Day 4 of My Alaskan Cruise

By:  Cody Thomas, a Marvelous Mouse Travels agent

Day 4 of my Alaskan Cruise ported in Skagway! If you have never been to Skagway, add this to your must visit locations. If you like US history, an array of wonderful excursions, and great scenery then this is the port for you. Skagway is the northernmost point of the Inside Passage.

Our day started early with a visit to Windjammer for breakfast as our cruise ship was making its way into Skagway’s port. We enjoyed fresh fruit, waffles, bacon and sausage, and so much more. There is nothing quite like having breakfast while your ship is sailing into port and looking out to see giant snow and glacier capped mountains just yards from the ship.

As we had a very early excursion booked we made our way off the ship first thing when they opened the gangway. We met for our excursion just off the ship at the loading dock where everyone had signs and were very helpful to show us where we needed to go. We had a short wait for our bus to arrive and as we boarded the bus our driver recognized an old friend from her hometown. This was fun as he used to be an Elvis impersonator. We asked her if she could get him to do a little show for us. He was happy to oblige and boy what a fun treat that was to hear him talk and sing as Elvis. He even still had the “look”.

Our bus driver was very knowledgeable of Skagway and gave us great information as we drove through town to our destination. As this is such a small town with winds up to 40 mph it isn’t a very popular place to live in the winter. Out of the 1800 residents in the town only 800 stay for the winter. The school is preschool through 12th grade. The graduating class in 2022 was 8 students, two of whom got married and moved to Haines, AK just 10 miles away from Skagway.

The area was originally inhabited by the Tlingit, and its name derives from the Tlingit word skagua, meaning “place where the north wind blows.” Skagway was founded in the 1890s as the gateway to the Yukon and Klondike goldfields, and it was incorporated as a city in 1900. Once gold was discovered in the area word spread fast the population of Skagway grew to 8,000 to 10,000 people. Most gold miners would travel up from the Seattle and San Francisco areas and then start their journey out of Skagway. During the Gold Rush it wasn’t as simple as just packing up your horse or donkey and heading over to Canada to strike it rich. Canada had a policy in place that you had to have a certain amount of goods and food supplies to last you an entire year. This would take the gold miners many trips to get all of their supplies up to the Canadian border. It was said that if you stepped off the trail it could take up to an hour to get back on due to the amount of men traveling up the trail with their supplies. This was also a very dangerous trail in areas and one slip could have meant yours or your animals life. Of the 30,000 that arrived in Klondike, only approximately 4,000 actually found gold. Those that did find gold typically did not find anything of major significance.

Another story we were told was about “Soapy” Smith. He was a con artist that would briefly set up shop in the street selling bars of soap wrapped in blue tissue paper. He promised the credulous crowds that a few lucky purchasers would find a $100 bill wrapped inside a few of the $5 bars of soap. Inevitably, one of the first to buy a bar would shout with pleasure and happily display a genuine $100 bill. Sales were generally brisk afterwards. The lucky purchaser, of course, was a plant. Once the town picked up o Soapy’s scams, they gathered to have a vigilante meeting regarding this. Soapy tried to crash a vigilante meeting on the Skagway wharf, apparently hoping to use his con- man skills to persuade them that he posed no threat to the community. Smith, however, had failed to realize just how angry the vigilantes were. When he tried to break through the crowd, a Skagway city engineer named Frank Reid confronted him. The men exchanged harsh words and then bullets. Reid shot Smith dead on the spot, but not before Smith had badly wounded him. The engineer died 12 days later. Soapy is buried on the outside of the Gold Rush cemetery, but Reid is buried inside with the largest headstone saying “He gave his life for the honor of Skagway”.

The story of Soapy is only one of many great tales to come out of Skagway during the Gold Rush. As we got through town we pulled up to Alaska360. This was our excursion destination. Our excursion was to experience sled dogs and learn how the team works together during the Iditarod and watch a demonstration. We walked into an area where the sled dog Musher showed us the sled and equipment used during these races. We also learned about the dogs and how much joy these races can bring them. If you have never taken an excursion like this we highly recommend it to learn more about these amazing animals. After learning about everything it was finally time to meet the dogs. We got to pet them and learn a little about their personalities and what roles they play on the team. It was finally time for the demonstration and these dogs couldn’t be more excited. They were ready to run! As soon as the musher gave their command the dogs were off. They had a trail that they were following for the demonstration and we got to see how the dogs worked together and how the musher directed and supported them. This was quite something to observe. Once the demonstration was over we learned that one of the dogs had puppies six weeks prior. This was very exciting as the pups were ready to be handled and learn how to interact with people. Yes, we got to hold and play with the puppies! Talk about a trip highlight. They were so cute and fluffy. Some were very playful and others were all about the cuddle time.

After visiting the sled dogs we jumped back on the bus and were taken up to an overlook to see the entire town. It’s such a beautiful valley.

Following the overlook we were taken over to the Gold Rush cemetery. This little area was full of history and just a short hike beyond the cemetery was the Reid waterfall. There is nothing like taking a moment to be connected with the Alaskan nature.

We ended our tour in town and explored some shops. Skagway is a great place to have local Alaskan salmon and other great seafood. We also highly recommend the train in Skagway if you would like to see more of the area and learn even more about the Gold Rush.

Our day wasn’t quite over. Our ship was getting ready to head over to Haines, AK for a short visit in the evening as Alaska has daylight that runs late. Unfortunately on our itinerary one of the trains was delayed getting back and that meant we were a bit delayed getting to Haines. Alaska does have policies in place that certain businesses can’t operate after 8pm. As we got into Haines, AK at that time the excursions and local distillery had closed. We still took the opportunity to get off the ship and visit the local gift shops. Many people took the bus into town to explore the hammer museum.

We enjoyed the evening photos of our ship Radiance of the Seas and wrapped up this day with a little Hot Toddy night cap.  Heading to Icy Strait Point next!