In 1897, a lot of gold seekers poured into Skagway in search of the precious metal. At the time, Skagway was no more than a lawless jumble of tents but by the turn of the century it was a bustling town. Known for its magnificent scenery, pioneer spirit and vintage railroad, some say the real gold never left Skagway.
We didn't have beautiful weather at Skagway. However, we were determined that we are not going to let the rain to stop us. We ventured out to take a city walking tour of Skagway. The route we took was based on the map provided by Skagway Convention & Visitors Bureau.
We visited the White Pass and Yukon Railroad Depot, Red Onion Saloon, Arctic Brotherhood Hall which is perhaps the most photographed building in Alaska, the Moore Cabin, the Mollie Walsh Park, Skagway Museum (just took photo outside), the plantation-style White House which was used by Army as hospital during war world II, and the First Presbyterian Church. It took only a couple of hours to walk through the whole city.
We all took the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad excursion in the afternoon. It was still raining, however, it did not bother us to sit inside the vintage train to enjoy the scenery. in the spring of 1898, Sir Thomas Tancred representing a well-heeled investment firm traveled up the rugged White Pass Canyon and came to stay at St. James Hotel. He stumbled across Mike Heney in the hotel's saloon. Heney was a railroad contractor who had also looked over the canyon north of the town, and he was convinced that a route over the pass was entirely feasible. These two met in the early evening, talked all night long, and wound up their discussion just as dawn broke. Tancred's and Henry's construction knowledge proved an unbeatable combination. Construction of the line began in late May 1898. Two years, two months and two days later, the line was completed to Whitehorse, the present capital of Canada's Yukon Territory.
The WP&YR excursion is a 41-mile roundtrip with riding on fully restored cars pulled by vintage diesel locomotives, climb nearly 3000 feet over steep grades and around cliff hanging turns. It retrace the original route to the White Pass summit, passing Bridal Veil Falls, Inspiration Point and Dead Horse Gulch. We saw the breathtaking panorama of mountains, glaciers, gorges, waterfalls, tunnels, trestles and historic sites, original Kondike Trail of '98 which is a permanent tribute to the thousands of souls who passed this way in search of fortune.
Tonight we walked by Wheelhouse Bar on deck 7 and found the B'Alres band playing beautiful ballroom dance music. We changed to our dance shoes and did some ballroom dance there. They are from Argentina and they have 3 men band with a lady lead singer. The odd thing was that we were the only couple over there that night. After they saw that we love ballroom dance, they started to play foxtrot, waltz, rumba, cha-cha and jive music just for the two of us. From that night on, we were their most loyal audiences and we went back there to dance every night for the rest of the cruise.
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