it's crazy history.

Business owners and those invested in the settlement, wished to change the image of the town and issued a warning: "Warning! A word to the wise should be sufficient! All confidence, Bunco and Sure-Thing men, And, all other objectionable characters are notified to leave Skaguay and White Pass Road immediately. And to remain away. Failure to comply with this warning will be followed by prompt action. 101. Skaguay, Alaska, March 8 1898". A reply poster was issued by the allround and general bad guy in town who made his fortunes swindling and scamming new arrivals, Soapy Smith: "Answer to Warning: ...no Blackmailers or Vigilantes will be tolerated". Just like the fictional characters of an HBO series, the various real-life characters of Skagway fought over control of this town, culminating in the fatal showdown between "Soapy" Smith and his assailant, Frank Reid, thus ending the outlaw's grip on the town.

Image became everything in Skagway! Even the buildings were built to look bigger. For example a hotel had 3 floors but no rooms on the 3rd floor. The thinking behind this was that people would be attracted to the larger establishments even though they were only superficially bigger and not necessarily better. I guess, some things never change. The Mascot Saloon, situated on Skagway's main street Broadway, was recently restored to its heyday in 1910. Inside the building was interesting anecdotal information on Skagway "characters" such as Soapy Smith, Barbara, Ham Grease Jimmy and Keelar the Money King. With such descriptive names, it doesn't take much to figure out that there were some slippery characters about.

Skagway, these days, is a much more sedate, if not, sleepy little place, but Ranger Jay left is with these parting words: "Today we're looking at a similar economy as the one that led to a drain on gold which led to panic in 1893." Perhaps, implying that the chaos and troubled times may yet return. Today, almost 3000 people get the necessary permits to walk the Chilkoot Trail each year - not prospecting, but for fun! The buildings in Skagway have been restored and are owned by the National Parks. Money is generated for their restoration and upkeep by renting them out to local businesses. When I was in town, it appeared that business is booming! Normally, Skagway is a town of 800 residents but Wednesdays are the busiest with over 10000 visitors from the cruise ships! At times, it seemed like I was in a modern day gold rush for tourist tat!

In the late afternoon, after I'd had my fill of walking around town browsing through the countless tourist shops, I went for a walk to Yakutania Point and Smuggler's Cove - a short walk along the coast across from the harbour. Scared by some passers-by who were warning me of the dangers of walking alone in an area "over-run with bears" and, of course, by my own natural "bearanoia", I asked a guy walking his dog if I could join him on his walk. Anyways, we got chatting and it turns out that he's a local shop owner who's been living in Skagway for over 40 years! Business in such an isolated place depends mostly on the arrival of the cruise ships and he closes up shop from October until February. In the winter he leaves to visit his family in Boston and look after his ageing parents.