Riding the Golden Rails A scenic train journey takes riders back in time to Alaska’s Klondike Gold Rush. By Ed Boitano Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!” headlined the July1897 issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The story went on to tell the tale of 68 rich men arriving in Seattle with “stacks of yellow metal.” That news spread like California wildfire, sparking the Klondike Gold Rush. In the first 10 days after that story was published, over 1,500 people left for the Klondike. Within the next six months, approximately 100,000 gold-seekers steamed up Alaska’s Inside Passage and arrived in Skagway, the base for two treacherous overland treks to the Klondike. Only 30,000 completed the trip, about 4,000 actually found any gold, and only a few hundred struck it rich.
The Rugged Reality of Retrieving Riches
The ones who did find their fortune were the merchants and profiteers who took advantage of the inexperienced miners, whom they referred to as “stampeders.” Long before the days of mass media, most of the get-rich-quick miners knew virtually nothing about where they were going and the hardships that lay ahead. Pamphlets and newspapers contained little or no real information about the rugged realities, only dwelling on the outrageous claims of riverbeds overflowing with gold just waiting for the taking. Seattle served as water route and the gateway to the Yukon. Advertised as the “outfitter of the gold fields,” merchants sold supplies that would be stocked 10-feet high on storefront boardwalks Driven by dreams of unfathomable wealth, the first stampeders arrived in Skagway and found themselves confronted by an inhospitable muddy settlement that was barely a collection of tents. They were also met by a swarm of con-men, whose only interest was taking their money. The most infamous of these swindlers was Soapy Smith and his gang of 38 LIFEAFTER50.COM April 2014
“bunco men.” One of their schemes was operating a telegraph office, where a message could be sent anywhere in the world for $5. What the stampeders didn’t know was that there were actually no telegraph wires to get messages to or from Skagway. The stampeders also faced a choice of two horrendous trails which had to be climbed before the freeze-up, then another 550-mile journey through the lake systems to the Yukon River’s gold fields. They also learned that the North West Mounted Police had created the “One Ton Law of 1898,” requiring all miners entering Canada to carry a year’s supply of food and equipment, equaling around 2,000 pounds. The 45 mile-long White Pass Trail was promoted as a horse-packing trail and appeared easier than the Chilkoot Pass, where the miners had to carry supplies on their backs. The trail turned out to be even more difficult because of muddy bogs, massive boulders and steep rocky cliffs. Over 3,000 horses died along the way and it was quickly dubbed the “Dead Horse Trail.” All of these issues made it clear that there was need for a better form of transportation up the White Pass Trail.
The Railway Built of Gold
In 1897, three separate companies organized to build a railway from Skagway to Fort Selkirk, Yukon, 325 miles away. The project ran into roadblocks due to corrupt local city officials and Soapy Smith. This ended when Smith was killed in a gunfight, and the White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR) railway – “The railway built of gold” –- began construction. Considered almost an impossible task, tens of thousands of men were challenged by this work in a godless climate and brutal geography. Twenty-six months later, construction reached the 2,885-foot summit of White Pass, 20 miles away from Skagway. On July 6, 1899, the last spike was driven in Bennett, British Columbia. But the timing was bad; the gold rush was over. The WP&YR
continued, however, as an economic lifeline to the Yukon, but eventually shut down in 1982 due to low mineral prices. The shuttering of the WP&YR would prove to be short-lived when, in just a few years, another gold rush hit Alaska – tourism.
Alaska’s New Gold Rush
Tourism exploded in Alaska in the mid-1980s with the arrival of the cruise ship industry. With numerous cruise ships stopping at Skagway, a recreation journey on the WP&YR sounded like a perfect fit. The rails were laid right down to the docks, ideally positioned to sell a railroad ride through the mountains to the tourists. Billed as the “Scenic Railway of the World,” the WP&YR reopened between Skagway and White Pass in 1988. As a heritage railway, tourists could now step back in time and experience the Klondike Gold Rush for themselves. Still using vintage parlor cars (three with wheelchair lifts) the WP&YR runs on its original narrow-gauge track, rising from sea level at Skagway to 2,885-feet at the White Pass summit in just a 21 mile journey. With steep grades and cliffhanging turns of 16 degrees, the railroad seemingly hangs on the mountainside for most of the way to the summit. A series of wooden trestles skirts the landscape and a spectacular steel cantilever arches 215-feet above Dead Horse Gulch, once the highest railroad bridge in the world. It’s a breathtaking piece of country with a stunning panorama of mountains, gorges, waterfalls, tunnels and historic sites. Periodclad railroad men offer folksy narration and a woodburning stove keeps everyone warm. Today the WP&YR is Alaska’s most popular shore excursion. It is an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, a designation shared with the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Panama Canal. For more information click on www.WPYR.com.ª