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Alaska, the Final Frontier— Skagway, the founding - Columbia Star.Editor’s Note: At the request of his readers and in memory of Warner M.Montgomery, Ph.D, we will continue to publish his Adventure Travel stories for the time being.Linda and I got off the cruise ship at Skagway after three nights so we could experience the Klondike Gold Rush from ground level.It proved to be a good decision.Not to put down a good Inland Passage cruise with its food, fun, and fantasy, but the only way to really experience Alaska is by putting your feet on the ground as the gold miners did 100 years ago.Skagway (aka Skaguay or Shgagwei, “White caps on the water”) began as a hunting-fishing camp for the Tlingit (Native Alaskans) people.An 1887 Canadian survey party led by Skookum Jim, a Tlingit tracker, and Royal Mounted Police Captain William Moore laid out a trail from the coast over the mountains to the Yukon River.In 1896, Skookum Jim discovered gold 600 miles down the Yukon River at the Klondike.When word of the gold strike got out, Moore laid claim to 160 acres at Skagway, renamed it Mooresville, and prepared for a rush of fortune–seekers who soon arrived on steamships from San Francisco and Seattle.A dock, warehouse, sawmill, post office, church, newspaper, hotels, brothels, dance halls, gambling houses, and saloons quickly went up to service the 100,000 new temporary residents.Thousands of sourdoughs tested the limits of endurance by climbing up White Pass pulling horses and donkeys laden with their provisions.The pass was renamed “Dead Horse Trail” for obvious reasons.An enterprising entrepreneur cleared a road up the mountain and charged tolls.Moore, overwhelmed by the rush, soon lost his investments and his enthusiasm and fled the chaos for Seattle.Within a few years, the gold rush switched to Nome and Fairbanks, and Skagway lost its importance.Skagway, population 3,117, became Alaska’s first incorporated city in 1900.The railway was completed up White Pass to Whitehorse, the golden spike driven at Carcross, Yukon.Over the past century, Skagway has reinvented itself as a tourist destiny.Much of the town is now in the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.In recent summers, the small town on the coast of Alaska has received over 800,000 visitors.Most come and go quickly from cruise ships, but many, including yours truly, try to soak up the local history and take the train up the White Pass to Carcross.