8/26/2009

August 25, 2009 - Skagway

Today we took the Fast Ferry to Skagway to spend the day.  Here is our boat with Haines in the background:

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Coming into the port of Skagway – this is what thousands of gold rush stampeders saw over 100 years ago.

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Another view of coming into port.  Those ships you see are the HUGH cruise ships – about 12 stories above water.

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The National Park Service has a very big presence here in Skagway.  They have restored 17 buildings and are working on restoring more of them.  Many of the buildings are either museums or shops.  So we spent some time in the museums, walking the streets, seeing some of the shops, and seeing some of the Park Service movies.  Skagway became a town during the gold rush time of the late 1800’s.  It was only of the drop off points for the stampeders.  From here, they had to go over the White Pass to Dawson.   Since Dawson is in Canada, the Canadian government became concerned that many people would not be prepared for the journey.  So they required each person to carry a year’s worth of supplies.  Here is the list:

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Can you imagine!!  It took several trips to carry these loads thru the passes.  Oh my!

Some of the buildings – check out the wooden sidewalks:

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This is the Mascot Saloon that was just restored.  When they dug up the floor, they found over 19,000 artifacts buried.

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More buildings:

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How about these ladies (?):

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It was an interesting day!!

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