North to Alaska: Day 4

Day 4

Juneau to Skagway

August 27, 2011

There was no time for exercise this morning as we needed to eat and get ready to disembark. We had a nice but chilly breakfast on our veranda as we pulled into the lovely town of Skagway. From shipside, it didn’t look like much and we were glad that we’d be there just for a short time. We were told to gather in the Franz Hall Theater where we were met by 400 other passengers all eager to get off the ship. As it turns out, the ship would be continuing onward that night to complete a 7 days cruise and it would be taking on additional passengers at this port to replenish the supply of those departing. It’s quite an amazing operation that Holland America is running. When you consider the logistics involved in getting all of their Alaska cruises and inland tours to simultaneously coordinate with each other, it’s really quite impressive. Mr. Holland has done quite a job. It’s been a good second career for him after finishing his opus.

At Franz Hall, there were designated areas for the different tour groups to gather. There were about 5 different groups that would be going on different tour packages. We were in group 3B. There was a guy in 3B that was pretty ticked off that he wasn’t in group 3A along with the rest of his traveling partners. They succeeded in switching him, which after the fuss he made, was welcome news to those of us remaining in 3B. After a while, the different tour group directors got up on stage and announced what the plan was for their group that day. It was at that point that we were confronted with two disturbing developments. The first was news from our tour director that 3B would be overnighting in Skagway. What??? This was not good news. Kris looked at me in disbelief. I had been certain that we’d be taking a train out of there that day. However, in all honesty, I hadn’t studied the itinerary as critically as I should have and missed this small detail. The train ride I thought we’d be on today was not until tomorrow. After recovering from this momentary shock, I took a deep breath and resolved to make our next 24 hours in Skagway the greatest ever.

The second was when we looked around and noticed that our tour group, the very people that we’d be spending almost all of our waking hours with over the next 10 days, were old….quite old. Now Kris, may differ with me on this, but I think the average age of the people in this group was around 76. Had Kris and I not been along, it might have been closer to 80. Now I have nothing against older people. I just don’t see myself in that demographic just yet. I’m still working and still paying into social security. I don’t have any prostate problems and I’m not an AARP member. I don’t eat dinner at 4:30 and still have almost all of my original teeth. My med list doesn’t take up two pages and I’m arguably fanatical about exercise. I am not an old person yet and will do my best to avoid becoming one any time soon. Seeing this group of pleasant but ancient passengers has hardened this resolve.

After departure from the ship we were treated to a one hour bus tour of Skagway. We got to see a landing strip that the US army built to help prevent the imminent invasion of the US by the Japanese here at Skagway. Apparently after one of the Aleutian Islands was invaded by the Japanese in 1942 this was felt to be a real possibility. We also got to see the gravesite of Soapy Smith, perhaps the most notorious con artist of his time along with the gravesite of Frank Reid, the lawman that killed him but died 13 days later from a gunshot wound sustained at the time of Soapy’s killing. Soapy had a variety of cons, perhaps the most famous being charging newcomers to Skagway $5 for sending a telegraph home to their loved ones. The only problem was that the wires from the telegraph ended at the ocean and didn’t go any further. After a few hours an “answer” would return from home saying that they were in desperate financial straits and needed money immediately. Soapy would oblige by taking this money from the newcomer and “arranging” to have it delivered. Such delivery never happened. I’m telling anyone out there that a movie telling the true story of Soapy Smith would be a guaranteed box office smash.

The story of Skagway is the story of the gold rush of 1897. As we have succeeded in retracing the journey of those on that gold rush, I think it’s fair to say that Kris and I are now experts on the subject. Briefly, in 1896 there was a major gold find near Dawson City in the Yukon Territory. The news about this was reported one year later from Seattle when the first steamer arrived there with 48 prospectors carrying 2 million dollars’ worth of gold. As the US was in a depression at the time, this set off a ‘stampede’ to the area. About 100,000 people left Seattle landing in Skagway and the nearby town of Dyea in an attempt to get to Dawson. Both routes were quite difficult and only about 40,000 people made it, the rest turning back. Both routes met up at Lake Bennett, where after the ice broke up they set out in 7000 boats en masse, May 1898, down the Yukon River. After going another 500 miles, they made it to Dawson. Once there, they discovered that all the claims had already been staked, in fact they all had been staked about a year earlier before that first steamer ever arrived in Seattle with news of the gold. There would be no easy riches for them. They stayed in Dawson until news arrived about another gold strike, this time in Nome Alaska. Within a few days, they all deserted Dawson for Nome. That’s the story of the greatest gold rush in history.

We wandered about Skagway the rest of the day taking in the local culture and also a few brews at the excellent Skagway brewing company and then after a pretty good meal at a Thai restaurant in town and a musical revue of Skagway arranged for us by Holland America, we retired to the Westmark Hotel where we would rest easy knowing we were safe from ‘Soapy’ and his gang.