LEGACY of tw 

GOLD RUSDL 

A n Administrative 

History 01 

Klondike Cjrold. Rusk 

National Historical Park 

By 

FRANK B. NORRIS 
Cover photographs: 

(left) The Pioneer Building, built in 1892, is an outstanding example of the turn-of-thecentury architectural complex that comprises the Pioneer Square-Skid Road Historical 

District. During the early 1970s, the NPS considered purchasing the building as the site 

of the park's Seattle Unit. Credit: William Speidel, Seattle Underground, page 14. 

(right) Several stampeders and a pack train are shown in this photo which was taken 

near Canyon City, along the Chilkoot Trail, in the late summer of 1897. Credit: Frank 

La Roche photo (unnumbered), Special Collections Division, University of Washington. 

Cover design by Wyndeth Davis, NPS. 

Printed on contract from the Government Printing Office, Seattle, Washington. 
LEGACY OF THE GOLD RUSH: 

AN ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF 

KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH 

NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK 

Frank B. Norris 

National Park Service 

Alaska System Support Office 

Anchorage, Alaska 

1996 
Source: NPS, Draft General Management Plan and 

Environmental Impact Statement Klondike Gold 

Rush National Historical Park. June/July 1996, 1.2. 
Table of Contents 

List of Maps ix 

List of Tables x 

List of Photographs xi 

Introduction xv 

Abbreviations xix 

Part I: The Making of the Park 1 

1. A Brief Gold Rush History 3 

Native Use of the Area Before the Gold Rush 3 

Europeans Eye the Chilkoot and White Pass Corridors 7 

Skookum Jim's Discovery 13 

Routes to the Gold Fields 15 

Transportation Improvements 22 

2. Skagway After the Gold Rush 29 

Skagway's Economy, 1900-1960 29 

Post-Gold Rush Use of Dyea and the Chilkoot Trail 34 

Highway Construction in the Skagway River Valley 39 

The Yukon-Taiya Project 44 

NPS Activities in the Skagway Area, 1933-1960 51 

3. State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 59 

State Work Crews Reopen the Chilkoot Trail 59 

Federal Officials Evaluate the Skagway Area's History 61 

Chilkoot Trail Improvements 64 

A National Park is Considered 65 

Skagway Tourism Growth 68 

The Chilkoot Pass Marker Dedication 72 

The Yukon-Taiya Commission 74 

Canadians Begin Managing the Chilkoot Trail 78 

The Skagway Alternatives Study 84 

Preserving the White Pass Depot 89 

4. Authorizing the Park 97 

The International Park Proposal 97 

The Park Master Plan 100 
vi Legacy of the Gold Rush 

4. Authorizing the Park (continued) 

The International Advisory Committee 113 

Canadian Park Developments, 1971-1973 115 

The Yukon-Taiya Commission Concludes Its Work 116 

The Fate of the Pullen Collection 119 

The Skagway-Carcross Road 121 

Congress Introduces a Park Bill 127 

Skagway Preservation Efforts 130 

The Role of the National Park Foundation 133 

Chilkoot Trail Activities, 1972-1976 138 

The Environmental Statement and Affiliated Studies 143 

The Park Bill Becomes Law 149 

Part II: Management of the Alaska Units 159 

5. General Park Administration, Skagway 161 

Getting Started 161 

The Land Purchasing Program 164 

The Richard Sims Superintendency 174 

Clay Alderson Takes Over 178 

Parkwide Planning Efforts 180 

6. The Building Rehabilitation Program 183 

Initial Construction Plans 184 

The NPS Reassesses Its Building Program 190 

The Skagway Historic District Plan 196 

Completing Emergency Stabilization Work 202 

A Leasing Plan is Developed 206 

Completion of the Headquarters and Visitor Center 208 

Moore House Activities 211 

Initial Building Leases 212 

Mascot Saloon Rehabilitation 216 

The Park Exhibit Package Takes Shape 219 

Itjen House Rehabilitation 223 

A Maintenance Facility is Constructed 224 

Recent Rehabilitation Projects 227 

7. Community Relations 233 

Master Plan Implementation Issues 233 

Preservation Outreach Activities 235 
Table of Contents vii 

7. Community Relations (continued) 

Creation of a City-NPS Cooperative Agreement 237 

Skagway Area Campground Assistance 242 

Proposed Railroad Equipment Purchases 246 

Proposed Skagway Building Purchases 248 

The NPS Acquires an Administrative Site 253 

NPS Activities at the Arctic Brotherhood Hall 256 

Trail of '98 Museum Assistance 261 

Management of Vacant Lots Along Broadway 263 

The Revived Historic District Commission 266 

City and Park Visitation 271 

Broadway Traffic Questions 273 

Updating the National Historic Landmark Nomination 276 

Proposals for Acquiring the Rapuzzi Collection 278 

Gold Rush Centennial Activities 281 

Community Attitudes Toward the National Park Service 282 

8. Administering the Dyea Area 287 

The 1978 Cooperative Agreement 287 

The Dyea Cemetery Relocation 292 

Chilkoot Trail and Dyea Landmark Nomination 295 

Preserving Long Bay 296 

Initial Planning Efforts 298 

Dyea NPS Improvements 299 

The 1979 Archeological Survey 301 

The Dyea Land Acquisition Plan 303 

The West Creek Hydroelectric Project 310 

Interpretive and Ranger Activities 316 

Revising the Cooperative Agreement 318 

The Grazing Issue Is Resolved 323 

The Dyea Development Concept Plan 326 

Historical and Archeological Research, 1984-1988 328 

Lands Issues and Campground Activities, 1988-1992 333 

The 1991 Land Protection Plan 338 

General Management Plan Issues Pertaining to Dyea 340 

9. Chilkoot Trail Management 347 

Ranger Activities 347 

Trail Use and Facility Development 353 

Maintenance Activities 356 

Interpretive Measures 360 
viii Legacy of the Gold Rush 

9. Chilkoot Trail Management (continued) 

Boundary and Ownership Proposals 364 

The Mahle Native Allotments 366 

Concessions Management Issues 372 

Resource Management Activities 376 

Canadian Trail Planning 385 

10. The White Pass Trail Unit 391 

Early Development Plans 392 

Proposed Energy Projects 395 

Archeological and Interpretive Concerns 398 

Ownership and Management Issues 400 

Managing the Unit's Historical Resources 402 

Development and Preservation Projects 405 

Part III: Management of the Seattle Unit 407 

11. Establishing the Seattle Unit 409 

The Revitalization of Pioneer Square 410 

The NPS Shows an Interest 411 

An Interpretive Site is Acquired 415 

Preparing the Visitor Center for Public Use 418 

12. Operation of the Seattle Visitor Center 423 

Site Development 423 

Budget and Staff Growth 428 

Interpretive Program Development 432 

Outreach Activities 437 

Cultural Resource Management 440 

Appendices: 445 

A. Budget and Visitor Figures for the Alaska Units 447 

B. Staff List for the Alaska Units (and Chilkoot Trail NHS, Canada) 448 

C. Budget and Visitor Figures for the Seattle Unit 459 

D. List of Staff at the Seattle Unit 460 

Selected Bibliography 463 

Index 483 
List of Maps 

Map 1. Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Alaska and Washington ... . iv 

Map 2. Major routes to the Klondike 16 

Map 3. Alaska park units and surrounding features 108 

Map 4. Alaska park units, showing land ownership patterns, September 1972 ... . 109 

Map 5. Buildings in the Skagway Historic District 166 

Map 6. Skagway Historic District, showing NPS-owned buildings 167 

Map 7. Two maps of Skagway, Alaska 232 

Map 8. Dyea as it probably appeared in 1898 288 

Map 9. Dyea in the 1990s 289 

Map 10. The Chilkoot and White Pass trail corridors 349 

Map 11. The Klondike-Seattle Unit and the Pioneer Square Historic District ... . 408 

be 
x Legacy of the Gold Rush 

List of Tables 

Table 1. Construction Priority List for Skagway NPS Buildings 193 

Table 2. Potential Uses for Skagway NPS Buildings 199 

Table 3. Chronology of Construction Activity, Skagway NPS Buildings 205 

Table 4. Chilkoot Trail Visitor and Support Facilities 348 
List of Photographs xi 

List of Photographs 

following page 38: 

Martin Itjen, early Skagway tourism promoter. 

Army troops marching in Skagway during World War II. 

Hosford Sawmill, 1971. 

Harriet Pullen at the Pullen House. 

following page 76: 

The Sheep Camp Shelter, constructed in 1963. 

Footbridge along the Chilkoot Trail, 1968. 

Taiya River cable crossing, September 1971. 

Skagway promoter Cyril A. (Cy) Coyne and his wife May. 

Centennial plaque, just south of Chilkoot Pass. 

Reps. Ralph Rivers and Roy Taylor, August 1, 1965. 

NPS officials Alfred Kuehl, Robert Luntey, Merrill Mattes and Bailey O. Breedlove. 

The NPS Advisory Board on a WP&YR observation car at Bennett, B.C. 

Three WP&YR steamboats at drydock in Whitehorse, Y.T. 

Upper Cabin at Lindeman City, September 1969. 

Broadway Street, Skagway, looking north from Third Avenue, 1969. 

During the well-known Chilkoot Trail hike 

Four participants in the Labor Day weekend hike of 1969. 

Group shot of Labor Day weekend hike participants. 

following page 128: 

Map showing proposed Canadian-government Chilkoot park, 1973. 

Interior of Pullen House, showing the museum collection. 

Group of federal and state historical officials visiting Skagway, June 1973. 

NPS delegation during a Skagway visit, June 1974. 

Regional and park NPS officials, seen during an October 1975 visit. 

Lindeman Lake warden's camp, at the mouth of Moose Creek. 

Skagway River Valley looking north, 1973. 

Klondike Highway construction personnel at work. 

Captain William Moore Bridge under construction. 

President Gerald Ford, Rep. Don Young, and Sen. Ted Stevens, July 1975. 
xii Legacy of the Gold Rush 

following page 176: 

The park's first (1977) group of interpreters and rangers. 

Richard Sims, Russell Dickenson, and Marvin Taylor at the 1984 depot dedication. 

Superintendent Clay Alderson, shown in 1986. 

following page 214: 

Mascot Saloon Complex and adjacent buildings shown prior to rehabilitation. 

The Pullen House, as seen in 1983. 

The Arctic Brotherhood Hall, the park's temporary visitor center. 

Rehabilitation of the Boss Bakery building in 1985. 

NPS archeologists Cathy Blee and Marianne Musitelli, working at the Moore Cabin. 

The 1987 archeological crew at the Peniel Mission. 

The park's construction and maintenance crew, 1984. 

The railroad depot and administration building in 1977, prior to rehabilitation. 

The depot and administration building as it looked after 1984. 

Jeff and Diane Brady signing their historic property lease, 1986. 

Dedication ceremony for the refurbished Moore Cabin, July 1987. 

The Peniel Mission in 1983, prior to rehabilitation. 

The visitor center exhibits, shortly after their 1991 installation. 

NPS interpreter Alice Cyr leading a walking tour down Broadway. 

following page 258: 

WP&YR locomotive #70 in front of the Skagway depot. 

Red Onion Saloon and Trail Bench Gift Shop. 

A group of Skagway tourism promoters, 1982. 

Trail of '98 Museum directors Glenda Choate and Judy Munns. 

Broadway Street being excavated in the fall of 1983. 

George Rapuzzi with Jan Wrentmore, 1984. 

John McDermott, first head of the Skagway Historical Commission. 

A 1983 cartoon dramatizing overcrowding along Broadway. 

following page 316: 

Willard "Skip" Elliott, who fought the NPS's 1980 Land Acquisition Plan. 

Many Yukoners visit the Skagway area during Victoria Day weekend. 

The Pullen Barn, in Dyea, remained standing until the winter of 1982-83. 

A remote control flying enthusiast on Dyea flats. 
List of Photographs xiii 

following page 368: 

Hauling fuel and other supplies to the Sheep Camp ranger station, 1979. 

A cache of canvas boats near the top of Chilkoot Pass. 

Longtime trail crew members Roy Nelson, Bruce Hill, Jerry Watson, and Pat Moore. 

One of several wall tents which were installed along the Chilkoot in 1993. 

Suspension bridge at 11 mile, completed in 1982. 

Steel truss bridge at Wz mile, completed in 1991. 

Scattered horseshoes along the trail near Stone Crib. 

Log bridge at 6V2 mile, completed in 1982. 

following page 398: 

White Pass City, as it looked in 1898. 

Scattered artifacts at the White Pass City site, 1979. 

WP&YR locomotive #73 seen in 1982, shortly after it was restored. 

Outflow of Goat Lake, site of a proposed hydroelectric project. 

following page 416: 

Early photo of the Pioneer Building, erected in 1892. 

The Pioneer Building as seen in the early 1970s. 

William C. Speidel, a local journalist and historian, in a mid-1960s photo. 

Speidel speaking at the park's June 1979 dedication. 

Reconstruction work was well underway on the Seattle Unit's interior, May 1978. 

Rep. Joel Pritchard and NPS official Russell Dickenson at the 1979 dedication. 

NPS staffers posed at the Seattle unit, shortly before it opened to the public. 

NPS officials James "Rocky" Richardson, Charles Gebler, and Glenn Hinsdale. 

The program for the Seattle Unit's dedication, held June 2, 1979. 

Exterior restoration of the Union Trust Annex facade, March 1978 

Visitors viewing the unit's exhibits on opening day, June 2, 1979. 

following page 428: 

Elaine Hounsell, the Seattle Unit's first superintendent. 

NPS Director William Penn Mott and Superintendent Willie Russell, 1986. 
xiv Legacy of the Gold Rush 
Introduction xv 

Introduction 

In accordance with the dictates of NPS-28 (the agency's Cultural Resource Management 

Guideline), an administrative history 

describes how a park was conceived and established and how it has been 

managed to the present day. The park's legislative history and important 

issues in planning, land acquisition, development, public relations, and 

other topics of ongoing management concern are emphasized. 

This study has endeavored to fulfill those goals as they apply to Klondike Gold Rush 

National Historical Park. This park, which was authorized by Congress in a bill signed 

by President Gerald Ford on June 30, 1976, is composed of four separate units: three 

units located in and around Skagway, Alaska, and one unit located within the Pioneer 

Square Historic District in downtown Seattle, Washington. All four units witnessed a 

flurry of historical activity during the 1897-1899 Klondike Gold Rush period. 

This park has several special characteristics which pertain to it. A number of parks, for 

example, are located in more than one state, and several parks are also composed of 

more than one distinct unit. But no park has one unit that is so distant from the others. 

Because of that separation, NPS officials decided shortly after the park's authorization 

that two superintendents, as well as two administrative staffs, would be necessary. 

Another factor that makes the park a relative rarity is the location of the park's 

Skagway unit in the midst of Skagway's business district. This fact has made the NPS, 

for better or worse, a major influence in Skagway's economic and political life. The 

park's location along the Canadian border, and the necessity to act in concert with 

Canadian authorities from time to time, is another aspect of park operations that 

Klondike shares with few other NPS units. 

Because of the park's specialized characteristics, this study has been organized both 

temporally and spatially. The first four chapters, which describe administrative affairs 

prior to park authorization, have been organized chronologically. Chapter 1 gives a 

brief synopsis of the Klondike Gold Rush, with particular attention paid to existing park 

resources. Chapter 2 covers the long, relatively quiet decades between the gold rush 

period and 1960. Chapter 3 encompasses the 1960s, when the state, the Federal 

Government, and the Yukon government all commenced efforts to protect and interpret 

the resources that remained from the gold rush period. Chapter 4 is primarily 

concerned with the political and legislative activity during the 1970s that preceded 

President Ford's signing of the Klondike park bill. Except for brief portions of chapters 

1 and 4, the first four chapters deal with events in Skagway and vicinity, both on the 

U.S. and Canadian sides of the border. 
xvi Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Chapters 5 through 10, which also focus on the Alaska units, have been organized on a 

geographical basis. Chapter 5, an overview chapter, describes the early days of park 

administration; in addition, it provides information on issues (such as staff growth, land 

acquisition, and planning efforts) that concern more than one of the Alaska units. 

Chapters 6 and 7 provide a chronology of the agency's actions in the Skagway Historic 

District; Chapter 6 is concerned with the building rehabilitation program, while Chapter 

7 discusses NPS's relationship with the City of Skagway and other issues unrelated to its 

historic buildings. Chapters 8 and 9 discuss administrative issues in the Chilkoot Trail 

Unit; Chapter 8 focuses on issues in the Dyea area, while Chapter 9 looks at activities in 

the Chilkoot Trail corridor. Chapter 10 discusses the White Pass Trail Unit. 

A chronological format is once again used in chapters 11 and 12, which deal with the 

Seattle unit. Chapter 11 discusses the planning process which preceded the opening of 

the visitor center in June 1979, while Chapter 12 is concerned with the operations of the 

center since then. 

The process of researching and writing this administrative history has been long and 

somewhat convoluted. Work began in the fall of 1987, when Denver Service Center 

historian Frank Williss was given the job. Williss wrote a task directive and was 

provided a budget. He was not, however, able to devote time to the project. As a 

result, Alaska Regional Historian Kate Lidfors asked Sandra Faulkner and William 

Hanable to work on it. Between June 1988 and September 1989, Faulkner and Hanable 

traveled to Denver, Skagway, Seattle and to other points in the Puget Sound region. 

They did so in order to interview personnel that had played a key role in park 

administration. Neither, however, was able to begin writing the administrative history. 

The project lay on the shelf until the fall of 1993, when the present author was asked to 

complete it. The report was completed in draft form in June 1995. Because of the 

year-long delay in preparing the final report, information in this report on park-related 

events that occurred during the last fourteen months is incomplete. 

When the author began work on the project, he was already somewhat familiar with the 

park. He served as a seasonal interpreter in Skagway from 1983 through 1985; in 

addition, he worked as a historian there on various projects from 1984 through 1988. 

He lived year-round in Skagway from 1983 through 1987. As a result of his residence 

there, he has had the opportunity to get to know Skagway and its townspeople fairly 

well. For this, the author makes no apology. Having lived in Skagway for some time, 

he has had the opportunity to understand, to some extent, why local residents have 

formed their attitudes about the NPS. The author has made every attempt to allow all 

sides to express their legitimate viewpoints. Some, particularly agency staff, may feel 

that the text is biased against the Park Service; those who are unaffiliated with the 

agency, however, may feel that this document is slanted toward the NPS's point of view. 

Either of those conclusions, in the author's opinion, is unintentional. 
Introduction xvii 

The author has many people to thank for bringing this project to fruition. Sandra 

Anderson, the senior historian with the Alaska System Support Office, graciously 

allowed me the time to complete the project. In addition, she and William Hanable 

conducted interviews with former superintendents and other NPS officials. Former 

regional historians William E. Brown, Robert L. Spude, and Kate Lidfors should also be 

thanked, both for project support and for the scores of files they collected over the 

years, many of which I perused for project data. I'd like to thank Dean Dawson at the 

Alaska State Archives, Jo Antonson at the State Historic Preservation Office, and Bruce 

Merrell at Loussac Library for scrounging around and gathering much-needed data. Ted 

Swem of Evergreen, Colorado, graciously provided information photographs, and 

Barbara Walton of the Denver Public Library was likewise helpful. And special thanks 

go to Mike Leach, formerly of the Alaska Division of Lands, who gladly shared his 

experiences of managing the Chilkoot Trail during the 1960s. 

In Skagway, many people deserve thanks. Longtime residents such as Barbara Kalen, 

Carl Mulvihill, Edith Lee, Andrew Beierly, and the late George Rapuzzi have told me 

much of what I know about the town's history. Kalen and Mulvihill, along with former 

Trail of '98 Museum director Glenda Choate, have also graciously offered to proofread 

portions of the text. I'd also like to thank the park staff, all of whom have been helpful. 

I'd particularly like to tip my hat to Superintendent Clay Alderson, Cultural Resource 

Specialist Karl Gurcke, former Chief Ranger Jay Cable, former Ranger Scott Home, 

and former Interpretive Chief Betsy Duncan-Clark. Throughout the manuscript 

preparation period, they were subjected to repeated requests for information and 

somehow remained consistenry patient and courteous. Alderson and Gurcke deserve 

special thanks, because both read the entire draft and provided many helpful comments. 

The same helpfulness applies in Seattle, where Superintendent Willie Russell, 

Administrative Assistant Sue Kiefer, former ranger Mike Gurling, and various currentlyemployed rangers and technicians have dug through the park files and given freely of 

their time and talents. And in Whitehorse, I express my deep appreciation to the Parks 

Canada staff, particularly David Neufeld, Tom Elliot, Bob Lewis, Dan and Debbie 

Verhalle, and Christine Hedgecock. I thank my wife, the former Candy Wellenhoffer, 

not only for her constant love and support, but for sharing her knowledge of the 

Chilkoot, gained by ten years of experience as a warden patrolperson. 

I'm quite sure that there are many others that should be included on the above list but I 

have inadvertently omitted. To all of you, both named and unnamed, I offer my 

deepest thanks. The project could not have been done without you. To you goes the 

credit for this volume. For any and all errors that will inevitably surface, I alone am 

responsible. 

Frank B. Norris 

Anchorage, Alaska 

August 1996 
xviii Legacy of the Gold Rush 
Abbreviations xix 

Abbreviations 

AAO - Alaska Area Office, Anchorage (NPS acronym, 1975-1980) 

AB - Arctic Brotherhood 

ACHP - Advisory Council on Historic Preservation 

AEC - Atomic Energy Commission 

AHC - Administrative History Collection 

AKSO - Alaska System Support Office, Anchorage (NPS acronym, 1995-present) 

ALCAN - Aluminum Company of Canada 

ALCOA - Aluminum Company of America 

ANHA - Alaska Natural History Association 

ANILCA - Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act 

AP&T - Alaska Power and Telephone (Skagway) 

APA - Alaska Power Authority 

AR&T - Alaska Railroad and Transportation (Company) 

ARC - Alaska Road Commission 

ARD - Associate Regional Director (NPS) 

ARO - Alaska Regional Office, Anchorage (NPS acronym, 1980-1995) 

ASA - Alaska State Archives 

BLM - Bureau of Land Management 

CES - Canadian Environmental Services, Ltd. 

CF - Correspondence File (part of Administrative History Collection) 

CNR - Canadian National Railway 

COSEP - Career Oriented Student Employment Program (Canada) 

CPR - Canadian Pacific Railway 

CPSU - Cooperative Park Studies Unit (NPS-university research unit) 

CR&T - Chilkoot Railroad and Transport (Company) 

CTHC - Chilkoot Trail History Construction (file name) 

CUL - Commercial Use License 

CVB - Convention and Visitors Bureau (Skagway) 

DCP - Development Concept Plan 

DED - (Alaska) Department of Economic Development 

DES - Draft Environmental Statement 

DKT - Dyea-Klondike Transportation (Company) 

DNR - (Alaska) Department of Natural Resources 

DSC - Denver Service Center (NPS) 

EIS - Environmental Impact Statement 

EL - Lands Division office, NPS 

ES - Environmental Statement 

FERC - Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 

FES - Final Environmental Statement 
xx Legacy of the Gold Rush 

FTE - full-time equivalent 

FY - fiscal year 

GIS - geographic information system 

GLBA - Glacier Bay National Monument (NPS acronym) 

GMP - General Management Plan 

GPO - Government Printing Office 

GSA - General Services Administration 

HABS - Historic American Buildings Survey 

HAER - Historic American Engineering Record 

HB - (Alaska) House Bill 

HDC - Historic District Commission (Skagway) 

HFC - Harpers Ferry Center (NPS) 

HL&P - Haines Light and Power 

HOST - Helping Our State's Students 

HSAC - Historic Sites Advisory Committee 

HSMBC - Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada 

HSR - Historic Structure Report 

I&RM - Interpretation and Resource Management 

I&VS - Interpretation and Visitor Services 

HO - Joint Information Office (NPS-USFS, Seattle) 

KGRIAC - Klondike Gold Rush International Advisory Committee 

KGRNHP - Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park 

KXGO - Klondike Gold Rush NHP, Alaska units (post-1980 NPS acronym) 

KLGR - Klondike Gold Rush NHP, Alaska and Seattle units (acronym until 1980) 

KLSE - Klondike Gold Rush NHP, Seattle Unit (post-1980 acronym) 

LCC - Lynn Canal Conservation 

LCP - Limited Commercial Permit 

M&O - Management and Operations 

MF - Microfilm 

MOU - Memorandum of Understanding 

NARA - National Archives and Records Administration 

NBA - National Bank of Alaska 

NHL - National Historic Landmark 

NHP - National Historical Park 

NHPA - National Historic Preservation Act 

NHSB - National Historic Sites Branch (Canada) 

NHSS - National Historic Sites Service (Canada) 

NPF - National Park Foundation 

NPS - National Park Service 

NRHP - National Register of Historic Places 

NSHSB - National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings 

NTHP - National Trust for Historic Preservation 

OAHP - Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation 

OMB - Office of Management and Budget 
Abbreviations xxi 

ONPS - NPS operations budget 

OSI - Office of the Secretary of Interior 

PBS - Public Broadcasting System 

PC - Print Collection 

P.L. - Public Law 

PLO - Public Land Order 

PNNPA - Pacific Northwest National Parks Association 

PNRO - Pacific Northwest Regional Office (NPS), Seattle 

PSA - Pioneer Square Association 

PSHSB - Pioneer Square Historic Preservation Board 

QMI - Quebec Metallurgical Industries 

RCR - Cultural Resources Division (NPS acronym) 

RD - Regional Director 

RFP - Request for Proposals 

RG - Record Group 

RMP - Resource Management Plan 

SAE - Systems Architects Engineers, Inc. 

SAR - Superintendent's Annual Report 

SB - (Alaska) Senate Bill 

SC - Senior Curator, or Slide Collection 

SHPO - State Historic Preservation Office 

SSC - San Francisco Planning and Service Center (NPS acronym, 1966-69) 

UAA - University of Alaska, Anchorage 

UAF - University of Alaska, Fairbanks 

U&EA - Urban and Environmental Affairs 

UW - University of Washington 

WAMCATS - Washington-to-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System 

WASO - Washington, D.C. headquarters office (NPS) 

WP&YR - White Pass and Yukon Route 

WRO - Western Regional Office (NPS) 

WSC - Western Service Center, San Francisco (NPS, 1969-1971) 

Y&AA - (Alaska) Youth and Adult Authority 

YCC - Youth Conservation Corps 

YCI - Yukon Correctional Institute 

YMCA - Young Men's Christian Association 

YRCMC - Yukon Radio Control Modelers Club 
PART I: 

THE MAKING OF THE PARK 
Chapter 1 

A Brief Gold Rush History 

Native Use of the Area Before the Gold Rush 

Most anthropologists consider that the area immediately surrounding the three Alaska 

units of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park is the traditional territory of the 

Chilkoot division of the Tlingit Indians. Many consider that the Coast Mountains have 

served as the tribal barrier between the Coastal Tlingits and the inland Athapaskan 

("Stick") tribes. Such a generalization is simplistic and only partially valid. 

At the time of European contact, the Tlingit Indians occupied most of what is now 

southeastern Alaska. Only the Haida and Tsimshian shared the region. The Tlingits' 

territory stretched from the Canadian-U.S. border near Prince Rupert, north along the 

coast to the Yakutat area.1 The Tlingits were almost entirely a coastal people. The 

only exception was a small but widespread group of Inland Tlingits which centered 

around present-day Teslin, Yukon Territory and Atlin, British Columbia. 

Local Natives have different interpretations of the subdivisions within the Tlingit 

population. Some feel that the Chilkoot Indians, which formed the primary group to 

visit the Park area prior to the gold rush period, are a subdivision within the Chilkat 

tribe, and that the Chilkats occupy all of the Lynn Canal area. Many Chilkoots, 

however, consider themselves to be distinct from the Chilkat tribe. According to them, 

their tribe populated Dei-shu, Chilkoot, Dyea and other villages east of the ridge line of 

the Chilkat Peninsula. Chilkats, on the other hand, lived in Chilkat, Klukwan, and 

other villages west of the ridge. 

The area in and around the Park was relatively lightly populated by the local Natives. 

At Dyea, there probably existed a small fishing and hunting camp-possibly permanent 

but more likely seasonal—near the mouth of the Taiya River. The Taiya and Nourse 

River valleys were used by Natives in pursuit of goats, bear and other game. Little 

evidence remains of their long occupation. In the early 1980s, investigators turned up 

three pre-contact aboriginal sites, each being small midden mounds, on a hill 

overlooking Dyea. Then, in the mid-1990s, archeologists located several rock shelters 

1

 Dan and Nan Kaiper, Tlingit: Their Art. Culture, and Legends (Saanichton, B.C., Hancock House, 

1978), 2. 
4 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

on the hill between Sheep Camp and the Scales; one, perhaps all, were used decades 

before Europeans began traversing the trail.2 

Windswept Skagway was used less often than the Dyea area. Pioneers settling at the 

mouth of the Skagway River reported evidences of only an occasional camp site, fox and 

bear deadfall traps, and axe blazes on trees.3 Goats were found in Skagway Valley as 

well, but no evidence suggests that Natives hunted up the valley. Individual Natives, 

most notably James "Skookum Jim" Mason, travelled up the valley and over White Pass; 

so few traversed the route, however, that no trail existed until the gold rush period.4 

North of Chilkoot Pass, the inland tribes exercised a de facto if timid hegemony. The 

Tagish tribe was encountered immediately north of the pass. Until 1900, the primary 

Tagish settlement was Tagish village, along the waterway between Tagish and Marsh 

lakes; due to the activity surrounding railroad construction, most of the village's 

inhabitants moved to Carcross shortly after the turn of the century. North of Tagish 

country was the homeland of the southern and northern Tutchone Indians; north of 

these tribes, surrounding the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike rivers, lived the 

Han Indians. 

During the historical period, the boundaries of the various tribal regions have proven 

rather elastic. The coastal Tlingit often invaded Tagish and Tutchone territory as part 

of their trading expeditions.5 During the fifteen years leading up to the gold rush, and 

particularly during the rush itself, Natives from a wide radius converged on the passes, 

particularly Chilkoot Pass. For the first time the Tagish and Inland Tlingit invaded 

coastal Tlingit territory. Moreover, competing bands of Thngits—the Taku, Auk, Sitka, 

and other groups—flocked into Chilkoot territory. After the flurry of activity subsided, 

most Natives returned to their ancestral villages.6 

Before contact, the Tlingits were a highly organized, warlike, sophisticated people. 

Their diet was based largely on salmon, and to a lesser extent on halibut, herring, cod 

2

 Ertec Northwest, Additional Cultural Resources Survey and Summary Assessment of the West 

Creek Hydroelectric Project (Anchorage, the author, March 25, 1983), IV-13 to IV-21; Karl Gurcke, 

interview by author, Skagway, August 9, 1988. 

3

 Silas Dennis, Sr., interview by author, Skagway, March 5, 1985; J. Bernard Moore, Skagway in Days 

Primeval (New York, Vantage Press, 1968), 15-16. 

4

 Moore, Skagway in Days Primeval, 123-124, 173; Roy Minter, The White Pass: Gateway to the 

Klondike (Fairbanks, Univ. of Alaska Press, 1987), 23-24. 

5

 Catharine McClellan, "Tagish," in June Helm, ed., Handbook of North American Indians: Vol. 6, 

Subarctic (Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1981), 489. 

6

 Moore, Skagway in Days Primeval, 117; Richard Dick, interview by author, Skagway, June 5, 1984. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History J 

and other fish and shellfish. They also availed themselves of the rich forest wildlife: 

deer, bear, ptarmigan, goose and duck. Eulachon oil, herring eggs and seaweed 

rounded out their diet.7 

The Tlingits used the local timber for many products central to their lifestyle. Many 

Tlingits lived in substantial log houses; some were erected for the use of individual 

families, while others were intended for communal village use. Others dwelled in large, 

earth-covered barabaras, which featured a small piece of hide which served as a door. 

The local timber was also molded into canoes that served both river and ocean travel. 

Those used for hunting and fishing were generally small, from eight to twenty feet in 

length. Their finest canoes, however, were reserved for wartime. These craft were up 

to fifty feet in length, and often carried from forty to fifty men.8 

Tlingits were well-known carvers of totems. Coastal Tlingits created them for a variety 

of uses: to display a debt, to bury the dead or to commemorate any sort of special 

occasion. The northern Tlingit tribes generally avoided large totems, preferring to erect 

house poles instead.9 

The Tagish, by contrast, were a peaceful people who led a simpler life than that of the 

Tlingits. Their lake-based resources, while seasonally bountiful, were less abundant than 

that available to the coastal Indians, and the interior winters were more severe. Thus 

the Tagish villages were relatively small, as was, indeed, the entire Tagish population.10 

Like the coastal Tlingits, the Tagish depended on salmon, but the lack of salmon in 

much of their territory caused them to include other fish species (whitefish, trout and 

ling cod) as equally important parts of their diet. The Tagish hunted woodchuck, 

caribou, moose and sheep. Their lineage houses at Tagish village were timbered and 

relatively substantial. Their seasonal fish camps, however, sported relatively rude, 

temporary brush or skin shelters. So far as is known, the Tagish travelled south to 

7

 Kaiper, Tlingit. 14. 

8

 Archimandrite Anatolii Kamenskii, Tlingit Indians of Alaska: Odessa. 1906 (Fairbanks, Univ. of 

Alaska Press, 1985), 28; Kaiper, Tlingit. 34. 

9

 Kaiper, Tlingit. 38; Aurel Krause, The Tlingit Indians: Results of a Trip to the Northwest Coast of 

America and the Bering Straits, translated by Erna Gunther (Seattle, Univ. of Washington Press, 1956), 

85-93. 

10

 Edwin C. Bearss, Proposed Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park: Historic Resources Study 

(hereafter known as Klondike Park Study) (Washington, D.C., Office of Archeology and Historic 

Preservation, November 15, 1970), 1; McClellan, "Tagish," 482-483. 
6 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Lindeman Lake and southern Bennett Lake only on occasional fishing forays, and did 

not establish regular seasonal camps south of present-day Carcross.11 

The local Chilkoots were inveterate traders. Before the arrival of the first Europeans, 

they maintained a sophisticated, complex trading network with inland tribes. Using the 

Chilkoot Trail as the point of passage, the Chilkoots visited Tagish fish camps on an 

annual basis.12 

A variety of goods flowed over the trail. Northward went eulachon oil, wooden boxes, 

dried clams, seaweed, and other marine products. In exchange, the Tagish traded 

ground-squirrel robes, tanned moose and caribou hides, and the lichen dyes and goat 

wool needed for Chilkat blankets.13 Such trading had gone on for hundreds of years 

before European contact began. The trading process was often unfair to the Tagish; the 

sophisticated, warlike Tlingits often intimidated and took advantage of their inland 

neighbors. 

The Tagish, though bested by the coastal Tlingit, were superior traders to the other 

inland tribes. They served as middlemen between the Tlingits and the northern 

Tutchone tribes who lived along the upper Pelly River. The Tagish demanded high 

prices for trade goods from their northern neighbors. The Tagish also served as guides 

for Tlingits who ventured north to the Han country.14 

Chilkoot Pass remained the lifeline of the trading network throughout the long 

pre-contact period. The Tlingits, to be sure, formed trading networks through other 

passes-Chilkat Pass, the Taku and Stikine rivers-to inland tribes.15 The Chilkoot, 

however, was the primary route to the vast drainage of the Yukon River. 

Because eulachon oil was a primary ingredient carried over the pass, the route was 

colloquially known as the "grease trail" by early European groups. As the dominant 

power in the area, the bellicose Tlingits controlled passage over the Chilkoot, and 

11

 McClellan, "Tagish," 482-485. 

12

 Richard J. Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass and the Great Gold Rush of 1898 (Ottawa?, Parks Canada, 

March 31, 1978), 4-5; McClellan, "Tagish," 483. 

13

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 1; McClellan, "Tagish," 489. 

14

 McClellan, "Tagish," 489-490; Catharine McClellan, "Tutchone," in Sturdevant, Handbook. 494. 

15

 Bruce B. MacLachlan, "Tahltan," in Sturdevant, Handbook, 459; Catharine McClellan, "Inland 

Tlingit," in Sturdevant, Handbook. 478; McClellan, "Tutchone," 495. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 7 

warned inland tribes that dire consequences would befall any who attempted to cross 

over to the coast by the Chilkoot or any other route.16 

It is not known how long the Chilkoot Trail witnessed Native use. Pre-contact Native 

artifacts related to trail use have yet to be found. It is conservatively estimated that the 

trail was used for two hundred years before initial European contact.17 

Before being improved in the mid-1890s, the Chilkoot was a rough, rugged route. 

South of the Nourse River junction, it crossed the Taiya River several times, and 

followed its bank much of the rest of the way. North of the river junction, a narrow 

trail was perched over the Taiya River gorge. Between the canyon and Stone House, 

the trail crossed the river several more times, and as it neared Stone House often 

disappeared in jumbles of boulders. Above that point the trail, then as now, coursed 

over open expanses of rock and snow on its way to the summit.18 Despite the trail's 

difficulties, however, the traders who used it negotiated the trail rather quickly, often 

covering the twenty-seven miles between tidewater and the lakes in one or two days. 

When necessary, they bivouacked in the open or under a rock, wrapping themselves in 

few blankets or none at all.19 

Europeans Eye the Chilkoot and White Pass Corridors 

When the Russians became established at Sitka around 1800, they brought with them a 

new culture, certain elements of which spread into the hinterland. While no Russians 

crossed or even approached Chilkoot Pass, they made their influence felt to the Tlingits 

and neighboring Native groups. The Russian demand for animal pelts soon depleted 

the supplies available in southeastern Alaska. The Chilkoot Indians capitalized on this 

disparity by serving as middlemen between the Russians and the interior tribes, the 

latter being able to provide a continuing supply to the Tlingit traders.20 

16

 McClellan, "Tagish," 482; Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass. 5; Minter, The White Pass. 23. 

17

 Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass. 4; Kamenskii, Tlingit Indians of Alaska. 27. 

18

 Aurel Krause, Journey to the Tlingits by Aurel and Arthur Krause. 1881/82. translated by Margot 

Krause McCaffrey (Haines, Haines Centennial Commission, 1981), 59-61; Lt. Frederick Schwatka, "A 

Military Reconnaissance in Alaska," Senate Document 1023 (Washington, GPO, 1888), 293-295; Moore, 

Skagway in Days Primeval, 94. 

19

 Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass, 20; Moore, Skagway in Days Primeval, 39; Allen A. Wright, Prelude to 

Bonanza: the Discovery and Exploration of the Yukon (Sidney, B.C., Gray's Pubhshing, 1976), 144-145. 

20

 McClellan, "Tagish," 482. 
8 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

The Chilkoots' possession of the rights of passage over the pass was a linchpin to their 

power base, so they guarded the pass jealously. They likewise regarded settlement in 

the vicinity with alarm. When Hudson's Bay traders established Fort Selkirk, 200 miles 

to the north, in June 1848, hostilities increased. The British-sponsored company was 

well aware of the pass; the post leader, via Chilkat traders, even sent a letter out over it 

shortly after he established the post. But the warlike Tlingits became so incensed at this 

infringement into their trading territory that they plundered and sacked the fort in 

August 1852.21 

As European exploration continued, the settlement that followed brought increasingly 

strong pressure into the Chilkoot Pass area. The Russians, which had remained on the 

lower Yukon in the early 19th century, reached the mouth of the Tanana in 1861. Two 

years later they paddled up to the mouth of the Porcupine. There they confirmed longswirling rumors when they observed that the Hudson's Bay Company had, quite illegally, 

established Fort Yukon at the site 16 years before.22 

In the early 1870s, the upper river began to open up when prospector-traders Arthur 

Harper, Jack McQuesten and Al Mayo wandered into the country from the southeast. 

They set up Fort Reliance, near the mouth of the Klondike River.23 This isolated, 

temporary post posed no threat to the Tlingit's empire. But a series of small placer 

deposits were found in the Yukon drainage shortly after the trio became established, 

and their many letters Outside excited the Pacific Coast mining fraternity.24 The days 

of Native hegemony over the Yukon country were beginning to draw to a close. 

South of Chilkoot Pass, a similarly slow but inexorable growth took place. While the 

English knew the Lynn Canal country as early as the 1790s, neither they nor the 

Russians who settled at Sitka lingered in the area.25 Tlingit intimidation held 

prospective Russian traders at arm's length. Hudson's Bay traders had slightly better 

luck; they crept up Lynn Canal to Chilkat Indian village by 1830 but dared go no 

farther. They continued to trade there for the next half century.26 

21

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 60, 74; Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass. 5. 

22

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 2; Wright, Prelude to Bonanza, 55, 119. 

23

 Pierre Berton, The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush (New York, 

Alfred A. Knopf, 1977), 7-8, 12-14. 

24

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza, 132-133. 

25

 Robert N. DeArmond, Early Visitors to Southeastern Alaska: Nine Accounts (Anchorage, Alaska 

Northwest, 1978), 68, 210; Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass, 6. 

26

 DeArmond, Early Visitors. 76-78; Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 2. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 9 

After the Russians sold Alaska to the Americans in 1867, American naval vessels 

patrolled the area on an occasional basis. The first known excursion into the area, an 

1869 venture under Commander Richard Meade, penetrated all the way to the mouth of 

the Taiya River.27 

As in the interior, initial attempts at finding gold proved elusive. Only small finds, near 

Sitka, took place during the 1870s, but huge strikes at Juneau and Douglas in 1880-1882 

attracted thousands. Miners and adventurers fanned out in all directions in search of a 

new strike.28 

Missionaries into the newfound country located a Presbyterian reserve at Haines in 1879 

or 1880, and two salmon canneries were erected near Chilkat village by 1883. The 

advancing tide of civilization produced abundant trade goods for the Tlingit middlemen 

who controlled the bastions of the Chilkoot, but forced them to redouble their vigilance 

to keep others away from the key trade route.29 

The Tlingit domination of the pass, and of its interior neighbors, was so complete that 

most Tagish had little knowledge of the area. As suggested above, several of the 

Tagish—Skookum Jim among them—had apparently crossed over to the coast, but their 

fear of retribution from the dominant Tlingits was such that they typically feigned 

ignorance of route specifics.30 

Beginning in the mid-1870s, scattered parties of white miners attempted, on their own, 

to ascend Chilkoot Pass. One by one they were turned away. Remarkably, however, at 

least one prospector slipped past the Tlingits and over the Chilkoot. George Holt 

ascended the mountain ramparts in 1872, 1874 or 1875.31 Descending the chain of 

lakes to the north end of Marsh Lake, Holt crossed the eastern ridge to the Teslin 

drainage. He found (or was given) some "coarse gold" in the area. He then returned to 

the coast by the same route. He travelled on to Sitka and, exhibiting the nuggets, 

invited others into the new region.32 

27

 Donald J. Orth, Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 567 

(Washington, GPO, 1967), 22, 290, 941. 

28

 Berton, Klondike Fever. 6. 

29

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 143; Krause, Journey to the Tlingits. 19. 

30

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 190; Minter, The White Pass. 21. 

31

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 135; Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, "The Northwest Passes to the Yukon," 

Alaska Journal 3 (Summer 1973), 145. Scidmore's article is a reprint from the April 1898 National 

Geographic Magazine. 

32

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 133-134; Berton, Klondike Fever. 8-9. 
10 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Holt's furtive trip to the Teslin country awakened the local miners to the possibilities of 

gold, and to details surrounding the long-desired route over the Coast Mountains. Not 

surprisingly, the miners reacted to the news by applying pressure to have the blockade 

broken. Capt. Lester A. Beardslee, the de facto governor of Alaska at the time, helped 

open the pass by taking advantage of internecine warfare among the northern Tlingit. 

Through an intermediary, he played the role of peacemaker. In return for the safe 

passage of miners over the pass, Beardslee promised to send over a number of dulydeputized Chilkat policemen to restore order, and also promised to implement any 

other support necessary to preserve the peace in the northern Tlingit country. He 

further agreed to a demand that the miners "acquit themselves as becomes orderly, 

sober, reasonable men," and that they not carry "spirituous liquor...into the Indian 

country for purposes of trade or barter with the natives." The peace offer was accepted. 

The Sitka-based policemen visited the warring factions early in the winter of 1879-1880, 

and returned in February 1880 with a formal invitation to cross Chilkoot Pass.33 

In May 1880 a party of 19, led by Edmund Bean, headed up to Chilkat village with a 

naval escort. Final negotiations opening the pass were completed without delay, and 

the party climbed the pass, arriving at Lindeman Lake on June 17. The Tlingits, who 

had been packing trade goods over the trail for years, began a lucrative new industry 

when they switched to carrying the equipment and supplies of miners. In this trade they 

continued their domination over the inland tribes. They generally refused to allow 

interior Indians to work as packers, and to a large extent refused all access to the 

coast.34 Tagish packers, however, were known to be used in both 1883 and 1887. 

Indeed, one traveller witnessed a camp of "Stick Indians" at Dyea in 1883. During the 

1880-1897 period, however, relatively few interior Natives broke the Chilkoot 

stranglehold.35 

Bean and his party had little gold to show for their 1880 prospecting venture, but 

scattered finds soon began to be reported. An 1881 party located scattered "colors" 

along the Big Salmon River; by the following year, miners were sufficiently optimistic 

about the country to winter in the interior with traders McQuesten, Harper and Mayo. 

After 1883, the numbers heading over the pass consistently increased as reports of 

interior riches began to spread.36 

Most of those who crossed over the Chilkoot divide in the two decades before the rush 

were quiet, self-effacing men whose activities and even identities have been largely 

33

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 136. 

34

 Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass. 19; Minter, The White Pass. 21-22. 

35

 Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass. 20; Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 14; McClellan, "Tagish," 482. 

36

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 137-138. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 11 

forgotten. Two such groups, however, were well known to outsiders. The first was the 

Frederick Schwatka expedition of 1883. The second was the 1887 expedition of William 

Ogilvie. Both of these exploring parties added enormously to the geographical 

knowledge of the Yukon country, and brought publicity to the region as well as to the 

expedition leaders. 

Lt. Schwatka, operating under the orders of Gen. Nelson Miles, launched an overall 

geographical and strategic survey of the Yukon interior. His task was to report on the 

number of Indians, their way of life, and their attitudes toward various European 

powers. He was also to study the terrain, how to sustain a military force in the 

territory, and the extent of native grasses capable of supporting Army stock. Finally, his 

summer excursion was sent to investigate "the severity of the winters, and any other 

information that would be important to the military service."37 Considering the budget 

allotted to the expedition, the orders were tall indeed. As it turned out, Schwatka and 

his six crew members were given "far less money ... to conduct it through its long 

journey than was afterwards appropriated by Congress to publish its report."38 

Because of opposition to the venture both inside and outside the War Department, a 

veil of secrecy surrounded expedition planning and execution. On May 22, 1883, the 

group "stole away like a thief in the night" from Vancouver Barracks, Washington 

Territory. Schwatka took the fleet coaler Victoria to Pyramid Harbor, near Haines 

Mission; he then continued to Dyea, where the hike over the Chilkoot began. Hiring a 

team of Chilkat, Chilkoot and Tagish packers, he left on June 8. He proceeded only 

four miles each of his first two days; the third day he reached Stone House, near 

timberline. On June 11 he crossed the divide, which he named Perrier Pass, and arrived 

at Lindeman Lake. He then built a raft that took the party across the lake, through the 

rapids to Bennett Lake and continued on down the Yukon River.39 

Four years later, the Canadian government sponsored the George M. Dawson 

expedition. Alarmed at continuing reports of gold in the Yukon interior and the 

predominant American nationality of the miners, the Geological Survey of Canada sent 

several parties to explore the country and determine the boundary between the U.S. and 

Canada. Dawson himself headed into the Cassiar country, while fellow leader Richard 

McConnell explored the Stikine River basin. William Ogilvie was assigned to cross 

Chilkoot Pass and fix a boundary, then to float down the Yukon to the 141st meridian, 

where he was to mark another boundary line.40 

37

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 11. 

38

 Frederick Schwatka, A Summer in Alaska (St. Louis, J. W. Henry, 1894), 11. 

39

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 11, 14-17. 

40

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza, 167-169. 
12 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

To carry out his task, Ogilvie left Victoria on May 13. Eleven days later, he arrived at 

Haines Mission aboard the Steamer Ancon. Transferring his goods to flatboats towed 

by the gunboat Pinta, he continued up the Taiya Inlet to Dyea, and on June 6 headed 

up the trail with 120 Chilkoot packers. Because his packers deserted him atop Chilkoot 

Pass, it took him over a week to bring the expedition's goods over to Lindeman Lake.41 

While in Juneau, Ogilvie had heard rumors of another pass across the Coast Mountains 

near the Chilkoot. To investigate the validity of the rumors, Ogilvie dispatched one of 

his party, 65-year-old "Captain" William Moore, to search for it. To accompany him 

Ogilvie chose Skookum Jim, a husky Tagish Indian. The two canoed over from Dyea to 

the mouth of the Skagway River, then began their trek up the trackless valley. After 

three days of climbing they reached the drainage divide; a week later, the two rejoined 

Ogilvie at Lindeman Lake.42 

The two found that the alternate route confirmed earlier rumors of a lower if longer 

way to the lakes. Ogilvie, recognizing the expedition's ultimate sponsor, named the new 

summit White Pass in honor of Thomas White, Canadian Minister of the Interior. 

Moore, captivated by the possibilities of the pass, envisioned it as a primary route to the 

interior. He predicted that, as mineral development inevitably progressed, a road and 

eventually a railroad would be constructed through the pass. Moore decided, then and 

there, to play a role in the region's development. 

The Ogilvie party remained at Lindeman Lake constructing boats until July 11. It then 

began floating down the Yukon River. On August 12, near the confluence of the Pelly, 

Moore caught sight of Bernard, his son, poling upriver with four others. Moore then 

left Ogilvie's party, he and Bernard heading back up the Yukon. Ogilvie continued 

downstream and set up a base camp at the 141st meridian; the Moores made a heroic 

trip back to Chilkoot Pass and on to Dyea. Exhausted and close to starvation, the 

Moores reached Dyea on September 7. They stayed and recuperated at John J. Healy 

and Edgar Wilson's trading post, which had been established in the old Indian camp 

during the spring or summer of the previous year.43 

Once rested, Moore acted on his dream. The two proceeded down to Juneau, and after 

getting resupplied they canoed back to Skagway Bay. They arrived there on October 20, 

1887, and immediately began to establish a 160-acre homestead just above the high tide 

line. They spent three weeks at the site that fall and an additional two months the 

41

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 20-22. 

42

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 22; Minter, The White Pass, 25-26. 

43

 Minter, The White Pass, 28-31; Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 192-193; Choteau (Montana) Calumet. 

May 24, 1886, 3; Choteau Calumet, September 9, 1886, 7. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 13 

following spring and summer. By that time, they had not only laid out the homestead 

but erected a cabin and started work on a wharf.44 

The two decades before the Klondike strike witnessed many gold discoveries, but two 

major finds spurred traffic over the Chilkoot. In September 1886, two prospectors made 

a rich strike near the mouth of Fortymile Creek, near the 141st meridian, and for the 

next several years the Fortymile diggings were the richest in the interior.45 Then, in 

the fall of 1893, two Russian half-breeds located gold in paying quantities on Birch 

Creek in American territory, and the rush to Circle City was on. Although the latter 

camp was sufficiently far downriver that many reached it via St. Michael, the route over 

Chilkoot Pass was both shorter and less expensive. As a general rule, miners came into 

the country in the spring via the Chilkoot, and left in the late summer on a St. Michaelbound steamboat. By the 1896 season, several thousand miners were scattered 

throughout the Yukon basin, ranging from the Teslin drainage to Circle City and 

beyond.46 

Skookum Jim's Discovery 

Gold was discovered on Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, on August 16, 

1896. At the time, few prospected in the Klondike drainage, and only meager results 

had been obtained by those who had. One of the most dogged of these was Robert 

Henderson, who had found small amount of "color" on several creeks. By the summer 

of 1896, Henderson had been in the area for two years, and was working a claim on 

Gold Bottom Creek, fifteen miles from the mouth of the Klondike.47 

Skookum Jim, the Tagish Indian who had accompanied William Moore over White Pass 

nine years before, was the first to locate the pay dirt that commenced the gold rush. 

Jim had spent much of the time since 1887 in the company of Dawson Charlie and 

George Carmack. The three were relatives; Jim was Charlie's uncle, and Carmack, a 

white prospector from California, was married to Jim's sister. On August 14, the three 

were in the Klondike drainage, meandering west from Gold Bottom Creek. Jim killed a 

moose near Rabbit Creek that afternoon, then went to the creek for a drink. There he 

saw many golden flakes in the shallow waters. Excited as he must have been, he calmly 

44

 Moore, Skagway in Days Primeval, 102-106, 115-127. 

45

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 160. 

46 Ibid-, 266. 

47

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza, 194; Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 37-39. 
14 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

butchered the moose, then showed the gold to his two partners.48 Upon seeing the 

size of their discovery, the three celebrated. They then spent the next two days perusing 

the creek for the most valuable deposits. Carmack, arguing that an Indian would not be 

allowed to record a discovery claim, stepped off the largest claim for himself, and 

secured an adjacent claim besides. His companions took the land on either side.49 

Word spread quickly of the discovery. Within a fortnight the creek, renamed Bonanza, 

was staked from one end to the other, and a nearby side stream, called "Bonanza's pup" 

in the parlance of the day, was quickly staked and renamed Eldorado when its potential 

riches were revealed. Before long other nearby creeks, notably Hunker and Gold 

Bottom, were similarly staked. Word of the discovery spread excitedly up and down the 

valley, and by Christmas many of the roughly 3,000 miners in the Yukon Valley had 

deserted their diggings and converged on the Klondike and its tributaries.50 

Word to the Outside, however, leaked more slowly. William Ogilvie, the Canadian 

government surveyor stationed in Fortymile, dutifully reported the goings-on to his 

superiors in Ottawa, but such a report received scant popular attention.51 The coming 

of winter, already imminent in the earliest stages of the rush, made communications 

with the Outside exceedingly difficult for the next eight months. Among the miners, 

however, the news inevitably leaked out, causing considerable if skeptical interest in 

cities along the west coast. In response the spring rush, which had been growing in 

force for years, was far larger than was ever seen before. The City of Mexico left 

Seattle with over 600 stampeders on March 25, and for two months afterwards every 

ship leaving for Alaska was crowded with prospectors.52 

In mid-July, "Klondike fever" struck with full fury. Two ships steamed from the mouth 

of the Yukon River to the west coast of the United States. The Excelsior arrived in San 

Francisco on the evening of July 14; three days later, the Portland pulled into Seattle's 

Schwabacher Wharf. Between the two ships, miners from the Yukon country brought 

48

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 40-42. Many suggest that Carmack is the legitimate discoverer of gold 

due to his ownership of the discovery claim, and Carmack himself proclaimed himself to the world as the 

gold discoverer. Many Canadians consider Robert Henderson, a Nova Scotian, to be the actual 

discoverer, because it was he who directed the three over to the Rabbit Creek drainage. Henderson had 

previously prospected the creek and found small colors. He was doubtless denied great riches himself 

because of his prejudice against Carmack's Native partners. 

49

 Berton, Klondike Fever. 47-48. 

50

 Ibid, 33, 51-55, 71. 

51

 Ibid., 50, 74; Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass. 41-42. 

52

 Robert L. S. Spude, Skagway. District of Alaska. 1884-1912: Building the Gateway to the Klondike. 

Occasional Paper No. 36 (Fairbanks, Univ. of Alaska Cooperative Park Studies Unit, September 1983), 5; 

Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 47. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 15_ 

with them more than three tons of gold. The west coast, and soon much of the world, 

went mad over the news. Thousands dropped everything to head toward an area that 

few had even heard of and only a handful knew well.53 

The lack of knowledge engendered a spate of guidebooks, some of which proved 

relatively authoritative. Others, however, were almost entirely worthless. To prepare 

for the trip north, guidebooks urged that prospective stampeders be equipped with a 

wide array of foodstuffs, clothing, construction tools and other equipment. Such 

"Yukon outfits" usually cost from $500 to $700 and weighed between 1000 and 2000 

pounds.54 

Routes to the Gold Fields 

The sale of these outfits and all the other services required by the stampeders provoked 

an intense rivalry among the various port cities of the west coast. San Francisco, 

Portland, Astoria, Tacoma, Seattle, Port Townsend, Victoria and Vancouver all vied for 

the Klondike-bound traffic. Most Canadians headed north from the latter two ports. 

American prospectors, at first, had no particular preference. San Francisco, which had 

been the major entrepot to Alaska for decades, attracted much of the initial rush. But 

as "Klondike fever" raged over the next few months, a well-orchestrated campaign by 

Erastus Brainerd and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce paid off. Using a variety of 

innovative promotional techniques, Brainerd almost single-handedly pushed Seattle into 

a position as the pre-eminent American port to Alaskan points, a position it still 

maintains.55 

The first prospectors headed north up the Inside Passage within a week of the epic 

announcement. Because of the prevailing ignorance surrounding the gold fields, 

however, prospectors chose many different routes. Due to historical usage, most 

guidebooks recommended either the Chilkoot Pass route or the long river route by way 

of St. Michael (see Map 2). Recent publicity surrounding the White Pass, however, 

convinced many to head toward the mouth of the Skagway River, even though the trail 

up the valley was largely untested.56 

Shadier promoters promulgated other routes. Civic development groups and steamship 

captains seized on the rush as an excellent moneymaking opportunity, and many of this 

53

 Berton, Klondike Fever. 104-118. 

54

 Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass. 45-46; Berton, Klondike Fever. 110-114, 253-254. 

55

 Berton, Klondike Fever, 123-126. 

56

 Ibid., 203; Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass, 47, 55, 62-63. 
Map 2. Major routes to the Klondike. Source: NPS, Master Plan. Proposed Klondike 

Gold Rush National Historical Park. May 1973, 8. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 17_ 

element put profit in a more important position than the welfare of their patrons. The 

Edmonton route, for instance, was an untried 2,000-mile overland slog that broke the 

fortunes of hundreds before they turned back. A similar trail, almost as long and just as 

hopeless, wound north out of Ashcroft, B.C. Both routes appealed to Canadians who 

wished to stay within their borders. Two other routes that remained almost entirely in 

Canada were the Stikine River route, via Wrangell, and the Taku River route via 

Juneau. Both routes proved long and arduous; few stampeders reached the gold fields 

by either route.57 

American promoters were just as zealous and perhaps even less morally inclined than 

their Canadian counterparts. Several advertised an "all-American route to the 

Klondike," a preposterous statement at best, although many erroneously felt that the 

gold fields lay in Alaska. Steamship captains with more marketing skill than good 

judgment sent many to ludicrously isolated areas. Some were sent to the Cook Inlet 

country, others were dropped off at Valdez and asked to march over a glacier, still 

others were marooned on a beach near the Malaspina Glacier and were pointed in the 

direction of high mountain passes to reach the Klondike. All of these luckless 

stampeders met with grim disappointment, and many with death, from these ill-advised 

ventures.58 Even the supposedly easy "rich man's route," which went up the Yukon 

River from St. Michael, was so poorly implemented that most who opted for it were 

forced to spend the winter along the river.59 

By the winter and spring of 1898, when the majority of the stampeders headed north, 

the Chilkoot and White Pass routes had emerged as pre-eminent, and an estimated 

ninety percent of all stampeders used one or the other.60 The Chilkoot Pass, used for 

centuries by the Chilkoot Indians, had been improved for pack animals as far as Sheep 

Camp in 1895. The trail was in relatively good shape; the only improvements needed 

during the early stages of the gold rush were the addition of log bridges and short 

sections of corduroy road.61 

Travelers on the Chilkoot Trail in 1897 departed from the beach at the mouth of the 

Taiya River. For the next two miles the trail followed the river's west bank through the 

rapidly developing town of Dyea and past Healy and Wilson's trading post. A mile 

57

 Berton, Klondike Fever. 225-243. 

58

 Ibid., 211-224. 

39

 Ibid., 205-211. 

60

 Ibid., 244-245. 

61

 Wright, Prelude to Bonanza. 267. Josiah Edward Spurr, in "Through the Alaska Gold Diggings," 

Alaska Magazine 43 (March 1977), 33-34, suggests that the improved pack trail was not opened until the 

spring of 1896. A corduroy road is composed of logs laid in a long, parallel row. 
18 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

north of Healy and Wilson's, the trail crossed the river then continued through the level 

riparian floodplain for six miles. Near the point where river navigation became 

impractical, the trail again crossed to the west side and continued another two miles to 

Canyon City. A small bridge afforded a third crossing leading to a short, steep ascent 

taking stampeders along a trail overlooking the deep, narrow Taiya River canyon. The 

trail perched on a bench along the canyon's east wall for another two miles before 

dropping back to the water's edge. Crossing the river a fourth time, the trail followed 

close to the river for the next three miles to Sheep Camp. Although the trail rose and 

fell numerous times between Dyea and Sheep Camp, the net elevation gain was less 

than 1,000 feet over the fifteen mile distance.62 

After Sheep Camp, the trail began to climb in earnest as the traveller started up Long 

Hill. In slightly over a mile, timberline was reached near Stone House. Thereafter the 

trail steepened even more, and 1-1/2 miles later the end of Long Hill brought the 

traveller to the Scales, the "foot of the summit." The Scales was only a half mile from 

the top of the pass, but it was 900 feet lower. An exhausting climb up an exposed 35-

degree slope separated the two points. Chilkoot Pass, despite its name, was hardly a 

pass at all; rather, it was a slight notch in the towering Coast Mountains. 

Once the pass was crested, a short, steep dropoff brought the stampeder to Crater Lake, 

at the headwaters of the Yukon River system. The 1897 trail took stampeders around 

the east side of the lake, but many rented boats to haul their supplies across. A 

stairstep of lakes followed: Morrow Lake, Long Lake and Deep Lake. Trails wound 

around each of them, but in most cases entrepreneurs with boats were available to carry 

freight. Ten miles north of the pass, the trail descended to Lindeman Lake. Many 

stampeders built their boats here; others crossed the seven-mile lake or circled its east 

end, then climbed over the low ridge separating it from Bennett Lake.63 

The White Pass Trail, like the Chilkoot, evolved from a rude path to an improved 

thoroughfare during the short span of the gold rush. When the first stampeders 

stormed ashore at Skagway in July 1897, a narrow, tortuous path connected Skagway 

Bay with the summit of White Pass. Within a few weeks, however, traffic up the trail so 

overwhelmed its capacity that it soon became an impassible morass of rocks, roots and 

mud. Trail blockages became the rule rather than the exception, and horses and other 

beasts died by the hundreds. The Trail of 1897 soon became world famous as the 

"Dead Horse Trail." 

The trail faced by the earliest stampeders was first blazed in February 1895 by a small 

party of California prospectors, and improved under the direction of Captain Moore in 

62

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 51-53. 

63

 Ibid., 54-56. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 19_ 

the spring of 1897.64 The Dead Horse Trail started on the east side of the valley. A 

mile north of Skagway Bay, it crossed the Skagway River on a rude bridge and 

continued north for another mile before climbing up to Black Lake. The trail wound 

along the steep western slope of Skagway Valley to Porcupine Creek; it then climbed 

over infamous Porcupine Hill before slowly descending to the Skagway River, ten miles 

north of Lynn Canal. The trail then followed the Skagway River for two miles to the 

river's confluence with the White Pass Fork. The White Pass City tent camp was 

located near the confluence at 1,300 feet above sea level. The trail thereafter steepened 

considerably. Roughly paralleling the White Pass Fork, the trail climbed 1,900 feet to 

the summit in just four miles. The 1897 trail summit was approximately a mile east of 

the present railroad summit.65 

The brawling port towns of Skagway and Dyea fed never-ending streams of stampeders 

onto the two trails. Skagway, only a homestead before July 1897, quickly 

metamorphosed into a ramshackle tent town and boasted a wide variety of businesses. 

The town quickly overwhelmed the holdings of Captain Moore. He protested—to no 

avail-but grew wealthy from his sawmill, dock and other businesses. The town began as 

a chaotically-arranged tent camp, but within weeks hastily-erected wooden buildings had 

been thrown up along the southern reaches of the White Pass Trail. By the onset of 

winter a grid pattern of streets, surveyed by Frank Reid, was imposed over the random 

scatter of tents and shacks. Soon a downtown area emerged between Fourth and Sixth 

Avenues and between Broadway and Main Streets, and the air of a civilized if rustic 

community began to prevail. By June 1898, an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people lived in 

and around Skagway.66 

Dyea grew in much the same way as Skagway. A trading post and tent camp before the 

gold rush, Dyea witnessed hectic activity during the summer and fall of 1897 as hordes 

of stampeders trooped north. Most, however, had disembarked from Inside Passage 

steamers in Skagway, and had little reason to linger in the rival port. During October 

1897 a downtown grid, five blocks wide and seven blocks long, replaced the former 

riverside path that had formerly constituted the southern end of the Chilkoot Trail. 

Dyea witnessed little business activity, however, until January 1898, when a renewed 

migration of stampeders brought boom times to the settlement. By April, Dyea had 

become a boisterous, transient aggregation of some 4,000 to 5,000 souls. The town 

64

 Moore, Skagway in Days Primeval. 172-174; Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 80. 

65

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 81-84; Pacific and Arctic Railway and Navigation Company, "Map of 

Pacific and Arctic Railway and Navigation Company's Constructed Line from Harbor at Skaguay Bay to 

Summit of White Pass, Alaska," c. 1900; British Columbia-Yukon Railway, "Map Showing Located Line of 

British Columbia-Yukon Railway from the Summit of White Pass to Lake Bennett, Showing Timber and 

Meadow Lands," c. 1900. Both maps in WP&YR Company Archives, Skagway. 

66

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 92-96; Spude, Skagway, District of Alaska, 11, 41-42; Berton, Klondike 

Fever, 158-161. 
20 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

boasted some 200 businesses, most of which were taverns, restaurants, hotels and supply 

houses.67 

Both towns, situated as they were on the margins of civilized society, soon became 

hotbeds of criminal activity. As one writer phrased it, Skagway was "conceived in 

lawlessness and nurtured in anarchy," while Dyea, not to be outdone, carried on an 

equally sinful if less infamous existence.68 The two towns offered only a meager law 

enforcement apparatus. They shared a series of ineffective deputy marshals, and their 

first commissioner was more interested in financial gain than in the administration of 

evenhanded justice.69 The two towns were typical of frontier communities in that they 

attracted more than the usual share of toughs, scoundrels and other persons of low 

character. The result was what eventually became a well-organized criminal network, 

bent on taking every possible advantage of the incoming prospectors. Jefferson 

Randolph "Soapy" Smith, a con-man from Colorado, arrived in Skagway in October 

1897, and by late January had assumed effective control of the town's underworld. 

Through the first six months of 1898, Smith's status steadily increased, and by July 4 he 

was widely recognized as the "uncrowned king of Skagway." Little was done without his 

knowledge or consent.70 

Soon after the first ships arrived, an enormous rivalry developed between Dyea and 

Skagway. Both vied to be the primary port town, and loudly advertised their advantages 

while vilifying conditions in other areas. In the summer and fall of 1897, Dyea 

appeared to have the upper hand in the contest; it was better known, it was included in 

the gold rush guidebooks, and the Chilkoot Trail was recognized as being the superior 

route to the interior. Skagway, however, soon gained the upper hand because its port 

was superior to that of Dyea. By November 1897, Skagway boasted three docks by 

which ship captains could unload goods and passengers quickly and cheaply. Dyea, on 

the other hand, offered a harbor that dropped off at such a slight gradient that the only 

effective way to reach the high tide line was by lighter or canoe. Given the difficulties 

of transferring their goods across Taiya Inlet, many opted for the Trail of 1897 despite 

its acknowledged faults. Skagway thus ironically benefited in two ways: first, it was 

67

 Frank Norris, "A Directory of Businesses in Dyea, Alaska," in Norris, Dyea-Chilkoot Trail Historic 

Structures Report, draft (hereafter known as Chilkoot HSR), unpub. mss., 1986, KLGO Collection; Harry 

L. Suydam, "Fool's Gold," Alaska Sportsman 8 (April 1942), 12. 

68

 Berton, Klondike Fever, 149; Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 111-113; Frank Berkeley letter, p. 3, 

KLGO Collection. 

69

 Frank Norris, comp., "Officials in the Skagway/Dyea Area During the Gold Rush," 1, KLGO 

Collection. 

70

 Berton, Klondike Fever. 160-161, 340-342, 346-350. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 21_ 

easily accessible by water, and second, the difficulties in leaving town encouraged its 

commercial development.71 

A tragic event that tipped the scales in Skagway's favor was a massive avalanche that 

thundered down onto the Chilkoot Trail on April 3, 1898. Several snowslides 

descended that Palm Sunday, the largest of which began on the east slope of Long Hill, 

less than a mile south of the Scales. Together, the slides killed an estimated 65 

stampeders. Publicity from the slide caused thousands to reconsider a trip over the 

Chilkoot, and cast a pall of gloom over the area for weeks to come.72 

During the winter of 1897-98, a number of towns and camps sprang up along the 

Chilkoot Trail. Five miles north of Dyea, a transient tent camp was established at 

Finnegan's Point. In September 1897, seventy-five were camped at the site. Canyon 

City sprang up at the north end of the Taiya River valley, and by the spring of 1898 its 

tents and shacks supported over a thousand stampeders. Pleasant Camp, a roadhouse 

and camp, was established just north of the Taiya River canyon. The largest trail 

settlement south of Chilkoot Pass, Sheep Camp, grew from two stores in the late 

summer of 1897 to a mile-long tent city, 8,000 strong, the following spring. The Scales 

similarly grew in the spring of 1898 to a cluster of over twenty businesses, but the site 

was so raw and exposed that stampeders erected few tents there.73 

Most stampeders hauled their goods directly from the summit to Lindeman Lake. 

Because of the heavy snow cover—a reported seventy feet of snow fell at the summit 

during the winter of 1897-98~stampeders carried their packs or dragged their sleds 

directly over the string of lakes north of the pass. Because of the downhill slope and 

the relative ease of transportation, only small settlements were established between the 

summit and the southern end of Lindeman Lake. There were one or two restaurants at 

Crater Lake, and short-term camps cropped up at Happy Camp, both ends of Long 

Lake, and at Deep Lake.74 

Large settlements were located at Lindeman and Bennett lakes. They grew quickly 

through the winter, and just before breakup in May 1898 huge tent towns, housing an 

estimated 10,000 stampeders apiece, were clustered around the southern end of both 

71

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 54, 93. 

72

 Ibid., 116-122. 

73

 Norris, Chilkoot HSR, chapters on "Finnegan's Point," "Canyon City," "Pleasant Camp," "Sheep Camp," 

and "The Scales." 

74

 Friesen, The Chilkoot Pass, 93-95, 176; Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 55; KLGO Collection, photos L6, 

L7, L8 and L14; David Neufeld, [various notes and maps regarding historical resources between Chilkoot 

Summit and Stone Crib], KLGO Collection. Mr. Neufeld is the Yukon and western Canada historian for 

Parks Canada in Whitehorse. 
22 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

lakes. Scattered camps were found along the entire shoreline of both lakes, particularly 

in bays and coves. Some camped as far north as the Windy Arm portion of Tagish 

Lake.75 

Transportation Improvements 

In the Skagway area, the winter of 1897-98 similarly brought changes. The Dead Horse 

Trail, bad as it may have been, was mercifully short-lived. With the onset of winter, 

traffic soon dropped off, and by December freezing temperatures allowed stampeders to 

clamber up the frozen bed of the Skagway River.76 

Meanwhile, capitalist George Brackett started building a wagon road to overcome the 

difficulties of the Dead Horse Trail. A former mayor of Minneapolis, Brackett was one 

of several Skagway businessmen that promoted a wagon route over the mountains. 

During the fall of 1897, however, his collaborators slowly fell by the wayside. 

Undaunted, Brackett himself shouldered the financial and technical burden of 

constructing the road.77 Despite delays brought about by weather and poor financing, 

initial work progressed quickly. Commencing on November 8, the first four miles were 

completed in fifteen days, and an additional four miles were almost ready by midDecember.78 

However, he lacked a bridge across the East Fork of the Skagway River. The road—part 

gravel, part corduroy—was completed to White Pass City and opened to traffic in early 

March. Without a bridge, however, traffic continued up the frozen river bed.79 The 

long-awaited bridge was finally installed in mid-April, and with the river breaking up the 

majority of White Pass traffic began to flow over the newly-completed road. Brackett 

fully intended to continue his wagon road to the summit and beyond, but a lack of 

financing forced a halt just north of White Pass City. North of that point, however, he 

added minimal improvements as far as the summit. He installed toll gates at both ends 

of his road, as well as at several intermediate points.80 

75

 KLGO collection, photos CV11, CV12, CV13, CV19; Berton, Klondike Fever. 269-271, 276-277. 

76

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 216. 

77

 Ibid., 199-210. 

78

 Ibid., 210-211. 

79

 Ibid., 216-217. 

80

 Ibid., 212, 217, 219, 220. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 23_ 

Camps and tent cities appeared along the various Skagway Valley trails, just as along 

the Chilkoot. But because the White Pass Route carried fewer people—an estimated 

5,000 to 10,000 during that first winter, compared with 25,000 to 30,000 for the 

Chilkoot—camps were smaller and spread farther apart. In the summer of 1897, the 

Liarsville tent camp sprang up at the base of the hill to Black Lake. Only scattered, 

small clusters of tents were found farther up the trail. The only sizable tent clusters 

were located at the base of Porcupine Hill and at White Pass City.81 

By the spring of 1898, the Liarsville camp had disappeared. In its stead were a series of 

temporary construction camps along the Brackett Road, and occasional stations for the 

major packers. On the upper trail two camps appeared. The Ford was a short-term 

camp located halfway between White Pass City and the summit, and an additional camp 

grew where the Brackett Wagon Road, and later the railroad, crossed over the summit. 

White Pass City, which served as a primary railroad camp as well as the Brackett Wagon 

Road terminus, was probably the largest White Pass Trail camp between Skagway and 

Bennett Lake.82 

The rapid influx of stampeders into the area, and the tremendous demand for carrying 

goods across the passes, engendered a wide variety of technological ideas from incipient 

capitalists. On the Chilkoot side, early ideas centered around the construction of a 

wharf in Dyea. The Skaguay Wharf and Improvement Company planned a small dock 

on the west side of Lynn Canal just south of Dyea, but the idea never got past the 

proposal stage.83 Shortly afterwards, however, the Dyea-Klondike Transportation 

(DKT) Company completed a dock three miles southwest of the gold rush port, and 

blasted out a rough wagon road that connected the dock with downtown Dyea. The 

dock opened in mid-February 1898. It was sparingly used, however, because of its poor 

construction and because of the difficulty in negotiating the wagon road. A far more 

substantial dock was constructed over the next few months. Called the Dyea Wharf, 

Kinney Wharf or Long Wharf, it stretched across the tidal flats south of downtown 

Dyea. The shallow dropoff, which required that the dock be over 7,500 feet long, 

delayed the opening of the dock until mid-May. By the time it opened the gold rush 

had largely run its course, and as a result the dock was seldom used. Most stampeders 

continued to come ashore on scows, canoes and lighters.84 

81

 Ibid., 81-83. 

82

 Minter, The White Pass. 137-139, 270; KLGO collection, photos WM1, BW1, BW12. 

83

 Property Deed Books, Skagway Magistrate's Office, v. 17, p. 39; v. 5, p. 180. 

84

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 105-106; Robert L. Spude, comp., Chilkoot Trail: From Dyea to Summit 

with the '98 Stampeders, Occasional Paper No. 26 (Fairbanks, University of Alaska Cooperative Park Studies 

Unit, 1980), 12-19. 
24 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

To move freight most efficiently north from Dyea, the Chilkoot Railroad and Transport 

(CR&T) Company announced early plans to build a road to Sheep Camp. Soon 

afterwards, they declared themselves on the verge of constructing a railroad as far as 

Canyon City, and in December went so far as to announce completion of the line. No 

such line, however, was ever built. The only manifestation of such a scheme was a 

crude, wood-railed right-of-way for a horse-drawn tram which wound north from Dyea 

to the first river crossing. But the line itself, like the railroad, never came to fruition. 

What the CR&T did construct was a wagon road to Canyon City, which was completed 

in April 1898.85 

North of Canyon City, several schemes were attempted to move freight. The DKT 

Company, in December 1897, proposed to construct a "narrow gauge tramroad with cars 

like those used in the mines" from Dyea to the Scales. From there, they proposed an 

aerial tramway to the summit. The tramway was constructed and opened for business in 

March 1898. The tramroad, however, was never built.86 

Opposing the DKT's plans were those of the Alaska Railroad and Transportation 

(AR&T) Company, an arm of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. The AR&T, like 

the CR&T, originally planned a railway along the Chilkoot; plans called for construction 

from Dyea to a point halfway up Long Hill. No rail line was built, but plans also called 

for an aerial tramway north of the proposed railway terminus. To implement these 

plans, a depot and warehouse was constructed in March and April 1898. By late April, 

the AR&T aerial tram line was open from the depot to the summit of Chilkoot Pass.87 

The most ambitious plans belonged to the Chilkoot Railroad and Transport Company. 

As noted above, original plans called for a railroad or road up much of the Chilkoot 

Trail. Equally grandiose plans called for an aerial tramway over the pass, possibly as far 

as Lindeman Lake. Financial constraints, however, forced the company to construct a 

wagon road only as far as Canyon City, and to retract its proposed plans for a tramway 

beyond Crater Lake. Original plans called for an aerial tramway from Canyon City to 

the summit area to be completed by January 1, 1898, but with the coming of winter 

plans were repeatedly delayed. The line apparently opened in late January for a short 

time, but did not re-open until May 7 or even later.88 The completed line ran in two 

85

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 124; KLGO collection, photos DB1, DB6, DC1; L. C. Wilkes, 

"Packers on the Dyea Trail," Alaska Sportsman 14 (June 1948), 8-9. 

86

 Engineering and Mining Journal, December 11, 1897; Spude, Chilkoot Trail, 199. 

87

 Harley Tuck, Klondike Diary, (Monroe, Wash., the author, 1974), 9-10; Property Deed Books, 

Skagway Magistrate's Office, v. 17, pp. 62, 106, 107, 171. 

88

 "Mrs. Kelsey's Ride Across in the Aerial Tramway," Redwood City Times-Gazette, March 5, 1898; 

Dyea Trail, May 7, 1898; Edward B. Lung, as told to Ella Martinsen, Black Sand and Gold (Portland, 

Binford and Mort, 1956), 385. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 25_ 

sections; one AVz mile loop stretched from Canyon City to Sheep Camp, while a second 

four-mile segment continued north from Sheep Camp to its terminus, one-half mile 

north of the summit.89 

During the spring of 1898, goods were being brought over the passes by a wide variety 

of methods. Some stampeders carried goods on their backs or on sleds. On the 

Chilkoot, some paid Indian packers or college students to haul their freight.90 Others 

had their goods taken by horseback to Sheep Camp, while still others had them taken 

by wagon road to Canyon City. Beyond Canyon City or Sheep Camp, three different 

aerial tramways were available. In addition, several surface trams ran from the Scales 

toward the summit of Chilkoot Pass. On the White Pass Trail, those who packed their 

own goods were supplemented by those who operated pack trains over the route. The 

main route over the mountains was the newly-opened Brackett Wagon Road.91 

Throughout the previous winter, rumors had circulated of proposed rail routes over the 

passes. Early rumors, such as those of the AR&T and the CR&T, had focused on 

Chilkoot Pass; the steep climb from Sheep Camp to the summit, however, forced 

promoters to look elsewhere. In the Skagway Valley, the first serious bid for 

transportation over the pass was the Skagway and Lake Bennett Tramway Company, 

which proposed to construct a horse-drawn tramway through the pass. By the spring of 

1898, however, the company had fallen on hard times, and all it had to show for its 

efforts was a bridge over the Skagway River at the north end of Skagway.92 

In the spring a serious railway bid surfaced. Financiers for the Close Brothers, an 

English investment group, travelled to Skagway to investigate the possibilities of 

constructing a railroad over White Pass. They arrived on April 10. The group, 

composed of Thomas Tancred, Erastus Hawkins and John Hislop, possessed sufficient 

financial resources to build a rail line across the mountains. After looking over the 

local terrain, however, they openly despaired that such a line was technically feasible. 

By coincidence, the trio met Michael Heney, a Canadian construction engineer, at the 

St. James Hotel on April 21. Heney had been surveying in the White Pass area for 

several weeks, and he, unlike the Close Brothers group, was personally convinced that a 

railway could be built to Bennett Lake. The meeting proved to be fortuitous for all 

89

 Spude, Chilkoot Trail. 201-203. 

90

 Archie Satterfield, Chilkoot Pass: the Most Famous Pass in the North (Anchorage, Alaska Northwest, 

1978), 101. 

91

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 127; Spude, Chilkoot Trail, 195-198. 

92

 Minter, The White Pass. 97-98, 102, 156, 191. 
26 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

concerned. Within a fortnight, construction materials began to be ordered for the 

newly-created White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR) railway.93 

Ties and rails began to arrive in Skagway in mid-May 1898, and construction began on 

May 28. At first, construction proceeded quickly. Initial work was conducted up the 

valley from the north end of town, and by mid-June the company was able to lay its line 

down Broadway to the waterfront.94 The first locomotive and cars soon arrived, and 

on July 21, the first WP&YR train chugged up Broadway. It continued on to the end 

of track, four miles up the valley. By September, survey and construction camps 

stretched from Skagway to the top of White Pass. Company officials confidently 

predicted that the line would be completed to Bennett Lake by the onset of winter.95 

As the summer wore on, however, a series of unexpected delays forced postponement of 

progress on the line. Some equipment shortages ensued; more important was a lack of 

available labor. The line could never seem to attract the full complement of workers it 

needed, and to exacerbate the problem, early August brought word of the Atlin gold 

strike, 50 miles northeast of Skagway. Hundreds of workmen, company shovels in hand, 

left the force, most never to return.96 The harshness of the terrain also slowed work, 

for beyond the East Fork bridge the track workers encountered increasingly hostile 

terrain. Despite the mounting problems, the line was opened to Rocky Point (Mile 7.0) 

by August 15, and to Heney Station (Mile 12.4) by mid-September.97 

Winter presented new obstacles. Work slowed as snow began to accumulate on the 

upper reaches of the line. As the amount of daylight decreased and the temperature 

dropped, work performance diminished. By midwinter, laborers were forced to spend 

the majority of their time getting to and from the worksite, shovelling snow and keeping 

warm. Many railroad workers lived in White Pass City that winter; many reached the 

railroad right-of-way near the tunnel site via a steep, winding trail. To ease access 

between Skagway and White Pass City, a short, steep gondola line was built down the 

300-foot slope between Heney Station (at end of track) and the river junction. The 

Brackett Wagon Road bridge, which spanned the Skagway River at this point, provided 

access to the main cluster of tents that comprised White Pass City.98 

93

 Ibid-. 153, 161-165. 

94

 Ibid., 180, 186-189. 

95

 Ibid., 190, 220, 225. 

96

 Ibid., 209, 228-230. 

97

 Ibid., 235, 238. 

98

 Ibid-, 235, 257-258. 
Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History 27_ 

Despite the daunting obstacles, the railroad was completed to the summit of White Pass 

on February 18, 1899. Two days later, the first passenger train moved over the line; a 

summit celebration was held in the sunny, frigid air. The Coast Mountains had, at long 

last, been conquered. But many miles of construction remained." 

Construction work over the next three months was limited to rockwork and blasting in 

the five mile stretch immediately south of Bennett Lake. Spring snowmelt, however, 

allowed resumption of a fast paced construction schedule. Blasting along the length of 

the summit-Bennett segment was followed by the work of the grading crews, and it was 

not until June 21 that the first rails were laid north of the summit. Because all other 

work was already finished, however, the rails were extended quickly. Log Cabin was 

reached by July 1, and five days later they were extended to the shores of Bennett Lake. 

Completion of the line to Whitehorse did not take place until July 29, 1900, over a year 

after the line had reached Bennett.100 

Completion of the Skagway-Bennett line meant that prospectors and shippers, for the 

first time, had fast, efficient transportation available to them from Puget Sound points 

all the way to Dawson City. Completion of the line also tolled the death knell for 

alternative transportation modes across the passes. The Brackett Wagon Road, a 

potentially vexing competitor to the railroad, was bought out on December 1, 1898, and 

in May 1899, the line purchased the combined operations of the three Chilkoot Pass 

aerial tramway lines. The purchases left the White Pass and Yukon Route in an 

enviable position as the controlling agent for all transportation into and out of the 

Yukon and surrounding territories.101 

By the time the railroad reached Bennett, the gold rush was all but over. The tens of 

thousands who had stormed over the passes in the winter of 1897-98 had found, upon 

reaching Dawson, that the gold fields had been completely staked. Good wages were 

available to those willing to work for others. The lure of gold for the taking, however, 

proved illusory. The only ones who grew wealthy were either those on the ground first, 

or those who had the capital to purchase claims or operate businesses.102 

Because opportunities were so limited, those in search of quick fortunes and adventure 

left almost as soon as they came. Dawson's population peaked in the summer of 1898, 

and by the following summer a general exodus began to Nome, Alaska, where thousands 

99

 Ibid-, 266-269. 

100

 Ibid., 308-311, 353-355. 

101

 Ibid., 199, 252, 303-304. 

102

 Berton, Klondike Fever. 300-301; Kathryn Winslow, Big Pan-Out: the Story of the Klondike Gold 

Rush (New York, W. W. Norton, 1951), 170-178. 
28 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

dug for gold from the beach sands.103 During the same period, holders of the most 

valuable Klondike claims sold their properties to corporate interests. Owning large 

blocks of adjacent claims, the corporations proceeded to use increasingly large scale 

methods to process the ore, and by 1900 the individual placer mine had largely given 

way to the hydraulic operation and the dredging company.104 Although the population 

of Dawson fell after 1898, the efficiency of the large-scale operations were such that the 

annual yield of gold rose until 1900. The output of Klondike gold after a few years 

dropped to a fifth of its turn-of-the-century level, but rich returns continued for most of 

the next two decades.105 

103

 Berton, Klondike Fever. 410-413. 

104

 Lewis Green, The Gold Hustlers (Anchorage, Alaska Northwest, 1977), 18, 20, 59. 

105

 Norm Bolotin, Klondike Lost. A Decade of Photographs by Kinsey and Kinsey (Anchorage, Alaska 

Northwest, 1980), 90. This was Volume 7, No. 4 (November 1980) of Alaska Geographic. 
Chapter 2 

Skagway After the Gold Rush 

Skagway's Economy. 1900-1960 

Because it served as the critical transfer point for most passengers and freight going into 

or out of the upper Yukon River valley, Skagway's permanence was assured during the 

years which followed the Klondike gold rush. Like Dawson, however, it waned in 

significance as the gold rush ran its course. From a peak of 8,000 or more in the spring 

of 1898, Skagway's population dropped to slightly over 3,000 in April 1900. The 

number of local residents continued to fall until 1910, when census takers tallied fewer 

than a thousand souls.1 

As Skagway emerged from the fervor of the gold rush, its frontier character began to 

diminish. Clubs, churches, schools, families and other signs of civilized society sprang 

forth. The coming of the railroad, moreover, encouraged the development of a 

relatively steady work force. With the passing of the gold rush went a large number of 

the local supply stores, saloons, hotels and restaurants. The businesses that remained 

were dependent, directly or indirectly, on railroad revenues.2 

Dyea, meanwhile, proceeded to slip into oblivion. Its population, like that of Skagway, 

dropped sharply after the spring of 1898; unlike Skagway, Dyea had no economic base 

to rely on once the gold rush was over. The town's two newspapers, the Dyea Trail and 

the Dyea Press, hung on for several months after the main wave of stampeders had 

headed north. But they, along with most of the other businesses, eventually died and 

their proprietors headed off to Dawson, Skagway or Puget Sound.3 So dramatic was 

the dropoff in business that a visitor in early 1899 noted that Dyea was "the deserted 

city." Even so, the lingering tramway trade allowed the town to boast some 250 

residents as late as March 1900.4 By the following February, however, the tramways 

1

 Spude, Skagway. District of Alaska. 27, 32, 35, 36. 

2

 Berton, Klondike Fever. 358-365; Spude, Skagway. District of Alaska. 60, 62. 

3

 Spude, Chilkoot Trail. 53, 55; Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 273-276. 

4

 U.S. Census Bureau, Twelfth Census of Population. 1900. Alaska, individualized returns; Vol. 5, 

Southern District, Enumeration District #7, pp. 1-11; Daily Alaskan (Skagway), February 7, 1901. 
30 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

were gone and the town's population had dwindled to 71. Two years later only two or 

three residents inhabited the site. If useless for other purposes, the land underneath 

Dyea was sufficiently fertile to be used as farmland, and many of the old buildings were 

torn down to make way for rows of cabbages, turnips and potatoes.5 

As Skagway emerged from the flurry of the gold rush period, its appearance began to 

change. The rough frontier architecture of the gold rush was slowly replaced with more 

substantial buildings, larger and more elegant than their predecessors. Businesses made 

a concerted effort to throw off their frontier appearance, and false fronts, double 

recessed doors and elaborate lathework became commonplace on commercial buildings. 

The appearance of the town's residences improved as well, and intermittent campaigns 

encouraged the dismantling of the many vacant shacks left by the stampeders.6 

The location of the business district also changed during the post-gold rush period. 

From 1897 to 1899, the primary business streets had been Fourth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, 

Sixth Avenue and Broadway Street. Little development took place below Fourth 

Avenue, because occasional high tides required that the more substantial buildings be 

erected on pilings.7 With the completion of the railroad, however, businesses began to 

recognize the importance of being located on Broadway, particularly on lower Broadway 

near the railroad station. Over the next fifteen years, therefore, the town witnessed a 

gradual migration of buildings from the side streets to Broadway and the withering away 

of off-Broadway businesses. As a result of that process, many of the principal buildings 

located along Broadway today have been moved from elsewhere; notable examples are 

the Red Onion Saloon, the Golden North Hotel, the Pack Train Saloon, and the Eagles' 

Hall. With rare exceptions, no new buildings were erected on Broadway after 1904. By 

1915, the town's realignment was complete. During the past 70 years, a few buildings 

have burned or been demolished, and several others have been constructed, but even so, 

the Broadway business district of 1915 largely resembles that seen by today's visitors.8 

With its combination of history, natural beauty and frontier architecture, Skagway 

quickly became an important stopping point for Alaska's tourists. Southeastern Alaska 

was a popular area for excursion ships as early as the mid-1880s, and when the gold 

rush exploded into prominence the ships that plied the Inside Passage route merely 

5

 Robert D. Jones, "A Municipal Farmer," Alaska-Yukon Magazine, August 1907, 488-492; Mrs. C. R. 

Miller, "Alaska's Deserted City and its Flourishing Rival," Leslie's Weekly, August 2, 1906, 112. 

6

 Spude, Skagway, District of Alaska. 65; Alaska Federation of Women's Clubs, 11936-1937 Year Book), 

99. 

7

 Spude, Skagway, District of Alaska, 30, 65. 

8

 Ibid., 65, 142-161. Because of the geological process of glacial rebound, Skagway's land is rising about 

one-half inch per year throughout the twentieth century. No high tides were known to intrude onto Broadway 

after 1908. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 31_ 

added an extra day onto their itinerary in order to see the new, bustling town.9 The 

first known tourists arrived in Skagway in July 1898, when they joined local residents in 

celebrating the first train to operate on the new White Pass line. By the following year, 

the Chamber of Commerce was urging local residents to prepare for the upcoming 

tourist season, and the first Skagway Clean-up Day was scheduled to beautify the streets 

and yards.10 

With only a single excursion boat plying the waters of southeast Alaska, Skagway 

tourism remained at a low level during the 1900-1910 period. Just before World War I, 

however, the number of ships (and tourists) steadily increased, and Skagway developed 

a number of attractions to lure the summer trade. Beginning in 1906, promotional 

pamphlets extolled the town's many flower gardens, and tourists were seen visiting the 

grave of "Soapy" Smith as early as 1908. During the same period, tourists began 

chartering trains to the top of White Pass, and by the eve of World War I the day-long 

excursion to Bennett had become a popular excursion.11 

To extend the time that tourists spent in the north country, the WP&YR began issuing 

elaborate brochures that invited tourists to visit the Canadian interior. The publication 

of these booklets commenced shortly after the gold rush subsided. As an effusive 1913 

brochure intoned, "to go to Skagway and not see the interior is like going to the 

threshold of a fairyland and foregoing all the interest and enchantment to be enjoyed 

within the magic region."12 The most common destinations were Whitehorse, Dawson, 

Atlin, and Ben-My-Chree, the latter being a homestead at the south end of Tagish 

Lake. By the advent of World War I, tourism was an important secondary industry; as 

local tour guide Martin Itjen told visitors to the Skagway railroad yards, "all the people 

in this town who do not work the tourists work here."13 

The fortunes of the WP&YR were closely tied to the status of the Yukon economy and, 

to a lesser extent, to the number of tourists streaming north. The rate of gold 

9

 Ted C. Hinckley, "The Inside Passage: A Popular Gilded Age Tour," Pacific Northwest Quarterly 56 

(April 1965), 69-71. 

10

 Daily Alaskan (Skaguay), July 25, 1898; Daily Alaskan (Skagway), May 10, 1899. 

11

 Frank Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun: The Tourist in Early Alaska (Anchorage, Alaska Historical 

Cornrnission Studies in History #170, 1985), 33; White Pass and Yukon Route, "A Tour Through the Land 

of Nightless Days," c. 1906, 3, in WP&YR Collection, Yukon Archives; Daily Alaskan (Skagway), June 23, 

1908; July 20, 1908. 

12

 White Pass and Yukon Route, "Travels in Alaska and the Yukon Territory," 1913, in WP&YR 

Collection. 

13

 White Pass and Yukon Route, "A Handbook of Vacation Trips in Alaska, Atlin and the Yukon on the 

White Pass and Yukon Route," 1928, in WP&YR Collection; Martin Itjen, The Story of the Tour on the 

Skagway, Alaska Street-Car (Skagway?, the author, 1938), 73. 
32 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

production in the Dawson area stayed high through World War I, and the seasonal 

movement of prospectors, miners and transportation personnel were key to the success 

of the line. But the sinking of the Princess Sophia in October 1918 cost 353 lives, many 

of whom worked for the railroad or for Yukon mines, and business recovered slowly 

thereafter. In the 1920s gold production dropped off, but was replaced in part by the 

movement of silver from the mines at Elsa and Mayo. Increased tourism also helped fill 

in the void from the old-time prospecting trade.14 

The early 1930s proved difficult for everyone. Both mineral production and tourism 

dropped off, so the railroad fell back to offering two trains per week between Skagway 

and Whitehorse. The railroad did not significantly reduce its personnel, but wages were 

reduced and some administrative personnel were forced to mortgage their homes or 

skip paychecks in efforts to economize. The middle and late 1930s brought increased 

tourism to Skagway, and they also brought additional sailings of Canadian Pacific and 

Canadian National ships. As a result, railroad passenger traffic ballooned. Freight 

tonnage, however, remained anemic. Tonnage in 1940 remained less than that recorded 

in the late 1920s.15 

The coming of World War II brought drastic changes, both to the railroad and to 

Skagway. Tourism, a highly visible if minor element in the local economy, stopped 

altogether. More important to the town was the U.S. Army's decision to build the 

Alcan Highway from Dawson Creek, B.C. to Fairbanks, Alaska. The construction which 

followed that decision turned Skagway into a major supply point, inasmuch as the 

railroad was the only logical access route to the proposed highway right-of-way aside 

from the terminus points. The Army further decided to build a major pipeline 

connecting Skagway with the Norman Wells oil fields, which were located along the 

Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories, 500 miles northeast of Skagway. To 

implement these projects, the Army sent some 5,000 troops to Skagway. Some troops 

took over the operation of the WP&YR, and the newly-designated Military Railway 

Service often ran up to twelve trains per day over the line. Others constructed two 

barge unloading docks, transferred highway construction materials from ships to the 

railroad, or engaged in pipeline work. Both the highway and pipeline were completed 

by the end of 1943. Troops remained, however, until early 1946.16 

14

 W. D. Gordon, WP&YR River Division, "Superintendent's Annual Reports on Operations," 1923, 

pamphlet II-l, WP&YR Collection, Yukon Archives. The effect of the Princess Sophia's sinking on the north 

country's economy is explored at length in Ken Coates and William R. Morrison's The Sinking of the Princess 

Sophia; Taking the North Down With Her (Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press), 1991. 

15

 Cy Martin, Gold Rush Narrow Gauge (Corona del Mar, Calif., Trans-Anglo Books, 1974), 53. 

16

 Martin, Gold Rush Narrow Gauge, 54-60; Stan Cohen, Gold Rush Gateway; Skagway and Dyea 

(Missoula, Mont., Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., 1986), 104-113. Martin (p. 60) notes that on one extraordinary 

day, August 4, 1943, the MRS ran 38 trains over the line. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 33_ 

The war years had a major impact on Skagway's architectural composition. Between 

1908 and the day of Pearl Harbor attack, only two new residential or business buildings 

had been constructed. (The National Bank of Alaska office was built in 1916, while the 

Presbyterian manse, across the street from the church, was constructed by parishioners 

in the summer of 1941.) The town's stable population and the surfeit of gold rush-era 

buildings were largely responsible for the lack of new construction, but the refusal of the 

National Bank of Alaska (the town's only bank) to provide home loans to Skagway 

residents also played a role. But with the coming of the soldiers, scores of quonset huts 

and ex-Civilian Conservation Corps wooden barracks were built on whatever vacant lots 

could be secured. After the war, the military authorities dismantled and removed most 

of the quonset huts. The various barrack buildings, however, were given to Skagwayarea veterans and remained in town. For decades afterwards, barracks remained an 

important visual element of the townscape; even today, the majority of Skagway's 

buildings date from either the 1897-1908 period or the 1942-1945 period.17 

The end of the war left Skagway with more than just a surplus of barracks buildings. It 

also left the railroad with a large number of relatively new engines, yard buildings and 

freight cars (although many were in poor shape after the rugged use sustained during 

the war). Another change brought about by the war was the removal of trains from 

Broadway. The tracks located adjacent to the eastern bluff, which had existed since the 

gold rush period, became a passenger route for the first time. In order to access the 

depot, new tracks were built from the east bluff to the station's south side. The new 

tracks were used, and the Broadway tracks were effectively abandoned, in 1944. 

Removal of the Broadway tracks, however, did not take place until several years 

later.18 

The sustained prosperity following World War II helped the line recover its battered 

equipment and roadbed, and assured as well its long term profitability. The 

construction of the Alcan Highway, and other wartime developments, left the Yukon 

with over twice its prewar population. In Whitehorse alone, the population shot up 

from 300 to a peak of 5,000. The 1952 relocation of the territorial capital from Dawson 

City was a significant factor in the population increase. The development of extensive 

ore bodies over the next twenty years—Clinton Creek, Cassiar, Keno Hill, Watson Lake, 

17

 Barbara Kalen to author, November 17, 1994. 

18

 Martin, Gold Rush Narrow Gauge, 64; Helen Clark, interview with author, Skagway, March 13, 1985; 

Skagway City Council minutes, July 17, 1944 and August 7, 1944, in Trail of '98 Museum Collection. Phillip 

Allen, in One Came Late (Edmonton, the author, 1992) has several photographs showing the tracks still in 

place as of September 1947, and the November 3, 1947 council minutes also note that the tracks were still 

there. By May 1952, however, council minutes suggest that tracks had already been removed as far north as 

Eleventh Avenue and that the WP&YR was preparing to remove still more trackage. 
34 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

and others-further brightened the economic picture in the Yukon, in northern British 

Columbia, and in Skagway.19 

Tourism was another factor contributing to the economy, in Alaska as well as the 

Yukon. By the late 1940s, more tourists than ever before were traveling to Alaska and 

the Yukon. The Alcan Highway provided a new access route to the interior. Tourists 

hoping to visit southeastern Alaska found the going more difficult because the Alaska 

Steamship Company stopped carrying passenger traffic in the fall of 1954, in large part 

because the unionization of longshoremen raised port costs. But the Canadian Pacific 

and Canadian National ships, continued bringing tourists and residents to the area. 

(The Jones Act normally restricted foreign vessels from carrying passengers between two 

U.S. ports; the lack of competition, however, allowed the CPR and CNR to circumvent 

Jones Act stipulations.) Skagway continued to be served by the Prince George of the 

CNR, the Princess Louise of the CPR, and other Canadian-registry ships.20 Two 

Alaska Cruise Line ships, the Glacier Queen and the Yukon Star, began serving 

Skagway in the summer of 1957. The only other ship which regularly served the port 

was the M/V Chilkoot a small, privately operated ferry which began operating between 

Skagway, Haines, and Juneau in 1949. The owner of the Chilkoot sold out to the 

territory in 1951. The Chilkoot ran until 1957, when it was replaced by the M/V 

Chilkat.21 

Post-Gold Rush Use of Dyea and the Chilkoot Trail 

As noted above, Skagway remained active after the gold rush because of the successful 

construction of the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad. Dyea, however, declined 

quickly after its April 1898 peak, and by 1903 the primary land use at the lower end of 

the Taiya River valley was agriculture. For the first time in hundreds of years, the 

valley was no longer a commercial transportation corridor. For the next sixty years, the 

Chilkoot Trail corridor existed in name only; the existing pathway fell into disuse and it 

remained in an unmaintained state. Access to the trail remained elusive as well; no 

road connected Skagway with Dyea, and small boats found it treacherous to travel by 

water between the gold rush-era town and its deserted rival. 

19

 Edward McCourt, The Yukon and Northwest Territories (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1969), 29-

30. 

20

 Mary J. Barry, "Alaska Steamship Company: A Legacy of Nostalgia," in Transportation in Alaska's 

Past (Anchorage, Office of History and Archaeology, Publication No. 30, 1982), 287; E. Theed to 

WP&YR Employees, December 6, 1955, in Parks Canada Collection, Whitehorse; Barbara Kalen to 

author, November 17, 1994; Carl Mulvihill to author, December 5, 1994. 

21

 "The Alaska Marine Highway System," Alaska Review of Business and Economic Conditions 7 

(October 1970), 3; Carl Mulvihill to author, December 5, 1994. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 55 

Many people, however, traveled up and down the Taiya River valley during the first six 

decades of the twentieth century. In 1906, for example, an international survey team 

ascended the valley to the U.S.-Canada frontier in order to erect boundary monuments. 

They found the trail passable, although bridges along the route had been washed away. 

After that, local residents made many trips over the route. Between 1910 and 1925, 

Skagway resident George Rapuzzi made four sojourns over the trail, one of them being 

a 1924 trip with a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film crew. At that time, the wagon road 

between Dyea and Canyon City was still easily visible; Rapuzzi himself cleared the road 

in order to ease the carriage of film supplies to Sheep Camp. Another Chilkoot hiker 

during the period was Florence Clothier, who ascended the pass in 1928. She spent 

four days on the U.S. side of the trail, and spent the intervening nights in abandoned 

cabins at Finnegan's Point, Canyon City, and Sheep Camp, respectively.22 

During the 1930s, the Dyea area became a popular picnic area with local residents, who 

boated to the area. On the Chilkoot Trail, parties of individual hikers were 

supplemented by those that accompanied Right Reverend G. Edgar Gallant, the 

longtime priest and superintendent of Skagway's new (1931) St. Pius X Mission. 

Gallant led several groups of students over the pass during the decade. In 1940 the 

Civilian Conservation Corps spent some time in the Dyea area; participants refurbished 

both the Dyea (Native) Cemetery and the Slide Cemetery, repainting the headboards at 

both cemeteries. Some may also have climbed over the nearby Chilkoot. Shortly 

afterward, the coming of World War II brought a large number of soldiers to Skagway. 

Some of them sought out the Dyea as a picnicking and hunting area. Others doubtless 

wanted to ascend Chilkoot Pass. How many made the trip, however, is unknown.23 

Homesteaders had lived in the Dyea area, on an intermittent basis, since the gold rush 

period. The lack of access, however, prevented all but the most self-sufficient from 

living there. By 1932, nine families were homesteading there, and in October of that 

year they petitioned the government to construct a road to the valley from Skagway.24 

Officials from the Forest Service, the Bureau of Public Roads, and the Alaska Road 

Commission all denied the petitioners' request; the ARC did, however, provide 

sufficient funds to allow for the clearing of a hiking trail which connected Skagway with 

22

 Robert L. Spude, "Historic Use of the Chilkoot Trail, Alaska," data compiled for BLM Case File 

AA-37758, KLGO (Anchorage, NPS, March 1984), 6-8. 

23

 Robert L. Spude, "Historic Use of the Chilkoot Trail, Alaska," 8-10; Carl Mulvihill to author, 

December 5, 1994. 

24

 Oren Kincaid and Harriet Pullen to [Charles S.] Flory [Regional Forester], October 29, 1932; John 

J. Chambers, etc. to Flory, October 29, 1932; both in "Dyea Road" file, in Box 1, Program Planning and 

Research Correspondence, 18947-1958, RG 30 (Bureau of Public Roads/Alaska Road Commission), 

NARA ANC. 
36 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

the Taiya River.25 Three years later, the Skagway Chamber of Commerce again 

suggested the construction of a road to Dyea, but the road commission curtly replied 

that it had no funds to spare for "tourist roads."26 

The road project finally got off the ground in 1940. Ernest Gruening, who had been 

appointed Alaska's governor in 1939, recommended the idea to the Territorial Road 

Board, and in May 1940, ARC engineers were dispatched to the area for a preliminary 

survey.27 By August, an engineer had estimated that the entire 8.5 mile road, from 

Skagway to Dyea, would cost $257,500. Meanwhile, the ARC, having been given 

$27,000 for Dyea Road work, made plans for the summer construction season. Work 

proceeded slowly due to a lack of equipment, but by mid-September local foreman J. 

Ludwig Frolander and his crew had completed 2.3 miles of gravel road. Dyea Road, by 

now, extended all the way from its turnoff from the main road to its intersection with 

the Skagway Alpine Club's AB Mountain Trail.28 

After the 1940 season, work continued on the Dyea Road project. By the following 

April, the Army had made it known that it was proposing to construct an airfield on the 

Dyea flats, because it was the only place in the Skagway area where a facility fitting the 

Army's needs could be built. Perhaps as a result, Gruening insisted that $25,000 be 

allotted that year for the project.29 Frolander, supplemented by the U.S. Army 18th 

Engineers, completed only a half mile of road that year because "practically every foot is 

heavy rock work with no choice for evading it." By the end of the 1942 season, the road 

had been extended to the head of Long Bay.30 

25

 Royal R. Pullen (Lead, S.D.) to ARC, March 22, 1934; Ike P. Taylor to Pullen, April 5, 1934; 

Taylor to J. Ludwig Frolander, February 15, 1935; all in "Dyea Road" file, NARA ANC. No funds, 

however, were granted for a pedestrian bridge to cross the Taiya. 

26

 W. C. Blanchard to Taylor, May 25, 1937; Taylor to Blanchard, June 28, 1937; both in "Dyea Road" 

file, NARA ANC. 

27

 Walter W. Sipprell to Taylor, January 30, 1940; Hawley Sterling (ARC) to Taylor, May 7, 1940 in 

"Dyea Road" file. 

28

 Taylor to Col. Atkins, May 11, 1940; Frolander to Sterling, May 31, 1940 (telegram); "Engineer's 

Estimate for Skagway Highway, Skagway-Dyea Section," August 20, 1940; Frolander to Taylor, December 

2, 1940; G. H. Skinner to Gruening, June 20, 1941; all in "Dyea Road" file. Frolander, the local road 

foreman, told local residents that there were no funds available for new road construction. Gruening, 

therefore, convinced the ARC to build the road using maintenance funds. Carl Mulvihill to author, 

December 5, 1994. 

29

 Ruth Hampton to Taylor, April 19, 1941; Taylor to Frolander, April 19, 1941; both in "Dyea Road" 

file. 

30

 J. G. Shepard to Taylor, April 27, 1941; Taylor to Gruening, July 11, 1941, in "Dyea Road" file; 

Alaska Road Commission, Annual Report for 1941, 1942, and 1943, all on page 7; Carl Mulvihill to 

author, December 5, 1994. After 1941, no further word was heard about the proposed Dyea airport. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 37 

Thereafter, road construction continued in small increments. Half-mile sections of road 

were completed in 1943 and 1944; a mile was completed in 1945, and 0.6 miles of new 

road was finished in 1946.31 By the fall of 1946, the road had been completed far 

enough that the four Dyea homesteading families—those of Wesley Patterson, Kenneth 

Lamoreaux, Alfred Nelson, and Malcolm Moe—began to use the road to go to and from 

Skagway. But because the road had not yet reached the flats, all four homesteaders 

could drive to their homesteads only at low tide or over the ice.32 That problem, 

however, was soon overcome. In 1947, the ARC extended the road another 0.3 miles, 

and the following April the agency erected the 200-foot steel bridge over the Taiya 

River. That same year, the road was completed all the way to West Creek. Ceremonies 

dedicating the new bridge took place on September 2, 1948. Governor Ernest 

Gruening, whose efforts were largely responsible for the completion of both the road 

and bridge, attended the dedication ceremony.33 

The completion of the road stimulated new homesteading in the Dyea area and opened 

up a new recreational area for Skagway residents.34 It also promised to increase the 

number of Chilkoot Trail hikers. In anticipation of new hikers, the Territory of Alaska 

hired four Skagway-area residents to rough out a recreational trail from Dyea to the top 

of Chilkoot Pass. (That trail used the present-day "Saintly Hill" which is the bane of so 

many Chilkoot hikers. The trail in that area, however, had probably been created by 

Dyea resident Al Nelson a decade earlier.) It is not known how successful the trail 

clearing effort was in stimulating trail use. Several local residents, however, took 

advantage of it. Wes Patterson, for example, hiked the trail a total of seven times 

during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The names of others who crossed during that 

period are inscribed on the walls of the so-called "trappers' cabin" at the south end of 

Lindeman Lake.35 

31

 Frolander to Taylor, November 27, 1944, in "Dyea Road" file; Alaska Road Commission, Annual 

Report for 1944 through 1947, all on page 7. 

32

 Wesley W. Patterson, et. al., to ARC, September 30, 1946; Frolander to Taylor, November 3, 1946; 

both in "Dyea Road" file. 

33

 ARC, Annual Report for 1948, 8; Chuck and Helen Clark, interview with author, March 13, 1985; 

Frolander to Taylor, September 2, 1948; R. J. DeLaHunt to H. B. Schultz, September 29, 1952; both in 

"Dyea Road" file. 

34

 As many longtime residents have noted, the completion of the road made it easier for Skagway 

residents to scour the old townsite, and the trail, for bottles and other historical relics. 

35

 Spude, "Historic Use of the Chilkoot Trail, Alaska," 10-11; Edward A. Hosford, interview by author, 

June 7 and 9, 1986, in Klondike Gold Rush NHP Administrative History Collection (hereafter known as 

AHC). The "trappers' cabin" is near the lakeshore within the old Lindeman City townsite, between 

present-day Upper Cabin and Lower Cabin. 
38 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

The postwar period also witnessed a series of logging operations in the lower Taiya 

River valley. The White Pass and Yukon Route needed a source of lumber for wharf 

pilings, bridge timbers, and switch ties. In response, local resident Edward A. Hosford 

formed the Skagway Lumber Company. In 1946 or 1947, he and Wes Patterson built a 

cabin three miles upriver from Dyea. The construction of a mill, and the removal of 

lumber, began shortly after the completion of the Taiya River bridge. Timber cutting 

operations continued on a year-round basis until 1956. Hosford soon bulldozed a road 

from Dyea north to Finnegan's Point. During his eight or nine years of operation, he 

removed most of the mature spruce forest between Finnegan's Point and the mouth of 

West Creek.36 Later, during the early 1960s, Hosford contracted with Mrs. Mark R. 

Noyd, the owner of the Pullen and Matthews homesteads, and logged most of the Taiya 

River valley south of West Creek. (He avoided the Dyea townsite, however, because 

the area contained few trees of commercial size.) Finally, in the late 1960s, Hosford 

contracted with the State of Alaska to log spruce in the West Creek drainage.37 

The completion of Dyea Road, and its de facto extension to Finnegan's Point, rekindled 

the idea of an airport on Dyea flats. Skagway citizens, at this time, were demanding a 

longer runway in order to accommodate a new generation of Alaska Coastal Airline 

craft. A few bureaucrats apparently preferred a Dyea location, but the Skagway City 

Council, in September 1949, voted down the idea, opting instead to locate the new 

airfield in Skagway. Soon afterward, construction work began at the present airport site 

west of Alaska Street.38 

The existence of a road to Dyea also stimulated local boosters to consider new highway 

routes. In the fall of 1949, for example, the Skagway Chamber of Commerce began to 

push for a road from Skagway to Haines. Both the Skagway Chamber and the Haines 

36

 The company constructed at least two pile bridges across the Taiya River and another over West 

Creek. Its first Taiya River bridge was located just north of the mouth of West Creek, while a later 

bridge was located just north of the Patterson homestead. Both bridges were washed away, and today 

almost no trace remains of either one. As noted in Chapter 8, Hosford's West Creek bridge was built by 

the state forest division and remained open until it was closed by the state in June 1988. It was rebuilt 

three years later, and it remains open to vehicular traffic. Ed Hanousek, Sr., who homesteaded on land 

north of West Creek, built a predecessor to Hosford's bridge 1000 feet east of it during the 1950s; it was 

ordered torn down shortly after Hosford's bridge was completed. Skagway News, July 8, 1988, 3. 

37

 Edward Hosford interview; Edward A. Hosford to Ike P. Taylor, October 23, 1948; Taylor to 

Hosford, October 26, 1948; John C. Fox to William J. Niemi, November 25, 1953; Niemi to Fox, July 19, 

1954; all in "Dyea Road" file. 

38

 The previous airport had been located between Main and Alaska streets north of Thirteenth 

Avenue. Skagway City Council Minutes, September 23, 1949, in Trail of '98 Museum Collection. 
(top) Martin Itjen, the owner and operator of the famed "Skaguay Street-Car," was wellknown to Alaska tourists between the two world wars, (bottom) During World War II, 

the U.S. Army and its contractors invaded Skagway. It operated the WP&YR railroad 

and the docks, and it built barracks and other buildings on scattered vacant lots throughout town. This photo, taken on Memorial Day 1943, looks east along Third Avenue 

from the roof of the Golden North Hotel. 

KLGO SC #772 (top); KLGO SC #1216 (bottom) 
(top) In 1948, Edward Hosford began logging the timber in the valley north of Dyea. He 

abandoned the area in 1956. In late September 1971, when this photo was taken, the 

main buildings in the logging camp were still largely intact, (bottom) Harriet Pullen in 

the yard of the Pullen House. During the 1920s, tourism to Skagway grew significantly, 

and the Pullen House became one of the best known hostelries in the territory. By the 

1950s, both the hotel and her museum collection were being recognized as valuable historical assets. 

Theodore R. Merrell photo, KLGO PC (top); KLGO SC #766 (bottom) 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 39 

Common Council passed resolutions supporting such a construction effort.39 A year 

later, the Skagway Common Council passed a similar resolution, requesting the Alaska 

Road Commission to construct a road from Dyea to the Alaska Highway. But John R. 

Noyes, Alaska's Commissioner of Roads, denied the various requests. He noted that he 

had flown over the area in a search for possible connecting roads but concluded that a 

road to Haines would be too expensive for the ARC's limited budget. A road via 

Canada, moreover, would be impossible for political reasons.40 

The Chamber of Commerce, undaunted, next suggested that the road from Dyea be 

extended to Burro Creek. (This recreational area, which had once sported a popular 

dance pavilion, was on the west side of Taiya Inlet; it was two miles southwest of 

Skagway and five miles south of the Dyea road terminus.) The ARC, however, refused 

to back the idea, because the benefits of the road would be entirely local.41 

During the summer of 1952, the Aluminum Company of America announced its 

intention to build a smelter in the Dyea area (see below), and on the heels of that 

announcement local boosters were given renewed hope that a road would be extended 

beyond Dyea. Those hopes, however, slowly faded, and by January 1953 the promise of 

additional road funds in relation to the proposed aluminum plant had been retracted.42 

Highway Construction in the Skagway River Valley 

As noted above, Skagway residents began to lobby for a road to Dyea in the early 1930s. 

Fifteen years later, their efforts finally paid off. Their efforts to construct a road to 

Carcross and Whitehorse began even earlier and proved far more frustrating. 

Local citizens first became interested in the construction of a road over White Pass 

shortly after the Klondike gold rush had run its course. In 1905, citizens met to plan a 

road that would go up the Skagway Valley to White Pass, then on to Whitehorse. 

Contacts were made with Col. Wilds P. Richardson of the Alaska Road Commission, C. 

39

 George Sundborg to R. A. Smithson, January 16, 1950, in TR-3 (1949-51), Series 53, RG 314, 

Alaska State Archives (ASA); Skagway Chamber of Commerce resolution, December 1, 1949; Haines 

Common Council resolution, December 19, 1949; both in "Skagway-Dyea" file, Box 77, Project 

Correspondence, 1923-1960, RG 30, NARA ANC. 

40

 Skagway City Resolution, November 16, 1950; Noyes to Morgan Reed, December 4, 1950; both in 

"Dyea Road" file. 

41

 Elizabeth Selmer to John R. Noyes, January 22, 1951; Noyes to Skagway Chamber of Commerce, 

January 26, 1951, in "Dyea Road" file. 

42

 John C. Fox to Chief, Operations Division, August 29, 1952; ARC Headquarters to Fox, January 5, 

1953; both in "Dyea Road" file. 
40 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

V. X. Molyneaux of the Road Commission in northern British Columbia, and Robert 

Lowe of Whitehorse. All three were initially enthusiastic about the plan, but 

Richardson lost interest and the plan was dropped.43 

In 1912 or 1913, local citizens again contacted Richardson, who by now was a major in 

the ARC. Richardson promised that he would build the road, so a survey was effected 

and in 1914 a construction gang built a road three miles up the west side of the valley. 

Road work stopped just beyond Milepost 4 of the railroad. (Until 1938, the railroad 

crossed over the Skagway River near the White Pass shops, ascended the valley for 

three miles, then crossed the valley again near the site of Boulder station.) Somewhat 

later, local resident Charles Nye extended the road for another quarter mile; he did so 

in hopes that he might more easily develop a hydroelectric site on the Skagway River 

just above the confluence of the Porcupine River.44 

Local residents underwent another round of frustration in the early 1920s. Several of 

them contacted officials from the Bureau of Public Roads about the proposed road. 

The BPR responded by conducting another survey, and with the help of Delegate Dan 

Sutherland, the Department of Agriculture allotted $95,000 for the project, a sum 

deemed sufficient to construct the road up to Clifton Station, and perhaps as far as 

Glacier Station. The appropriation, however, was inexplicably diverted to other 

projects, and no construction work took place as a result.45 

Beginning in 1923, local townspeople also began to petition for the construction of a 

road up the Skagway River's east fork to "S" Glacier. Alaska Road Commission 

representatives surveyed the route, but nothing became of the plans.46 The $100,000 

road might never have left the drawing board but for E. W. Rasmuson, the Skagway 

banker, and Mayor W. J. Mulvihill. In July 1933, they met with various ARC officials 

on the road project. A month later, they informed the ARC that 70 men were living in 

town with no means of sustenance, and unless they were provided work they would soon 

be a burden on the town. Given that ultimatum, Governor John Troy approved the 

expenditure of $25,000, sufficient to hire a 73-man crew for two months. By October 1 

the project was underway, and by mid-December visitors could drive almost all the way 

43

 Joseph J. F. Ward, "Skagway Highway Project" (unpub. mss., 1932), KLGO Collection. 

44

 Ibid. 

45

 Ibid. 

46

 See untitled packet of material in Box 26, Program Planning and Research Correspondence, 1894?-

1958, RG 30, NARA ANC. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 41_ 

to the East Fork railway bridge by using the old Brackett Wagon Road in combination 

with the newly-constructed right-of-way.47 

Given the funding levels of the fall of 1933, the Denver Glacier road would have been 

completed in a few short years. But no new appropriations came, and by 1937 the 

project had been abandoned. The southern end of the project—that portion which had 

once been the Brackett Wagon Road—was converted to railroad right-of-way in 1938. 

The remaining right-of-way has, over the years, melded back into the surrounding forest, 

although today's springtime visitor can still see it from the Klondike Highway.48 

The idea of a road up the Skagway Valley lay moribund during the 1940s. On the 

Canadian side of the pass, however, the war brought new road construction efforts. In 

conjunction with Alcan Highway supply efforts, an all-season road was built from 

Carcross to Whitehorse and from Carcross east to Jake's Corner. In addition, the 

decade brought renewed activity to the old Venus Mine site, 13 miles south of Carcross 

along Tagish Lake's Windy Arm. The mine was supplied by a road which parallelled 

the lake shore.49 

During the early 1950s, the Skagway Chamber of Commerce began to push for a series 

of new roads out of the Skagway area. In 1949 and 1950, as noted above, the Chamber 

had lobbied for a road to Haines, and later for a road to the Alaska Highway. Those 

were followed, in January 1951, by a call for a road to Burro Creek. Therefore, it came 

as no surprise to the ARC, or to others in the territory, that the Skagway Common 

Council in March requested the territory's assistance and funds to construct a highway 

to Carcross. Skagway's interest was passed down to Juneau where the House 

Committee on Judiciary and Federal Relations sponsored House Memorial 51, which 

urged 

that the appropriate agencies of the government of the United States 

immediately begin surveys for a highway designed to connect Skagway, 

Alaska with the Alaska Highway via Carcross and Whitehorse; that 

construction be commenced at the earliest feasible date and that 

negotiations be instituted with the appropriate Canadian officials for the 

47

 E. W. Rasmuson to Ike Taylor (ARC), August 21, 1933; W. J. Mulvihill to Gov. John W. Troy 

(telegram), August 31, 1933; W. J. Mulvihill to John W. Troy, C. H. Flory, and I. P. Taylor, December 15, 

1933; all in File 15-4-4 (1933-52), RG 101, ASA (on MF Roll 232, NARA ANC). 

48

 The old road cut is located approximately 100 feet above the WP&YR tracks between mileposts 4 

and 5. ARC, Annual Report for 1934 (p. 12), 1935 (p. 33), and 1938 (p. 33); W. C. Blanchard to Ike P. 

Taylor, May 25, 1937, in "Skagway-Dyea Road" files, RG 30, NARA ANC. 

49

 Lynn Canal News. May 21, 1981, 6. 
42 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

survey and construction of the portions of said highway lying within 

Canada.50 

The memorial, which was stimulated by activities surrounding the proposed YukonTaiya hydroelectric project, was rushed through the Alaska House. It passed 

unanimously and was signed by Governor Gruening on March 19. The proposed route 

was to ascend the west bank of the Skagway River to a crossing of the river and railroad 

near the Glacier station house; it would then ascend the Skagway River valley and cross 

over Warm Pass before continuing on to Carcross. The route was remarkable in that it 

diverged significantly from the Brackett Wagon Road or other gold rush-era routes; it 

also bore little resemblance to the route which was constructed during the 1970s.51 

Few outside Skagway, however, were interested in constructing such a road. Edward P. 

Chester, an assistant to Governor Gruening, took the recently-passed memorial to a 

transportation meeting in Vancouver, B.C. Chester presented the memorial to E. C. 

Carson, British Columbia's Minister for Public Works. Carson was polite but firm. As 

Chester noted, "He appreciated my views; but that he could not see any immediate 

prospect for such a road."52 

Alaskans refused to get discouraged by Carson's lack of interest. In early June, the 

Skagway Common Council passed a resolution calling for the Warm Pass road; the 

resolution cited ten reasons justifying its construction. The resolution, however, ran into 

a solid wall of opposition from both U.S. and Canadian interests. E. L. Bartlett, 

Alaska's delegate to Congress, responded that such a road would need the approval of 

both the ARC and the military. But military sponsorship would be unlikely because of 

the existence of both the White Pass railroad and the Haines Road.53 Joseph Flakne, 

from the Interior Department's Alaska Branch, noted that "It is unlikely ... that U.S. 

funds can be made available until Canada agreed to build the section of the route which 

will come under its jurisdiction," and John F. Walker, who was British Columbia's 

Minister of Mines, told a Skagway resident that "to be quite frank, this Department is 

more interested in other access routes through the Alaska Panhandle than the one from 

50

 House Memorial 51, in Alaska House Journal, 1951, pp. 793, 1233-34. 

51

 George Sundborg to Files, March 16, 1951; Sundborg to Kent Fuller, March 26, 1951; both in File 

TR-3 (1949-51), Series 53, RG 314 (ADB), ASA. 

52

 Sundborg to Kent Fuller (ARC/Skagway), March 26, 1951, in TR-3 (1949-51), Series 53, RG 314, 

ASA; Chester to O. P. Flynn (Skagway), April 20, 1951, in File 18-2-e (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. 

53

 Morgan Reed to Gruening, June 6, 1951; E. L. Bartlett to Mrs. Osborne Selmer, June 11, 1951; 

both in File 18-2-e (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 43 

Skagway to Whitehorse." It was also suspected that the White Pass and Yukon Route 

opposed the proposed road.54 

Despite the overwhelming odds, Alaskans continued to show their support for the 

Warm Pass road. Delegate Bartlett argued in a letter to Interior Secretary Oscar L. 

Chapman that "a compelling and valid case can be made for the construction of such a 

road," and spoke to the Alaska Air Command regarding the proposed road's military 

merits. In addition, sufficient pressure was exerted that the Alaska Road Commission, 

in July 1951, undertook a preliminary reconnaissance of the proposed route. The 

reconnaissance revealed that a road over White Pass was more feasible than the 

proposed Warm Pass route.55 

Efforts to build the road continued on into the spring of 1952. Skagway residents 

orchestrated a letter-writing campaign to Territorial officials, trying to convince them of 

the road's value, both as a tourist corridor and a conduit for freight. Governor 

Gruening and ARC officials sympathized with their plight, but could do nothing. The 

road, they claimed, cost more than the meager Territorial road budget would allow, and 

without the assistance of the British Columbia government, further progress was 

impossible. Canadians, given a preference, favored the route between Juneau and Atlin 

more than the Skagway-Carcross road, but by June 1952 the provincial government had 

made it clear that it was not ready to expend funds on any northern roads during the 

foreseeable future.56 

In August 1952, the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) announced its intention 

to build a smelter in the Taiya River valley, and the giddiness that surrounded that 

announcement caused territorial officials to reconsider their plans for a SkagwayCarcross road. On September 6, Governor Gruening told Interior Secretary Chapman 

that he considered the plant's construction "the most important event in the history of 

Alaska." He also noted that "we consider [the road] project highly desirable, and when 

the Canadians definitely agree to construct their part of the road, concerning which I 

54

 Joseph T. Flakne to Harold G. Crandall, June 19, 1951; John F. Walker to F. D. Calkins, June 16, 

1951; Gruening to Angelo F. Ghiglione, July 18, 1951; all from File 18-2-e (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. 

55

 E. L. Bartlett to Angelo F. Ghiglione, July 26, 1951; Bartlett to Oscar L. Chapman, August 18, 

1951; Bartlett to Ghiglione, December 29, 1951; all from File 18-2-e (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. 

56

 A. F. Ghiglione to E. L. Bartlett, January 9, 1952; Skagway Chamber of Commerce Road 

Committee to Ghiglione, March 3, 1952; Ernest Gruening to John O'Daniel (Skagway), May 6, 1952, all 

in File 18-2-e (1953-58), RG 101, ASA; George Sundborg to F. D. Calkins, May 9, 1952; J. Aubrey 

Simmons (M.P./Yukon) to Sundborg, June 5, 1952; Sundborg to Simmons, June 11, 1952, all in File TR-3 

(1951-53), Series 53, RG 314, ASA. 
44 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

anticipate no difficulty, funds for our portion of the road will be duly requested by the 

Alaska Road Commission."57 

As summer wore into fall, caution regarding the ALCOA plant began to set in because 

of Canada's reluctance to provide water rights. Momentum for the road, however, was 

off dead center, and in 1953 the Alaska Road Commission began a two-year 

reconnaissance of the proposed Skagway-Carcross road. Construction also took place. 

During the summer of 1953, the Territorial Highway Engineer kicked in $6,000 to 

extend the road north from Skagway. The following year, another $6,000 was provided 

for new road construction, and in 1955 sufficient new road money was allotted to allow 

the road to be extended to Black Lake.58 

By 1957, prospects for a Skagway-Carcross road had improved, perhaps because new 

mines had spurred economic development in the Yukon. British Columbia's Minister of 

Highways, P. A. Gagliari, announced that the province would cooperate with Alaska in 

the construction of such a road, and soon afterwards, the Yukon's Member of 

Parliament, Erik Neilsen, declared his support for the road. All that was needed, it 

appeared, was the cooperation of the Alaska territorial government. To secure that 

cooperation, a petition was sent to Governor Mike Stepovich in May 1958 which was 

intended "to secure the badly needed highway between Skagway and Carcross ... to help 

the economy and the defense of Alaska and adjacent Canada." But no further 

movements took place on the subject that year. Action to bring about new road 

construction would have to await a new decade (see Chapter 4).59 

The Yukon-Taiya Project 

One of the most long-running development chapters, and a source of enormous 

frustration to Skagway and other Alaska development interests, was the Yukon-Taiya 

hydroelectric project. The project was launched in the mid-1940s and peaked in a 

fervor of interest in the fall of 1952. By 1957, however, the project had been all but 

abandoned. Since that time, there have been numerous attempts to resurrect interest in 

it, and some in the Skagway area are still convinced that the project may yet be built. 

57

 Gruening to Chapman, September 6, 1952, in "Skagway-Dyea Road" File, RG 30, NARA ANC. 

58

 James P. Davis (Office of Territories, USDI) to Gruening, September 18, 1952; Skagway Chamber 

of Commerce Road Committee to Irving Reed, September 7, 1953; both in File 18-2-g (1953-58), RG 

101, ASA; Lvnn Canal Weekly. April 28, 1955, 1. 

59

 Gagliari to Cy Coyne, November 13, 1957; Coyne to Waino Hendrickson, August 12, 1958; both in 

File 411.7, Series 41, RG 01, ASA; Whitehorse Star. August 7, 1958, 2. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 45 

In the postwar years, the various agencies and bureaus in the Department of the 

Interior embarked upon a program of identifying and classifying Alaskan resources 

preparatory to devising a comprehensive development plan for the territory. The 

Bureau of Reclamation was one of the agencies involved. 

In November 1946, R. C. Johnson, an engineer with the bureau, concluded that an 

unusually large hydroelectric power potential could be developed by diverting the 

headwaters of the Yukon River in Canada to the Alaska coast at Lynn Canal. Initially, 

it was called the Tagish-Lynn project; the name was later changed to the Yukon-Taiya 

project, named after Taiya Inlet, the northern extension of Lynn Canal. 

The proposed project would be huge. It would involve the construction of a 30-foot 

dam on the Yukon River at Miles Canyon, located a few miles upstream from 

Whitehorse. (A wild river, at that time, still flowed through the canyon; Whitehorse 

Dam, which created Schwatka Lake, was not constructed until 1957-58.) The proposed 

dam would create an enormous lake, over 300,000 acres in extent—an amalgam of 

Marsh, Tagish, Atlin, Little Atlin, Bennett, and Lindeman lakes. The proposed lake 

would be between 2,200 and 2,215 feet above sea level. As part of the plan, the level of 

Bennett Lake would rise 50 feet; Lindeman Lake would rise 40 to 45 feet. The new 

lake would flood the villages of Carcross and Tagish, 30 miles of the White Pass and 

Yukon Railroad, most of the Carcross-Tagish road, portions of the Alaska Highway, and 

many other man-made features.60 

impacts would be felt on the U.S. side of the border as well. Yukon-Taiya project 

water would be diverted from the southern end of Lindeman Lake into a 40-foot wide, 

13.5-mile long tunnel which would divert water under Chilkoot Pass to a series of 

penstocks and a powerhouse. From there, another 7.7-mile tunnel would carry the 

water through another series of penstocks to a second powerhouse. The first 

powerhouse would be at an elevation of 1,100 feet; the second located near the 

confluence of the Taiya and Nourse rivers, at 250 feet above sea level. The first 

powerhouse would be located at or near the ghost town of Sheep Camp; the second 

located at or near the site of Canyon City. Large volumes of spoil rock would be 

created at the southern end of both tunnels, and the Taiya River below Canyon City 

would absorb twice its usual peak flow rate.61 

60

 U.S. Department of the Interior, Alaska: A Reconnaissance Report on the Potential Development 

of Water Resources in the Territory of Alaska for Irrigation, Power Production and Other Beneficial 

Uses (House Document 197, 82nd Congress, 1st Session), January 1952, 148-50; Claus-M. Naske, "The 

Taiya Project," BC Studies 91-92 (Autumn and Winter 1991-92), 7-9, 23-25. Naske's 46-page article 

provides a thorough account of activity related to the project between 1946 and 1957. Only the most 

significant events will be recounted in this study. 

61

 Naske, "The Taiya Project," 7-9, 23-25; Robert E. Howe to State Coordinator, Alaska, January 7, 

1970, in "Yukon Taiya Water Power Project" file, AHC. As plans progressed over the next few years, the 

length of the tunnels and penstocks changed, but the basic concept remained. 
46 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

More detailed studies soon followed Johnson's investigation. That November, the 

Bureau of Reclamation sent two officials to the site and reported the results of their 

investigation in Report on the Potential Hydroelectric Power of Southeastern Alaska 

and the Yukon Territory. Based on their findings, the Bureau of Land Management, in 

January 1948, withdrew the entire Taiya River valley—46,592 acres in all-from all 

appropriation under the land laws. Three months later, the BLM withdrew 

approximately 5,000 acres in the upper Taiya River valley—a mile-wide, sinuous corridor 

between the Taiya-Nourse junction and Chilkoot Pass—after classifying it as a power 

site.62 

In the summer of 1947, the Aluminum Company of America became interested in the 

project. Using private capital, the company hoped to harness the huge project water 

flow in conjunction with an aluminum reduction plant which would be built at Dyea, 

near the mouth of the Taiya River. Company officials visited the site of the proposed 

plant and became convinced that the project perfectly fit company plans. In October, 

therefore, company officials contacted officials in Canada's Department of Mines and 

Resources. After discussing the matter with them, ALCOA executives decided to 

submit a formal proposal to the Dominion Minister of Mines and Resources as well as 

to the appropriate British Columbian authorities.63 

In order to streamline the permitting process, and to make a case for the project, 

ALCOA officials, in March 1948, met in Ottawa with the Deputy Minister of Mines and 

Resources and his staff. Company officials told them that Congressional approval of 

the project should come first; after that, the company would make an effort to have 

Dominion, provincial, and American authorities simultaneously announce the project. 

At that time, the company would make a formal request to reserve project lands as a 

water withdrawal. ALCOA, however, soon ran into difficulties with the U.S. Justice 

Department, and they made no attempt that year to gain Congressional sanction for the 

project. Meanwhile, company officials went to Skagway and began purchasing both 

property and waterfront rights.64 

Through 1948, ALCOA had developed its plans in relative secrecy, working only with 

selected officials from various executive departments. In early 1949, however, the U.S. 

Senate caught wind of the project. Assistant Interior Secretary William Warne outlined 

ALCOA's plans to several senators, who leaked the news to the press. Soon afterwards, 

62

 Naske, "The Taiya Project," 10, 31; BLM, Public Land Order 436, January 13, 1948; BLM, Power 

Site Classification No. 396, April 23, 1948. The area within PLO 436 went from the Canadian border 

south to Dyea Point. Its eastern boundary was the drainage divide between the Taiya and Skagway rivers, 

while the western boundary was a line which connected Mount Hoffman, Mount Yeatman, and Face 

Mountain. 

63

 Naske, "The Taiya Project," 9-11, 19. 

64

 fbicL, 13-14, 36. 
Chapter 2: Skaeway After the Gold Rush 47 

on February 22, the Dominion went through with its plans to withdraw from disposal all 

lands surrounding Marsh, Tagish, Bennett, and Atlin lakes that were less than 2,215 feet 

above sea level. British Columbia lands officials made a similar withdrawal.65 

In May, ALCOA officials traveled to Washington, D.C., where they briefed Alaska 

governor Ernest Gruening and Under Secretary of the Interior Oscar Chapman on the 

project. They announced their proposal to construct a power plant which would 

generate 400,000 kwh, sufficient to manufacture 400 million pounds of aluminum 

annually, employing 4,000 workers and supporting a town of 20,000 inhabitants. The 

construction of such a plant would mean that bauxite, the raw material from which 

aluminum was derived, would be shipped to Skagway from many distant points. It also 

meant that the plant would generate far more power than it would need, and would 

pave the way for the development of a large iron-titanium deposit in the Klukwan area, 

just 55 miles from the plant site. Company officials, at this time, were hopeful but 

realistic. The project was still in its preliminary stages, and the company needed time 

before making a final decision on the economic feasibility of the project.66 

That same month, however, murky clouds began to loom on the horizon. British 

Columbia officials took a closer look at ALCOA's scheme and decided not to grant the 

company any special concessions because the province would "not benefit economically 

in any way from the contemplated development." Canadian officials had stressed all 

along that maximum benefits had to accrue to Canada from any diversion of Yukon 

waters to the United States. This insistence presented another obvious point of 

contention, one which, at this point, was not disputed by ALCOA representatives.67 

ALCOA officials learned that other aluminum plants were also being planned in 

northwestern North America. The Reynolds Metals Company of Virginia and the 

Aluminum Company of Canada (ALCAN), both of which were competitors of ALCOA, 

had conducted surveys along the British Columbia coast and selected two potential sites. 

By May 1949, ALCAN officials had made a preliminary decision to build an aluminum 

plant in British Columbia, and provincial officials recognized that the proposed ALCOA 

plant "would compete directly within the protection of the American tariff on 

aluminum" with the ALCAN plant. Soon afterward, provincial officials passed those 

concerns on to their counterparts in Ottawa. C. K. LeCapelain, of the Lands Division 

in Canada's Department of Resources and Development, noted that sometime in 1950 

55

 Ibid, 16-17, 26. 

66

 Ibid, 19, 21, 25. 

67

 Ibid, 23, 26. 
48 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

the federal government "began to get unsympathetic to this project," in part because of 

American obstruction of the Kitimat proposal.68 

In January 1951, the province and ALCAN moved closer to the construction of an 

aluminum plant at Kitimat, largely because U.S. defense officials had made it known 

that they hoped to purchase "a large quantity of aluminum" from the plant. At about 

the same time, a Congressional committee reported that U.S. policy favored the 

expansion of existing aluminum plants rather the creation of new ones. The two actions 

brought howls of protest from Alaska legislators, because both actions promised to defer 

if not derail efforts to build the Yukon-Taiya project. On January 25, 1951, the 

legislature passed House Memorial 1, which requested Federal officials to "re-examine 

immediately the situation with respect to the Taiya Project...to the end that this large 

development shall take place on American soil." A month later, on February 23, it 

passed House Memorial 28, which asked "that the recent decision against the Alaska 

aluminum project be reviewed, immediately, looking more closely to [its] merits."69 

The legislature's protests fell on deaf ears. By the fall of 1952, project construction at 

Kitimat was well underway. Throughout this period, ALCAN officials played a 

significant role in lobbying against the Yukon-Taiya proposal. The company continued 

to influence both the British Columbia and Dominion governments in order to protect 

its investment from ALCOA competition.70 

Meanwhile, the two nations cooperated in a series of studies investigating the economic, 

geologic, and hydrologic aspects of the proposed project. The economic study was 

carried out during the summer and fall of 1950 and involved a two-week field 

reconnaissance of the affected area. It and other projects, however, were halted on 

March 31, 1951 at the behest of the Canadian government. And on March 31, 1951, 

the Canadian government informed Ottawa's U.S. Ambassador that it "could not take 

any further steps in a joint investigation of the Yukon River Power Diversion project 

until the possibility of using these waters in Canada has been explored." The 

Americans, it appeared, had failed to present a convincing case demonstrating the 

advantages of the development to Canada. Meanwhile, various Canadian agencies 

continued making studies on their own.71 

ALCOA, undeterred, continued its efforts to develop the project. During the summer 

of 1951, Richard K. Mellon, a substantial stakeholder in several of the largest 

68

 Ibii, 18, 22-23, 25. 

69

 House Memorial No. 1, in Alaska House Journal. 1951, pp. 55, 1208; House Memorial No. 28, in 

Alaska House Journal. 1951, pp. 352, 1221-22. 

70

 Naske, "The Taiya Project," 37, 39, 50. 

71

 Ibid.. 27-28, 39-40. 
Chapter 2: Skagwav After the Gold Rush 49_ 

manufacturing and refining companies in the country, visited Alaska and, accompanied 

by Alaska Development Board general manager George Sundborg, visited Dyea, 

Whitehorse, and other project sites. Mellon, along with senior ALCOA officials, were 

confident that obstacles to development could be overcome. The Kitimat plant, in 

particular, was not a problem because of the ever-increasing market for aluminum. In 

April 1952, ALCOA officially decided to develop the Yukon-Taiya project.72 

As ALCOA officials saw it, four obstacles to development remained. First, the project 

had to be sold to official Washington as a high-priority Alaska request, as "a large and 

economically sound hydroelectric development in...Alaska which everybody wants to 

develop...." Second, the U.S. State Department had to work out a water-rights 

agreement, both with the Dominion and British Columbian governments. Third, the 

company needed to obtain land for its power plants, manufacturing facilities, townsite, 

and docks, because the April 1948 power-site withdrawal was not applicable to such 

uses. Fourth, the Federal Power Commission needed to grant the company a permit of 

sufficiently long duration that would allow it to amortize its development costs.73 

Alaskan officials knew that they would need the full weight of the United States to bear 

in overcoming those obstacles. In June 1952, therefore, both Governor Ernest 

Gruening and Delegate E. L. Bartlett asked President Harry S. Truman to intervene. 

Bartlett was perplexed to hear Truman's opinion, that the Yukon-Taiya project should 

not be turned over to private interests.74 

Despite Truman's negative response, ALCOA officials decided to publicly announce 

their support for the project. On August 23, 1952, ALCOA official Leon E. Hickman 

addressed the delegates to the All-Alaska Chamber of Commerce, at their meeting in 

Mount McKinley National Park, and told them that the company was "ready, without 

reservation, to proceed with the construction of a large aluminum-smelting project in 

Alaska, just as soon as the necessary land can be purchased and the required 

governmental approvals can be obtained."75 

Euphoria reigned in Alaska as a result of Hickman's announcement. Alaska 

newspapers, and even the New York Times, ran lengthy articles on the project. In 

Skagway, property prices had "risen sharply in the last 30 days after mysterious buyers 

appeared and were interested in purchasing or optioning almost everything in town," 

72

 Ibid.. 28-29. 

73

 IbidL, 30-31. 

74

 Ibid, 35-36. 

75

 Ibid.. 36-37; Pacific Northwest Public Powe r Bulletin. Septembe r 12, 1952, 1, in File WA- 6 (1951-

53), Series 53, R G 314, ASA. 
50 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

according to an Anchorage Daily Times report.76 Future prospects looked so positive 

that a Juneau newspaperman, Elmer A. Friend, moved to Skagway. The first issue of 

his Skagway Alaskan rolled off the presses on August 28, 1952. 

Two months later, on October 21, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management withdrew 

approximately 7,400 acres of land in the area immediately surrounding Skagway from all 

forms of appropriation. That parcel, which adjoined the land reserved in the Taiya 

River valley in January 1948, stretched from Sturgill's Landing up to the mouth of the 

Skagway River's East Fork, and from Upper Dewey Lake west to Smugglers Cove.77 

Government officials felt it necessary to withdraw the land in order to discourage 

speculative land claims. 

The optimism felt in Alaska, however, was not reflected in Canada. Much work 

remained before construction could begin, and in particular, no solid progress had been 

made in convincing either British Columbia or the Canadian government to back the 

project. In mid-November, more bad news followed when it was revealed that a 

Canadian company had proposed another major hydroelectric project on the Alsek 

River, in Canadian waters between Glacier Bay and Yakutat Bay. As a result, the 

Minister of Canada's Department of Resources and Development, Robert H. Winters, 

informed ALCOA in early December that his department had recommended against the 

Yukon-Taiya project because his agency was responsible for making certain that the 

maximum benefit from any power development accrued to Canada.78 By January 1953, 

the Engineering News-Record was reporting that "Canada has slammed the door 

conclusively in the face of the Aluminum Company of America's plans for development 

of hydro power in Alaska." 

Seemingly against all odds, ALCOA continued to press its case. In early 1953, the 

company briefly considered seeking the assistance of the U.S. State Department in its 

efforts, but no request was ever made. In January 1954, company officials visited British 

Columbia premier W. A. C. Bennett and lobbied him on the proposal, but he was 

noncommittal and reiterated that the needs of his province came first.79 During the 

spring and early summer, newspapers in Victoria and Vancouver speculated that 

ALCOA still might be able to construct its project as part of a plan that would also 

result in another hydroelectric project being built on the Taku River, in Canada, by 

Quebec Metallurgical Industries (QMI), a Canadian metallurgical company. But in 

76

 Naske, "The Taiya Project," 36-37. 

77

 BLM, Public Land Order 868, October 21, 1952. 

78

 Naske, "The Taiya Project," 37, 41-42. 

79

 Ibid,, 42-43. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 51 

early August, the provincial government granted a conditional water license to QMI's 

parent company-not to ALCOA.80 

In 1956, the Honourable J. Aubrey Simmons, Yukon Territory's Member of Parliament, 

wrote U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and proposed that there be 

negotiations with the United States to provide an access corridor to the sea through 

southeastern Alaska for the Yukon Territory and northern British Columbia. When 

asked his opinion of the proposal, Alaska delegate E. L. Bartlett suggested that the U.S. 

grant such a corridor under a long-term lease arrangement in return for the joint 

development of the Yukon-Taiya project. Dulles, however, did not react favorably to 

Bartlett's proposal. Neither did Alaska Governor B. Frank Heintzleman, and the matter 

was dropped.81 

On March 1, 1957, ALCOA abandoned all plans for the Yukon-Taiya project. The 

political situation remained untenable, and the economic advantages of an aluminum 

smelter at Dyea had diminished so much since the early 1950s that the company could 

now no longer justify the project even if the Canadians were cooperative.82 

It should be noted, parenthetically, that the project's failure did not prevent the 

construction of hydroelectric facilities in the upper Yukon basin. In 1957-58, soon after 

ALCOA bailed out of the Yukon-Taiya project, the Northern Canada Power 

Commission constructed Whitehorse Dam, just a mile south of Whitehorse. The waters 

behind the dam formed Schwatka Lake, which inundated Miles Canyon and the 

Whitehorse Rapids. The power generated by the dam is used primarily in Whitehorse 

and vicinity.83 

NPS Activities in the Skagwav Area. 1933-1960 

Prior to the Congressional passage of the statehood bill in 1958, the National Park 

Service had a minimal presence in Alaska. Only four NPS units existed in the territory. 

Sitka National Monument was established in 1910 to protect a series of totem poles and 

a Russian-Tlingit battle site. Congress authorized Mount McKinley National Park in 

1917 to protect the continent's highest peak and the excellent gamelands to its north. 

80

 Ibid. 44-46. 

81

 Ibid.. 46. 

82

 Ibid.. 46-47; Battelle Memorial Institute, Transport Requirements for the Growth of Northwest 

North America. 87th Congress, 1st Session, House Document 176, volume 2 (Washington, D.C., GPO, 

May 25, 1961), V-133, V-137. 

83

 Alaska Northwest Books, The Milepost. 44th edition (Bothell, Wash., the author, 1992), 134, 137; 

Yukon Energy Corporation, "Whitehorse Fishway" (brochure), c. 1994. 
52 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Katmai National Monument was established in 1918 to protect the volcanic landscape 

created by the June 1912 eruption near Mount Katmai, and in 1925, President Calvin 

Coolidge proclaimed Glacier Bay National Monument to protect the glacial landscape 

north of Icy Strait. (In 1916, Woodrow Wilson authorized Old Kasaan National Monument on the shores of Prince of Wales Island. But the monument was never staffed, 

and its resources slowly deteriorated. The monument was de-authorized in 1955.) 

No NPS unit was authorized in the Skagway area until 1976. Plans to establish a 

presence, however, date to the 1930s. Three events brought the NPS into the area prior 

to the 1960s. First, in the 1930s, Skagway residents urged the establishment of a 

"Chilcoot National Park." During the mid-1950s, the NPS was asked to play a role in 

the preservation of the well-known Pullen House antiquities collection. Later that 

decade, the NPS began to become interested in Skagway's historical and architectural 

resources. 

As historian Edwin Bearss has noted, the initial attempt to create a national park unit 

in the Skagway area was the result of the efforts of Elmer A. Rasmuson, the president 

of the National Bank of Alaska and a Skagway resident. In the fall of 1933, Rasmuson 

met with Governor John W. Troy and discussed a possible NPS area that would include 

the "region around Skagway to the Border north of town," Dyea, and the old Chilkoot 

Trail. The Skagway Chamber of Commerce responded to Rasmuson's idea by forming 

a three-member committee to promote the park proposal.84 

In the fall of 1934, the committee wrote to Anthony Dimond, Alaska's delegate to 

Congress, and asked him to present the park idea to the appropriate Washington 

authorities. Dimond presented the idea to Arno B. Cammerer. The NPS Director 

admitted that he was unfamiliar with the area, but worried that its values might be too 

similar to Glacier Bay National Monument to qualify for inclusion in the system.85 

Thereafter, the fate of the park was entrusted to Wallace Atwood. He resided in 

Worcester, Massachusetts and was a geography professor as well as the president of 

Clark University. In January 1935, Atwood made a presentation to the National Park 

Service Educational Advisory Board and noted that "the mountains about Skagway 

could compare favorably with many of our great National Parks...and that it would be a 

very appropriate and fortunate place for the establishment of a National Park." Because 

the area was adjacent to the British Columbia border, Atwood hoped that the 

boundaries might extend beyond the frontier by creating an international park, similar 

to the Glacier-Waterton Lakes parks which were located along the border between 

84

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 281. 

85

 Ibid, 281-82. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 55 

Montana and Alberta. To that end, he secured the support of V. I. Hahn, president of 

the White Pass and Yukon Route and a man with considerable influence in Ottawa.86 

Cammerer remained cool to the idea of a "Chilcoot National Park," so Atwood 

presented the idea to his superior, Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes. Atwood, 

ironically, ignored the area's historic resources; instead, he urged that a park be created 

on the basis of the area's scenic and scientific resources, and because of its accessibility 

• 0*7 

to tourists. 

Ickes became an advocate of the project largely on the basis of Atwood's enthusiasm for 

it, and implored Cammerer to study the idea further. Cammerer referred the idea to 

two associates, asking them to "see whether we can't make a monument out of it." The 

project eventually landed on the desk of George M. Wright, a wildlife specialist who 

had little sympathy for historical or cultural areas. On February 28, 1935, he reported 

that the proposed monument had several drawbacks: it was too close to Glacier Bay 

National Monument, its scenic values were not as great as those in other parts of 

Southeastern Alaska, and both the City of Skagway and the White Pass and Yukon 

Route were "undesirable encroachments" into the proposed park. The following month, 

the NPS Educational Advisory Board met again and formed a committee to mull over 

Wright's conclusions. Nothing came of that effort, however, and the park idea was 

dropped for another two decades.88 

The next time NPS was called upon to look into the Skagway area was in an advisory 

capacity regarding a well-known museum collection. The Pullen House, one of Alaska's 

great hotels, had been operated since the gold rush by Harriet Pullen, who arrived in 

Skagway during the early days of the gold rush. She opened the Pullen House in 1901 

and had continued to operate it until her death in August 1947. Over the years, Pullen 

amassed a treasure trove of archeological and ethnographic objects. These objects were 

displayed in the lobby of her hotel, and guests from around the world both admired 

them and contributed to her holdings. Following her death, however, the hotel closed. 

By the early 1950s it reopened, under the supervision of Mary (Mrs. Max) Kopansky, 

Pullen's granddaughter. The museum collection, however, was neglected and began to 

deteriorate.89 

86

 Ibid.. 282; Barry Mackintosh (NPS) to author, email, June 14, 1995. 

87

 Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 282-83. 

88

 Ibid, 283-84. 

89

 Lynn Canal Weekly. June 30, 1955, 3; Spude, Skagway. District of Alaska, 160. A contemporary 

article noted that "As in all accumulations of personal possessions there is a great quantity at the Pullen 

House that is worthless. On the other hand there are many rare old pieces of furniture, fine glassware 

and china and mementos of a bygone age that can never again be replaced once they are gone." 

Anchorage Daily News. September 9, 1959, 1. 
54 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

The fame of the Pullen Collection was not lost on authorities at both the federal and 

territorial levels. In particular, NPS officials Aubrey Neasham and John Hussey called 

attention to the collection's importance and to the necessity to preserve it if at all 

possible.90 Perhaps based on their recommendations, Bruce W. Black, the park 

naturalist at Glacier Bay National Monument, visited Skagway in early 1954 and 

reported on the condition of the Pullen House and its collection. Black noted that the 

Pullen House, though still an active hotel, was in a "pitiful state of disrepair." 

Moreover, the relics there were in danger; they were not being protected from possible 

fire damage, and many of the items in the collection were neither identified nor 

recorded. He urged the Territory, or some other interested party, to acquire the Pullen 

House property, rehabilitate the structure, and convert it into a museum. In the 

meantime, he hoped that the museum specimens could be catalogued and saved from 

possible fire damage. He requested the agency's regional historian, stationed in San 

Francisco, to look into it.91 

For the next several months, Black's report landed on the desks of several prominent 

bureaucrats, all of whom sympathized with the worsening plight of the Pullen collection. 

None, however, were in a position to help. The report wound its way from Black to 

Sitka-Glacier Bay Superintendent Henry G. Schmidt. It was then forwarded to the 

Director of Region Four, Lawrence C. Merriam, who sent a copy to NPS Director 

Conrad L. Wirth. Merriam regretted that the NPS, lacking a park unit in Skagway, was 

in no position to assume custody over its "relics." Under the Historic Sites Act of 1935, 

however, it did have an obligation to discuss the matter with the proper Territorial 

authorities.92 

On March 2, 1954, NPS's Chief Historian, Herbert E. Kahler, met with George W. 

Rogers, an economist in the office of Governor B. Frank Heintzleman, and with 

Maurice W. Goding, the administrator of the federal Office of Territories. At the 

meeting, Kahler learned that Heintzleman was unenthusiastic about purchasing the 

collection, and Kopansky was apparently unwilling to either donate the collection or sell 

it on a piecemeal basis. He also heard that the White Pass and Yukon Route, which 

was "contemplating" the construction of a new hotel in Skagway, had no interest in 

acquiring the Pullen House collection. Lacking funds from either federal or territorial 

90

 George L. Collins to George W. Rogers, March 17, 1954, in File 15-15 (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. 

91

 Black to Supt GLBA, February 3, 1954, in File 15-15 (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. Rangers had been 

assigned to Glacier Bay only since 1950. 

92

 Merriam to Director NPS, February 15, 1954, in File 15-15 (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 55^ 

sources, officials could only hope that the city might construct a building in which the 

artifacts might be kept.93 

The city, as it turned out, built no structures intended for the preservation of the Pullen 

House artifacts. Therefore, when the Pullen House closed for the last time in 1959, 

owner Mary Kopansky asked officials of the newly-proclaimed state of Alaska to 

purchase the artifacts. However, she found no interest. Kopansky, therefore, built a 

fireproof building near her home in Lynnwood, Washington, and moved the collection 

there.94 

During the same period, NPS officials gave their first indication of interest in Skagway's 

historical and architectural resources. On June 19, 1953, NPS Director Conrad Wirth 

issued a memorandum calling for an investigation into new NPS units. John A. Hussey, 

the Regional Historian for Region Four, responded in November and offered various 

suggestions for new historical areas in the western states. Of Alaskan sites, he noted 

that two excellent candidates for national historical sites were the site of the American 

flag raising and St. Michael's Cathedral, both of which were located in Sitka. He also 

noted that "A western mining settlement not connected with the California Gold Rush 

would also be a desirable unit of the National Park System. Skagway, Alaska, and 

Virginia City, Nevada, are possible candidates; but preservation problems at towns of 

such size would be a deterring factor."95 

Three months after Hussey's letter, Skagway was again brought to the attention of NPS 

officials because of Bruce Black's report on the Pullen House collection. Regional 

Director Lawrence C. Merriam regretfully noted that the agency was in no position to 

preserve any of the town's buildings; he believed, however, "that an investigation might 

reveal them to be of more than local significance." He hoped that Alaska authorities 

might "incorporate the historic section of the town into a historical park as California 

has done at Columbia." (Columbia State Historical Park, which was located in an 1850s 

gold rush town in the state's Mother Lode country, had been established in 1945.)96 

George L. Collins, a recreation planner in NPS's Region Four office and an old Alaska 

hand, noted that 

93

 Merriam to Director NPS, February 15, 1954; Herbert E. Kahler to Ben H. Thompson (Chief of 

Cooperative Activities), March 3, 1954; George L. Collins to George W. Rogers, March 17, 1954; both in File 

15-15 (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. 

94

 Anchorage Daily News, September 9, 1959, 1. 

95

 John A. Hussey to Regional Naturalist, Region Four, November 4, 1953, in "H-34 Historic Landmarks -

Alaska, Skagway and White Pass," NRHP Files, AKSO-RCR Collection. 

96

 Merriam to Director NPS, February 15, 1954, in File 15-15 (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. 
56 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

There is no question in- the minds of the experts with whom we have 

discussed the matter of the historical importance of Skagway.... It is 

considered one of the key places of the Northland for interpretation to the 

public of critically significant Alaska and Canadian history. 

But neither the Alaska legislature nor the NPS hierarchy were willing, at that time, to 

take steps to preserve Skagway's resources.97 

During the next few years, the Skagway citizens became aware of the advantages of a 

federal presence. Cyril A. Coyne, who served as Skagway's mayor from 1954 to 1956 

and again from 1957 to 1959, suggested the establishment of a historic site or 

monument both to Governor Heintzleman and to officials in NPS's Region Four office 

in San Francisco. Through correspondence and discussion, Coyne hoped to enlighten 

both territorial and federal officials with the town's historical values and with the 

necessity to preserve them.98 

In late 1958 or early 1959, the NPS announced to Skagway officials that as part of its 

National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings, it would finally study the town's history 

to determine its eligibility as a national monument or historic site. Coyne responded by 

visiting NPS Director Wirth and asking if the agency could provide immediate financial 

assistance to preserve the town's historic structures, to display them to the public, and to 

set up a historical museum where gold rush artifacts could be displayed and interpreted. 

Wirth did not approve any of Coyne's various requests. He recognized, however, that 

Coyne was well known by other Interior Department officials; perhaps for that reason, 

Wirth noted in an internal memorandum that "I hope that we can help him out in some 

way."99 

Washington officials forwarded the letter to Lawrence Merriam, the Region Four 

Director in San Francisco. Shortly afterward, Merriam wrote a sobering note to Mayor 

Coyne. He noted that 

you are...well aware of our enthusiasm for the historical remains in 

Skagway and of our sympathy with your efforts to preserve them. 

Unfortunately, the participation of the Federal Government in such 

preservation efforts, particularly financial participation, is not brought 

about by good intentions. The establishment of a National Monument or 

97

 George L. Collins to George W. Rogers, March 17, 1954, in File 15-15 (1953-58), RG 101, ASA. 

98

 Lawrence C. Merriam to Cyril A. Coyne, February 12, 1959, in "Ff-34 Historic Landmarks - Alaska, 

Skagway and White Pass." 

99

 Conrad L. Wirth (Director NPS) to Ronald F. Lee (NPS Chief of Interpretation), January 19, 1959, 

in "H-34 Historic Landmarks - Alaska, Skagway and White Pass." 
Chapter 2: Skagway After the Gold Rush 57 

National Historic Site is generally a long and complicated process, and 

national recognition is accorded only to sites which are judged...to be of 

outstanding national significance. 

He repeated to Coyne that the agency was unable to participate financially in any 

restoration plan, noting that "the greater part of the historical preservation work in the 

United States must remain the responsibility of State and local governments." The NPS 

was certainly willing to provide technical assistance on building preservation or museum 

displays, but given its Congressional mandate and staff levels, it could do no more.100 

Several months later, Regional Archeologist Paul J. F. Schumacher visited Alaska. As 

part of that trip, he spent June 4 and 5, 1959 in Skagway. While there, he met Cy 

Coyne and discussed various methods by which other communities had undertaken 

historic building preservation efforts. He also photographed several of the town's most 

prominent historical buildings, including McCabe College, Pullen House, Arctic 

Brotherhood Hall, the Moore Cabin, and Soapy Smith's Parlor. Schumacher noted that 

"Most of the minor structures of the turn of the century period have now vanished. 

However, there remain about 20 public buildings of historical and architectural interest," 

of which "possibly 5 or 6 are of primary importance as far as the city and state are 

concerned." NPS officials looked forward to a Skagway visit by a historian from the 

National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings; only then would the agency be in a 

position to make recommendations concerning the town's historical significance.101 

100

 Lawrence C. Merriam to Cyril A. Coyne, February 12, 1959, in "H-34 Historic Landmarks - Alaska, 

Skagway and White Pass." 

101

 Herbert Maier (Asst. Regional Director, Region Four) to Director NPS, April 5, 1960, in "H-34 

Historic Landmarks - Alaska, Skagway and White Pass." 
Chapter 3 

State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 

The authorization of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park was the result of a 

long, complex series of actions by state and federal bureaucrats that began in 1961. 

Increasing knowledge of gold rush history and the abundant evidence reflecting it 

brought increased pressure to preserve the area as a unit of the National Park Service 

system. The area, however, was difficult to preserve because it entailed two 

communities—one in Alaska, another in Washington state—and rural land owned by 

several public and private entities. Co-operation with various Canadian representatives 

was also needed. By the time the proposed park was presented to Congress, the bill 

enjoyed a broad base of public support. The complexities of creating a workable park 

plan delayed the park's authorization until June 1976. 

State Work Crews Reopen the Chilkoot Trail 

The State of Alaska showed its first sustained interest in the history of the Klondike 

gold rush in early 1961. The Division of Lands, in the state's Department of Natural 

Resources, and the Division of Youth and Adult Authority, in the Department of 

Health and Welfare, cooperated in the reopening of the Chilkoot Trail. 

The chief instigator of the project was Charles W. Pfeiffer, the Director of the state's 

Youth and Adult Authority. (The Y&AA served as the state's corrections department 

from 1960 to 1968.) The authority operated a Youth Conservation Camp and School 

for delinquent boys in Wasilla. In order to provide them a structured work 

environment, it sought outside projects that offered long-term recreational benefits. 

Pfeiffer felt that the Chilkoot Trail would be an excellent demonstration project for his 

division, so he arranged for a meeting during the winter of 1960-61 with Thomas 

Murton, his assistant, and Michael Leach of the Division of Lands in the state's 

Department of Natural Resources. (As noted below, the Division of Lands was 

involved because the state was on the verge of applying for most of the Taiya River 

valley as part of the 102.5 million acres Congress had granted it in the 1958 Alaska 

statehood act.) Leach, who was the division's one-man Branch of Forestry, Parks, and 

Recreation in southeastern Alaska, soon became an enthusiastic advocate of the 

proposal. The Y&AA was to provide and supervise labor, while the Division of Lands 
60 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

would provide technical direction. Pfeiffer followed his meeting by travelling to 

Skagway and discussing the project with various local citizens.1 

Project work began on May 15, 1961. On that day, Murton and Richard Branton of the 

Youth and Adult Authority discussed the project with Leach and Charles Mehlert, both 

of whom worked for the Division of Lands in Juneau. The four travelled to Skagway, 

and the following day they continued on to Dyea and began flagging the proposed 

route. Guided by Emil Hanousek, a Dyea resident who was familiar with the trail 

corridor, the group hiked up the east side of the valley to the site of Canyon City, 

flagging as they went. The following day, they continued on to Sheep Camp. They then 

returned to Dyea and left the area. 

The trailblazers were unsure as to whether the path they followed was the same as that 

followed by the gold rush stampeders. Hanousek had told them that "an old wagon 

road which began at Dyea and proceeded along the river on the west bank of the river 

to Canyon City was, in fact, the location of the original trail." Because they had not 

followed that route, Leach urged that the route be located so as to be historically 

authentic. When the work crews arrived, however, they eschewed Leach's suggestion 

and merely followed the flags. The route they pioneered that summer is, with minor 

exceptions, the same one still used today.2 

The Y&AA's original intention was to limit its participation to eight delinquent boys, 

aged 14 to 18. By the time work began, however, two groups of offenders—one youth, 

one adult—had been enlisted. Nine youths began work June 9; adults, who hailed from 

jails in Juneau and Ketchikan, arrived three days later. Both groups, led by Russel 

Lowell, had completed their work by July 20.3 

The crews had accomplished a great deal during their summer's work. They had 

brushed out a trail from the east side of the steel bridge, at Dyea, to a point one-half 

mile south of Sheep Camp. In addition, they had installed a 500-foot tram cable across 

the Taiya River just north of the West Creek Bridge. The cable allowed work crews to 

haul equipment up the trail without having to ascend "Saintly Hill," just north of the 

steel bridge. Many of the improvements, however, were basic, and some—such as the 

1

 Charles W. Pfeiffer to Bob Baham, March 17, 1961; Pfeiffer to Bob Henning, May 16, 1961; both in 

"Chilkoot Trail Reading Files" folder, Series 136, Department of Health and Social Services Records (RG 

06), ASA; Swem to Deputy Director, Operations, February 2, 1970, in Correspondence Files (hereafter 

known as CF), AHC; Michael Leach, interview by author, October 12 and October 16, 1995. 

2

 Mike Leach to A. Earl Plourde, May 23, 1961, in "Chilkoot Trail History Construction" (CTHC) 

folder, KLGO. (This folder was copied from material in RG 06, ASA.) 

3

 Pfeiffer to Dick White, June 7, 1961; Y&AA to T. D. Gregg, June 9, 1961; both in "Chilkoot Trail 

Reading File," KLGO; Leach to Plourde, July 25, 1961, in CTHC. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 61 

cable crossing—were wiped out that year by the rising Taiya River waters.4 Despite 

those losses, however, both the Division of Youth and Adult Authority and the Division 

of Lands were pleased with the work. Both agencies looked forward to continued trail 

work. Y&AA officials discovered, however, that some juveniles were reluctant to 

perform the assigned work; besides, there were many restrictions imposed on the use of 

juveniles. In future years, only adult work crews would be used.5 

Federal Officials Evaluate the Skagway Area's History 

During the 1930s, as noted in Chapter 2, the idea of an NPS area in Skagway and 

vicinity had first been suggested. During the 1950s, occasional flickers of new interest 

were seen. In the early 1960s, that interest was renewed and expanded as part of a 

statewide survey. That survey was one element in the National Survey of Historic Sites 

and Buildings, a nationwide effort to identify and evaluate important historical sites. 

The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings (NSHSB)—known more informally 

as the Historic Sites Survey—was a creature of the Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1935, 

which was intended "to lay a broad legal foundation for a national program of 

preservation and rehabilitation of historic sites." Secretary Harold L. Ickes, who 

testified in favor of the Act, advocated "a thorough survey of all historic sites in the 

country...on the basis of their national and local significance," and perhaps as a result, 

the Act directed the Secretary of the Interior to "[mjake a survey of historic and 

archaeologic sites, buildings, and objects for the purpose of determining which possess 

exceptional value as commemorating or illustrating the history of the United States." 

There was no indication, in the bill's language, that sites so nominated would be 

included in the National Park Service system. Even so, the framers of the Act 

envisioned that most of those places found to possess national significance (or 

"exceptional value") would be acquired by the Service.6 

The completion of the necessary surveys was entrusted to the agency's newly-formed 

Branch of Historic Sites and Buildings. Survey work began in late 1936. Initial work 

took place in Washington, but with the creation of the first four regional offices in 1937, 

survey work was transferred to the field. By late 1941 eight studies had been 

completed. Some 560 historic sites had been identified, 229 of which were found to be 

nationally significant; in addition, an archeological inventory had identified 334 sites, of 

which 31 were found to be nationally significant. World War II halted survey activity, 

4

 Leach to Plourde, July 25, 1961; Lawrence A. Dutton to Leach, July 2, 1962; both in CTHC. 

5

 Leach to Sigurd Olson, September 5, 1963, in CTHC; Leach interview, October 16, 1995. 

6

 Barry Mackintosh, The Historic Sites Survey and National Historic Landmarks Program: A History 

(Washington, NPS, 1985), 5-6. 
62 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

but the Mission 66 program brought forth renewed interest. The Historic Sites Survey 

began again in late 1957.7 

In 1961, the National Park Service funded a special historic sites survey for Alaska. 

That study was composed of a general background narrative and a series of historical 

site evaluations. The narrative was prepared by Dr. Benjamin F. Gilbert of San Jose 

State College, while the site materials were written by Charles Snell, a historian assigned 

to the Region Four office in San Francisco. Snell endeavored to visit as many sites as 

he could that summer, and travelled 13,000 miles in 34 days in pursuit of that goal.8 

In early July, Snell visited upper Lynn Canal. He evaluated both the Skagway and Taiya 

River valleys and identified two historic districts: Skagway and White Pass, and Chilkoot 

Pass and Dyea. He discussed the importance of each in the context of the Klondike 

Gold Rush, and described the condition of both districts. Of Dyea, he noted that 

the only traces left of this boom town are two abandoned and very badly 

deteriorated log cabins and two overgrown cemeteries. Except for two or 

three modern summer log cabins widely scattered through the forest, Dyea 

has reverted almost completely to a state of nature. 

He also climbed to the summit of Chilkoot Pass—thanks, in part, to the efforts of a 

State trail crew—and noted that "the Chilkoot trail and pass have also returned to a state 

of nature and are unimpaired by modern intrusions. The general trace of the route is 

still visible through much of its course."9 Of Skagway, he noted that "approximately 100 

original buildings still stand...that date from the great gold rush days... These surviving 

structures are the finest examples of the mining frontier town, 1897-1910, in Alaska." 

Snell noted that "the heaviest concentration of the old buildings is to be found on 

Broadway Street, between First and Sixth Avenues," and specifically listed as important 

the White Pass depot, the Arctic Brotherhood hall, the "old Federal Court Building," 

and the saloon once occupied by outlaw "Soapy" Smith.10 

Snell, in his report, listed both historic districts as being "sites of exceptional value" and 

thus worthy to be nominated as historic sites. That determination, however, was left up 

to the nine-member Consulting Committee for the National Survey of Historic Sites and 

Buildings. The Consulting Committee screened Snell's site reports and gave its 

recommendations to the eleven-member Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic 

7

 Mackintosh, The Historic Sites Survey, 12-13, 19-21, 34. 

8

 National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings, Theme XXI, Political and Military Affairs, 1865-1910: 

Special Study. Alaska History. 1741-1910 (Washington. NPS. 19611. ii. 

9

 IbicI, 172-75. 

10

 Jbig\, 176-78. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 63 

Sites, Buildings, and Monuments. The Advisory Board, which was created as part of the 

1935 Historic Sites Act, met in late April and early May of 1962. It declared that 

Skagway and White Pass historic district possessed exceptional value and "that sites in 

Skagway (Historic District) be considered as possible additions to the National Park 

System." It made no such recommendation regarding the Chilkoot Pass and Dyea area. 

Those recommendations were forwarded to Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, 

who on June 13, 1962 declared Skagway Historic District and White Pass area to be 

eligible for National Historic Landmark (NHL) designation.11 

The Skagway and White Pass area was one of the state's first sites declared to be an 

eligible National Historic Landmark. The first NHLs in Alaska-two archeological sites 

along the western Alaska coastline—were declared in January 1961. Skagway and White 

Pass, along with four other properties (two in Sitka, one in Kodiak, and one on St. Paul 

Island in the Pribilofs) were the next Alaskan properties to join the list.12 

Although the Advisory Board gave a mixed evaluation of the two sites Snell had 

identified at the head of Lynn Canal, Udall's declaration of the Skagway-White Pass 

area as an NHL signalled the federal government's interest in the area.13 As noted 

above, the NSHSB's identification of historical sites was considered to be the first step 

toward their inclusion in the National Park Service system. Momentum, however slight, 

toward creating Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park had begun. 

11

 Ibid., a, foreword, 220; National Park Service, National Historic Landmarks: A Preservation 

Program of the National Park Service (Washington, the author, 1976), 9; National Park Service, Skagway, 

A Study of Alternatives, preliminary working draft (San Francisco?, the author, March 1969), 4; Herbert 

E. Kahler to Carl E. Mulvihill, January 8, 1964; Charles W. Snell to Supt. SITK/GLBA, March 17, 1966; 

both in "H-34 Historic Landmarks - Alaska, Skagway and White Pass," NRHP Files, AKSO-RCR 

Collection. The NPS did not actually designate the area an NHL in June 1962 because designation 

required the agreement of landowners or, as in Skagway's case, a municipal official. That request, by 

Mayor Malcolm Moe, was made in January 1964, and on February 28, 1964, the site became an officiallydesignated Registered National Historical Landmark. That summer, a plaque designating the NHL was 

mailed to city officials, and in early 1966 NPS officials mailed the city an NHL certificate. The former is 

now visible on Broadway, south of the NPS visitor center; the latter was (until 1995, at least) on the wall 

of the city's Trail of '98 Museum. 

12

 NPS, National Historic Landmarks, 7-9. 

13

 The NHL had no boundaries. Before the passage of the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, 

an NHL "was an honorary recognition of national significance and did not require boundary definition." 

A. R. Mortenson to Gordon Reno, February 6, 1975, in "Skagway/White Pass Correspondence" folder, 

NHL Files, AKSO-RCR Collection. 
64 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Chilkoot Trail Improvements 

The work accomplished on the Chilkoot Trail in the summer of 1961 proved so 

successful that the project was continued. In 1962, Y&AA officials hoped that the trail 

would be brought up to U.S. Forest Service standards. In order to carry on its work, 

the Authority brought in a crew from the newly-constructed Adult Conservation Camp 

near Palmer. That crew erected another tram crossing at the site of the previous year's 

washout. Led by Don Davis, the prisoners spent most of June and July working from a 

Canyon City base camp, and by the end of their season they had improved the trail as 

far as Canyon City. Accomplishments included a three-mile trail relocation around the 

unsightly Hosford millsite. Later, however, the existing logging road past the mill was 

improved, courtesy of a rented bulldozer, and the rerouted trail was abandoned 

thereafter. Workers also erected a 16' x 20' shelter cabin near Canyon City, replaced 

the Slide Cemetery headboards, and cleaned up the Dyea (Native) Cemetery.14 

In 1963, work continued farther up the trail. Major work consisted of improving the 

trail from Canyon City to timberline, a mile above Sheep Camp, building a cable bridge 

across the Taiya River at Canyon City, and constructing a shelter cabin near Sheep 

Camp similar in design to that which had been constructed a year before near Canyon 

City. By summer's end, the trail had been improved to a standard acceptable to both 

the Youth and Adult Authority and the Division of Lands. During the trail 

construction period, about forty people had hiked over the trail.15 

William A. Egan, Alaska's governor, reacted to the trail's completion by trying to 

arrange a well-publicized inaugural hike over the trail during late July 1964, much as 

had been done for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal ten years earlier. He invited 

conservationist and Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas and Interior Secretary 

Stewart L. Udall to take part in that hike. (Douglas was one of several high-ranking 

officials who had taken part in the C&O Canal hike.) Udall, however, had to decline 

Egan's invitation; perhaps for that reason, the hike was never held.16 

After 1963, Y&AA work crews returned to the trail each summer. The crews, led by 

Don Davis or Lee Morrison, were involved in such tasks as bridge repair, maintenance 

14

 Dutton to Leach, July 2, 1962; Leach to Plourde, July 23, 1962; Leach to Plourde, August 28, 1962; 

all in CTHC; Alaska Department of Health and Welfare, Youth and Adult Authority, Annual Report, 

1965, 17. 

15

 Dutton to Leach, July 5, 1963; Leach to Sigurd Olson, September 5, 1963; both in CTHC; J. R. 

Lotz, "The Chilkoot Trail To-Day, Dyea to Bennett," unpub. mss., Dept. of Northern Affairs and National 

Development (Canada), October 1963, 1; Mike Leach to author, October 19, 1995. 

15

 Barry Mackintosh, C&O Canal: The Making of a Park (Washington, NPS, 1991), 68-73; Egan to 

Douglas, January 28, 1964, in "Skagway" folder, Series 233, Department of Economic Development (RG 

15), ASA; Egan to Udall, March 28, 1966, in Folder 870, Series 41.2, RG 01, ASA. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 65 

of the trail tread, and the installation of mileage and directional signs. They also, in 

1965, installed a series of trailside markers indicated each half mile of trail. (These, 

however, must not have remained long because, as noted in Chapter 4, a new set of 

mileage markers was installed eight years later.) They did not, however, attempt to 

maintain the hand tram across the Taiya. By the late 1960s, solo hikers found it almost 

impossible to use; by 1972 the cables were teetering and unusable; and by 1974, the 

system was "down and beyond use."17 

These crews, which continued to be led by Don Davis, camped along the trail each year 

until 1968; thereafter, they were replaced by crews from DNR's Division of Lands or the 

Division of Parks.18 During this period, the recreational use of the trail remained fairly 

limited, and as late as 1969 only about 100 people traversed the route each year. Those 

who went, however, were often destructive to the resource. When the trail was first 

opened to recreational hikers, thousands of horseshoes and other gold rush remains 

were scattered along the trail. But as Rep. Mike Miller noted in a 1979 letter, "virtually 

everyone who hiked the trail [during the 1960s] brought home at least one or two light 

souvenirs of his or her trip. Because so many of us did so, however, there are now no 

such items along the way for present visitors to see and enjoy." By 1973, when NPS 

rangers began working along the trail, so many artifacts had been lost that the rangers 

urged their superiors to abandon plans that would have restored the trail to its historical 

right-of-way (see Chapter 4).19 

A National Park is Considered 

In 1963, new evidence of Federal interest in the Skagway area surfaced. Sigurd Olson, 

the well-known Minnesota wildlife biologist, author, and conservationist, was also a 

member of the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and 

Monuments. In his advisory capacity, he had played a role in the nomination of the 

17

 Bearss trip report, September 2, 1969, in Bearss, Klondike Park Study. 287-92; Southeast Alaska 

Empire. June 2, 1972, 3; Scott Home, interview by author, April 27, 1995; Leach interview, October 16, 

1995; Archie Satterfield, Chilkoot Pass. Then and Now (Anchorage, Alaska Northwest, 1973), 148; NPS, 

"Chilkoot Trail Report," 1974, 20, in KLGO Archives, Skagway. 

18

 Michael Leach, of the Division of Lands, recalls that corrections personnel performed trail 

maintenance until a new corrections director decided that inmates should remain incarcerated rather than 

work in remote situations. In their stead, Division of Lands personnel maintained the trail. In 1970, the 

Division of Parks was created, and workers from the new division maintained the trail thereafter. Dutton 

to Leach, February 20, 1964; Henry Hall to Leach, August 25, 1965; both in CTHC; North Wind. 

September 1965, 11, and June 1966, 4; Barbara Kalen, "Part of Chilkoot Pass Ship-Shape for Hikers," 

Southeast Alaska Empire. July 23, 1968, 9; Michael Leach interview, October 12, 1995. 

19

 W. E. Garrett, "Alaska's Marine Highway," National Geographic Maeazine 127 (June 1965), 801; 

Southeast Alaska Empire. April 9, 1979, 4. 
66 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Skagway and White Pass area as a National Historic Landmark. In the summer of 1963, 

Olson and NPS official Theodor (Ted) Swem visited the Skagway area and hiked up 

part of the Chilkoot Trail, impressed with what he saw, Olson wrote to Mike Leach, of 

the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, and urged that "the first two or three 

blocks of Broadway Street" be set aside. Leach shared Olson's enthusiasm for the 

preservation of the area's gold rush history, but warned him of the difficulty in 

purchasing several city blocks. He also told Olson that "in order to tell the complete 

story of the Gold Rush, we will need the assistance of the Department of Interior, 

Canada and the City of Skagway." Olson promised to recommend that the Advisory 

Board study the matter more closely.20 

In 1965, perhaps at the recommendation of the Advisory Board, historian Charles Snell 

wrote a revised, expanded nomination form to the National Survey of Historic Sites and 

Buildings.21 Shortly after the form was completed, the Advisory Board, accompanied by 

NPS Director George Hartzog, Assistant Director Swem, Rep. Roy Taylor (D-NC), 

Rep. Ralph Rivers (D-AK) and other officials, visited the Skagway area. While there 

they visited Dyea, the museum, and other local attractions. The local newspaper editor, 

Cy Coyne, noted that the Board "appeared impressed with the history of the area and 

what present-day citizens were doing to retain a place in the visitor world." Several 

Board members had also visited Skagway three years earlier and remembered that their 

recommendations were instrumental in the area being declared a Registered National 

Historic Landmark; the state, however, had not yet made use of that designation. 

Stanley Cain, an Assistant Secretary of the Interior and a trip participant, spoke for the 

Board when he observed that "It will take a national effort to restore and properly 

preserve this historic district. Perhaps NPS should find a way to do this."22 

Shortly after his return to Washington, Congressman Rivers began to express interest in 

an expanded federal role. In a letter to Director Hartzog, he outlined eight 

development projects that the agency should consider "to meet the needs of the rising 

tide of visitors to Alaska," three of which dealt with the Skagway area. First, he asked 

the NPS to "explore with Canadian authorities the possible establishment of an 

International Historic District embracing Skagway, the Chilkoot and White passes, and 

the Klondike District"~in other words, a sort of trans-border National Historic 

Landmark. Second, he asked the NPS to "consider discussions with Canadian 

authorities toward the establishment of an international park with Canada." Finally, he 

20

 Leach to Olson, September 5, 1963, in CTHC. 

21

 NPS, "Skagway and White Pass" nomination form, July 13, 1965, in NRHP Files, AKSO-RCR 

Collection. 

22

 North Wind. August 1965, 1; Folder #2, National Parks and Recreation Subcommittee, Legislative 

Bill File, Ralph Rivers Collection, UAF; Stanley Cain, "Trip Report...Accompanying the Advisory 

Board...on its Annual Field Trip, July 30 to August 10, 1965, in Alaska," 4-5, in E. L. Bartlett Collection, 

UAF. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 67 

hoped that the NPS would "prepare recommendations for Federal participation in the 

restoration and preservation of the historic community of Skagway."23 

Perhaps in response to Rivers' request, the NPS decided to study the Skagway area in 

greater detail.24 That study, however, was delayed for over two years. In the meantime, 

legislative interest grew in the area's gold rush history. In the U.S. Senate, Henry 

Jackson (D-WA) and Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) introduced a bill in early 1967 which 

would have encouraged a nationwide system of trails. The bill included a mandate that 

the Alaskan gold rush trails be studied for inclusion into the system. Congress passed 

the bill, known as S. 827, and on October 2, 1968 President Lyndon Johnson signed into 

law the National Trails System Act (P.L. 90-543). The officials asked to carry out the 

terms of the act specified that Chilkoot and White Pass would be two of the seven trails 

studied in Alaska. Neither trail, however, received study funding as a result of the bill's 

passage.25 

The State of Alaska, it should be noted, also began to plan for the area's use as a 

parkland. In 1966 Mike Leach of the Division of Lands wrote a Plan for the 

Development of the Skagway-Dyea Natural, Historical, Recreational Complex. The 

plan identified areas of interest and importance in the area, reported what had been 

accomplished thus far, served as a guideline for future development, and served as a 

repository for additional information. It recommended, among other things, that the 

state interpret the historical sites along the trail and that it establish a visitor center in 

Dyea. It did not, however, recommend the establishment of a state park, due to 

financial considerations. The state, as it turned out, ignored both of the report's 

recommendations. The existence of the plan, however, signalled that the state 

recognized the area's resources and was interested in protecting them.26 

23

 Rivers to Hartzog, August 27, 1965, in File 882, Series 41, RG 01, ASA; North Wind. September 

1965, 5. 

24

 Howard R. Stagner to Rivers, November 3, 1966, in CF, AHC. 

25

 NPS, Skagway, A Study of Alternatives, 29; William R. Thomas, Alaska Gold Rush Trails Study, 

preliminary draft (Anchorage, Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, 1975), i. The other five trails planned for 

study included the Dalton Trail, the Seward-to-Nome (Iditarod) Trail, the Valdez-to-Fairbanks Trail, the 

Valdez-to-Eagle (WAMCATS) trail, and the Wiseman Trail (Koyukuk-Chandalar routes). But the 

Iditarod and WAMCATS trails, studied in 1973-74, and the Wiseman Trail, studied in 1974-75, the were 

the only routes given thorough scrutiny, and the Iditarod was the only trail added to the National Trails 

System. 

26

 Leach advocated the state park idea, but his superior, Ted Smith, recognized that the state, in those 

pre-oil days, would be fiscally unable to manage it. Guy Martin, "Testimony of the State of Alaska," May 

12, 1975, in File NR 1-2 (1975), File 88, RG 01, ASA; Mike Leach interview, October 16, 1995; Michael 

S. Leach to Ted G. Smith, October 10, 1966, in Box 4578 (Urban Renewal Projects, Alaska State Housing 

Authority), in Department of Commerce and Economic Development Records (RG 08), ASA; Ted Smith 

to the author, November 14, 1995. The October 1966 study has not yet been located. 
68 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Skagway Tourism Growth 

The NPS's increasing interest in the Skagway area coincided with a significant increase 

in local tourism. Skagway residents were becoming aware of the importance of their 

history, and both public and private entities began to take steps toward its preservation. 

Throughout the postwar period, Alaska had experienced an increasing volume of 

tourists. In the late 1940s, tourist facilities and tours had been minimal, but by the 

1960s entrepreneurs had developed a broadening network of hotels, gift shops, 

transportation facilities and related amenities.27 

There were relatively few ways, however, for tourists to visit Skagway. Many tourists 

drove the Alaska Highway, then took the White Pass and Yukon Route railway south 

from Whitehorse or Carcross. Others flew in from Juneau on an Alaska Airlines Twin 

Otter which served Skagway on a daily basis, weather permitting.28 But the only 

maritime vessels visiting Skagway in the early 1960s were the Prince George, a small 

Canadian National cruise ship serving the Inside Passage since 1948; the Princess 

Kathleen and the Princess Louise, Canadian Pacific ships which began their tenure 

during the mid-1950s; the Glacier Queen and the Yukon Star, from Chuck West's 

Alaska Cruise Line, which had served the port since 1957; and the M/V Chilkat, a small 

ferry which connected Skagway with Haines and Juneau.29 

The increasing demand for tourist travel to southeastern Alaska made it imperative that 

new ships be found. In order to give residents and visitors an inexpensive way to travel 

between the southeastern ports, Alaska voters in the November 1960 election approved 

the formation of the Alaska Marine Highway System. The new system, which brought 

new ships and sent the Chilkat elsewhere, was inaugurated in May 1963. New ships 

included the M/V Taku, the M/V Matanuska, the M/V Malaspina, and several smaller 

ferries. The local newsletter editor predicted that the ferries would bring forth a 

"second Klondike gold rush" which would "flood the town" with visitors.30 

27

 William J. Stanton, Economic Aspects of Recreation in Alaska, Part 1, Volume 1 of Alaska Recreation 

Survey (Washington, NPS), 1953; Charles B. West, Mr. Alaska, The Chuck West Story: 40 Years of Alaska 

Tourism, 1945-1985 (Seattle, Weslee, 1985), 68-73; Marybeth Holleman, Tourism: An Overview of the 

Industry (Anchorage, UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1989?), 2. 

28

 Rodger W. Pegues to Stanley T. Albright, March 27, 1974, in CF; Southeast Alaska Empire, March 26, 

1974, 3. 

29

 G. R. Stevens, History of the Canadian National Railways (New York, Macmillan, 1973), 401; North 

Wind, July 1963, 4; West, Mr. Alaska, 82-85; "The Alaska Marine Highway System," Alaska Review of 

Business, 3. Lynn Canal News, August 21, 1980, 1, notes that the Princess Patricia began serving Skagway 

in 1963. 

30

 North Wind. June 1963, 1; "The Alaska Marine Highway System," Alaska Review of Business, 3. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 69 

Skagway also began to see additional cruise ships. In 1963 the Canadian Pacific 

replaced the Princess Louise with the Princess Patricia.31 Chuck West and his Alaska 

Cruise Line also arranged for a third ship, the Polar Star, to serve the gold rush city. 

More cruise ships joined the fray in 1969.32 

In order to cater to the growing numbers of visitors, local residents began to open new 

tourist facilities. In 1961, the Trail of '98 Museum, under the direction of Paul Sincic, 

opened in the old Court House building.33 Five years later, lifelong resident George 

Rapuzzi reopened the long-dormant Soapy Smith Museum. The arch-villain's former 

saloon had been located on the south side of Sixth Avenue since April 1916, but in May 

1963 Paul Cyr, a White Pass employee, moved it to its present location on Second 

Avenue. Rapuzzi, a recently-retired White Pass mechanic, fixed up the old building, 

and featured on his tour many gadgets which Martin Itjen had first used when he 

conducted tours during the 1930s.34 Chuck West of Westours, needing a place to 

accommodate the extra travelers he brought, built the 30-unit Klondike Hotel in early 

1967.35 

Another event which shed light on the area's history was the Alaska Purchase 

Centennial. The centennial process, which began in 1963, made Alaskans throughout 

the state more aware of their history. The most obvious event connected to the 

centennial was the construction of a large fairgrounds in Fairbanks. Thousands of 

people visited the fair during the summer of 1967 and enjoyed its atmosphere. Much of 

this was due to the presence of the S.S. Nenana, a Yukon River steamboat, and to the 

numerous log cabins which had been moved to the site from elsewhere in the Tanana 

31

 North Wind, June 1963, 1; Carl Mulvihill to the author, December 5, 1994. 

32

 North Wind, September 1967, 7; West, Mr. Alaska, 101-02; San Francisco Examiner, September 18, 

1968, 16; Wall Street Journal. November 12, 1968, 19. 

33

 North Wind, August 7, 1963, 1; March 1966, 1; Juneau Empire, February 21, 1995, 9. 

34

 North Wind, April 1964, 6; July 1965, 11; May 1966, 1; Carl E. Mulvihill, "Seventh Meeting Minutes," 

November 5, 1964, in "Skagway" folder, Series 233, RG 15, ASA. Alice Cyr, interview by author, December 

21, 1993; Carl Mulvihill to author, December 5, 1994. 

35

 The hotel was built at the northwest corner of Third Ave. and Spring St.; subsequent additions, in 1973, 

1976, 1980, and 1982-83, have been built on both sides of Third Avenue. The Klondike also expanded in 

1974 when it acquired the Gold Rush Motel, a hostelry at the corner of Second Avenue and Spring Street 

which had been constructed in 1972. North Wind, December 1966, 4; January 1967, 1; March 1967, 6; April 

1972, 7; June 1973, 6; April 1974, 11; J. Thomas Ritter to Area Director, Alaska, March 4, 1976, in File L58, 

CF; Lvnn Canal News, February 14, 1980, 1; Skagway News. July 28, 1982, 3; August 11, 1982, 1. Other 

Skagway hotels included the Golden North, which had been operating since the gold rush days, along with 

the Skagway Inn, the White House, and the Sourdough Inn. The Skagway Inn is still open, but the White 

House and the Sourdough Inn succumbed to fire damage in December 1977 and July 1979, respectively. 

North Wind, January 1978, 7; Lvnn Canal News, July 17, 1979, 1. 
70 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

River valley. But the centennial also had a lasting effect elsewhere in the state because 

each town had its own centennial committee and designed its own projects. 

Skagway was an active participant in the centennial celebration. The Skagway 

Centennial Committee was formed in the summer of 1963 and remained until early 

1968. During that period, the committee considered several ideas for a major statesupported facility and finally received funding for the Dahl Memorial Health Clinic, 

which was constructed in 1968 at the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Broadway.36 

Skagway's citizens also undertook many historical restoration projects during the 

centennial period. The Skagway Women's Club, for example, provided a new 

foundation, a new roof, and 1898-style interior decor for the municipally-owned Arctic 

Brotherhood Hall; it then opened an information and tourist center in the building.37 

Jack Kirmse, a jeweler and curio shop owner, restored the old Moore cabin in 1964. 

Business owners, using their own funds, renovated the old Canadian Pacific Railway 

ticket office (today's Trail Bench gift shop), the Golden North Hotel, Dedman's Photo 

Shop, the Sweet Tooth Saloon, Skagway Hardware, the Red Onion Saloon, and Moe's 

Frontier Bar.38 The city renovated the old court house building, and Engine 52, the 

WP&YR's first locomotive, was hauled into town from the Atlin area.39 Window 

displays were placed in several vacant buildings, and the Gold Rush Cemetery was 

renovated and cleaned. City fathers, despite a "strong local movement" to lay cement 

sidewalks along Broadway, decided to continue the use of the same type of wooden 

36

 "Skagway Centennial Grant File" correspondence folder, Series 233, Department of Economic 

Development Records (RG 15), ASA. During the first several years of Centennial Committee activity, the 

major project was to be an auditorium-sized community center, but the impending closure of the White Pass 

Hospital, announced in August 1966, militated a change in priorities. In July 1967, the city had decided to 

build both a $150,000 Centennial Building and a $50,000 Health Building, but by January 1968 the community 

center had been dropped. The health clinic was named for Dr. Peter Dahl, who had worked at the White 

Pass Hospital for 26 years. North Wind, August 1966, 1; July 1967, 6; December 1967, 6; January 1968, 1; 

June 1968, 1; July 1968, 2; August 1968, 7. 

37

 North Wind. February 1964, 6; May 1965, 1; Carl E. Mulvihill, "Seventh Meeting Minutes," November 

5, 1964, in "Skagway" folder, Series 233, RG 15, ASA. 

38

 Juneau Alaska Empire. August 30, 1964, 2; North Wind, September 1964, 7; Herb Adams to Ron 

Saroff, July 22, 1966, in "Skagway" folder, Series 233, RG 15, ASA; Barbara Kalen to author, November 17, 

1994. 

39

 In early 1962, prior to Engine 52 being moved to town, Engine 195 had been moved from the railroad 

yards to the museum grounds, where it has served as an outdoor display ever since. "Skagway" 

correspondence folders, Series 233, RG 15, ASA; Southeast Alaska Empire. August 30, 1964, 2; David P. 

Morgan, "The Call of the Yukon is a Locomotive Whistle," Trains 23 (February 1963), 25. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 77 

walks which had been laid along Broadway since the gold rush period.40 Some of these 

projects were funded, in whole or in part, with centennial funds, but most had little or 

no relation to centennial activities. 

It should be noted that tourism was not the only aspect of Skagway's economy that 

boomed during the 1960s. The White Pass and Yukon Route boomed as well, largely 

because of mining developments taking place in Yukon Territory. Large mines had 

been opening in the Yukon since the late 1950s, but the mine which had the largest 

impact on Skagway's fortunes was the Cyprus Anvil development at Faro. This silverlead-zinc deposit, located 200 road miles north of Whitehorse, was discovered in 1965. 

Large-scale processing commenced two years later. A key part of the development 

agreement was the decision to send the ore out via Skagway. To do so, trucks hauled 

the ore from the mine south to Whitehorse. The ore was then transferred to the 

railroad, where specially-designed ore cars brought the freight to tidewater.41 

The increased load requirements brought about by the Cyprus Anvil contract 

necessitated the strengthening of many of the railroad's bridges and culverts. The huge 

"steel bridge," two miles south of White Pass summit, was unable to be strengthened and 

had to be abandoned; it was replaced by a tunnel and a smaller bridge. In Skagway, the 

railroad contractors filled in the town's huge tidal flats and converted it into a flat, open 

industrial zone. Most of that area remained empty, but at its southwestern end the 

railroad built an enormous ore terminal to store the powdery concentrate. It also built 

the Anvil dock and a conveyor-belt assembly apparatus to transfer the ore from terminal 

to ship.42 

The Chilkoot Pass Marker Dedication 

A statewide project which began during the centennial period was a series of bronze 

historical markers. The members of the local centennial committee recognized that 

40

 Concrete sidewalks were no stranger to Skagway. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, several 

businesses, including the Pack Train Inn and the Eagles Hall, had laid their own concrete sidewalks, and 

several city council members favored their installation citywide. During the Alaska Purchase centennial 

period, concrete sidewalks were laid throughout the city, except on Broadway. Skagway City Council minutes, 

April 4, 1949; June 13, 1949; June 22, 1949; and May 1950, all in Trad of '98 Museum Collection; North 

Wind, July 1966, 2; December, 1966, 4; July 1967, 2; August 1967, 4; September 1967, 7; July 1968, 10; Martin 

F. Schafer to Merrill J. Mattes, October 25, 1968, in CF. 

41

 Stan Cohen, The White Pass and Yukon Route; A Pictorial History (Missoula, Mont., Pictorial 

Histories Pub. Co., 1980), 77; Roy Minter, "Ninety Years of White Pass History in Fifteen Minutes," (speech 

at WP&YR Historic Site Dedication, Whitehorse, August 5, 1988), unpub. mss., 9-10, in KLGO Collection. 

42

 Cohen, White Pass and Yukon Route, 79, 83; North Wind, September 15, 1967; North Wind, December 

15, 1967; Thomas Healy, Skagway City Manager, interview by author, September 14, 1988. 
72 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Skagway was one of Alaska's major historical centers, and at one point drew up a list of 

16 local historical sites. Costs, however, demanded that only 33 sites in the state be 

chosen. Skagway was favored with four historical markers: at the Arctic Brotherhood 

Hall, at the Trail of '98 Museum (McCabe College), in front of White Pass Engine No. 

52, and near First Avenue and State Street, where Soapy Smith and Frank Reid had 

their duel. In addition, it was decided that a marker be placed near the summit of 

Chilkoot Pass.43 

The idea of having a centennial-based ceremony commemorating the 1898 stampeders 

arose in February 1964. George Benesch, a Juneau Boy Scout leader, expressed interest 

in having the scouts take part in a dedication ceremony at the summit. Herb Adams, 

Executive Director of the Alaska Purchase Centennial Commission, liked the 

proposal.44 By 1966, officials began working on the details of the event. Those who 

had been attending the international centennial meetings hoped to make the 

commemoration a jointly-sponsored endeavor, and Governor Egan, hoping to publicize 

the dedication, invited Secretary Stewart Udall once again to hike over the Chilkoot. 

Sen. Ernest Gruening also invited Udall, and promised to accompany him. Those who 

participated in the summit ceremony would dedicate a bronze centennial plaque which 

would be installed shortly before the ceremony.45 

In the plan which was finally settled upon, three Juneau masons were helicoptered to 

the top of the pass on July 23; soon afterward, they erected the monument's base and 

installed the historical plaque. Inscribed on it were the following words: 

IN 1897 KLONDIKE STAMPEDERS BY 

THE THOUSANDS FUNNELED OVER THIS 

ANCIENT INDIAN TRAIL, ENDURING 

INCREDIBLE DEPRIVATIONS AND 

HARDSHIPS. THEIR TENACIOUS SPIRIT, 

DOMINATING ALL OBSTACLES, CONTINUES 

TO INSPIRE PIONEERS VENTURING NORTH 

TO THE FUTURE.46 

43

 Carl E. Mulvihill to G. Dean Olson, June 16, 1966, in "Skagway" folder, Series 233, RG 15, ASA; 

Alaska Highway Department, Alaska Historical Markers and Centennial Plaques (Juneau, the author, 1969), 

16-22; Carl Mulvihill to author, December 5, 1994. 

44

 Adams to Benesch, February 27, 1964, in "Canada-Chilkoot Pass" folder, Series 231, Department of 

Commerce and Economic Development Records (RG 15), ASA. 

45

 Egan to Udall, March 28, 1966; Centennial Meeting Minutes, July 11, 1966, 5; both in Folder 870, 

Series 41.2, RG 01, ASA; Micheal Leach to Roscoe Bell, March 27, 1967, in CTHC. 

46

 Alaska Highway Department, Alaska Historical Markers, 16. "North to the Future" was the state's 

slogan during the mid-1960s; it appeared on license plates and on official state stationery. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 73 

Following the installation of the monument, on August 3, a group of 53 Juneau-area 

Boy Scouts and seven leaders left Juneau for the pass.47 Plans called for them to be 

followed, a day later, by an official party. (Secretary Udall, unfortunately, would not be 

among them; due to the press of other business, he again had to opt out.) The two 

hiking parties would meet at the top of the pass on August 6; they would be met by less 

hearty officials, who would be flown into Crater Lake and hike the short distance to the 

top. The half-hour ceremony would take place beginning at 12:30 p.m. on the 6th; after 

the ceremony, the officials would return to Crater Lake, after which one and all would 

fly on to Whitehorse. The next day, officials would begin the week-long Alaska-Yukon 

Flotilla to Dawson.48 

The monument dedication ceremonies took place as scheduled on August 6. 

Overambitious plans and poor weather, however, demanded major modifications in 

officials' plans. Although the Boy Scouts headed up the Chilkoot as scheduled, there is 

no evidence that an official party followed them. The weather, as it turned out, was 

poor on Chilkoot Pass on August 6, so officials were flown instead to the Bennett, B.C. 

railroad station and the dedication was held there. Just four officials—two from the 

Yukon, one from British Columbia, and one from Alaska—attended the dedication in 

front of a crowd of a hundred or so tourists. The official party was then flown to 

Whitehorse, and the river flotilla went on as scheduled.49 

Shortly after the plaque was dedicated, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources 

moved to publish the first Chilkoot Trail hiker's guide. The 19-page guide, released in 

1968, was written by Mike Leach and Henry Hall of the Division of Lands. It included 

a history of the trail, an explanation of the major historical resources found, a 

description of the two shelters and other improvements, and notes about the area's 

weather and wildlife. Inasmuch as improvements on the Canadian side of the trail 

began that year, the guide provided only a brief overview of (and warning about) 

conditions on the Canadian side.50 

47

 Southeast Alaska Empire, July 28, 1967, 1; August 2, 1967, 3; North Wind, August 1967, 3. 

48

 Gov. Walter Ilickel to C. R. Porter, April 12, 1967; Udall to Hickel, May 22, 1967; Herb Adams to 

Frank Murkowski, August 1, 1967; "Boy Scouts Leave for Chilkoot Pass Ceremonies" (press release), August 

1, 1967; all in "Canada-Chilkoot Pass" folder, Series 231, RG 15, ASA. 

49

 Herb Adams to File, August 30, 1967, in "Canada-Chilkoot Pass" folder, Series 231, RG 15, ASA. 

50

 Alaska Department of Natural Resources, The Chilkoot Trail: A Guide to the Goldrush Trail of '98 

(Juneau, the author), 1968; Mike Leach interview, November 1, 1995. 
74 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

The Yukon-Taiya Commission 

As noted in Chapter 2, Alcoa Aluminum Company during the early 1950s made a 

serious attempt to construct a hydroelectric project and aluminum manufacturing plant. 

Had it been constructed, the aluminum plant would have been located in the Taiya 

River valley; it would have resulted in a projected 4,000 jobs and a city of 20,000 people. 

That project died on the drawing board because of the refusal of British Columbian and 

Dominion interests to contribute the necessary water rights. 

Alaskan development interests, however, retained an interest in the project, and refused 

to let it die. In April 1960, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) informed Senator 

Ernest Gruening that it intended to revoke the two land withdrawals which had been 

taken out in January 1948 and October 1952, respectively. (As noted in Chapter 2, 

Public Land Order 436, in 1948, had withdrawn practically all of the Taiya River valley 

in one 46,592 acre parcel; PLO 868, in 1952, had withdrawn approximately 7,400 acres 

in the area immediately surrounding Skagway.) Shortly afterwards, the Federal Power 

Commission let it be known that they intended to revoke the 5000-acre power site 

withdrawal which it had made in April 1948.51 State officials, who were also contacted, 

thought little of it at first; as DNR chief Phil Holdsworth noted in a memorandum to 

Governor William A. Egan, "The[se] lands...are of no interest to the State of Alaska in 

connection with State water conservation plans."52 

Alaska officials, however, quickly had a change of heart. They had recently become 

more conscious of the state's water resources because of increasing interest in the 

Rampart project along the Yukon River. They apparently took the BLM letter as a 

wake-up call and, over the next several months, attempted to interest several potential 

developers in the possibilities of Taiya project water. In the summer of 1960, for 

instance, a consultant for the Aerojet-General Corporation traveled to several Alaskan 

sites in search of a proposed missile fuel facility. The governor's office responded to the 

trip by suggesting that he include the "Dyea Valley" in his travels.53 The consultant 

looked into the matter, only to conclude that "The tentative judgment reached so far is 

that major hydroelectric development in Alaska does not appear to be attractive [in 

comparison to thermal power costs] before 1980."54 

51

 Edward Woozley (Director BLM) to Ernest Gruening, USS, April 15, 1960, in Box 85, Gruening 

Collection, UAF. 

52

 Holdsworth to Egan, August 11, 1960, in File 311.1, Series 41, RG 01, ASA. 

53

 David E. Clinkenbeard (Arthur D. Little) to Burke Riley, September 14, 1960; Riley to Clinkenbeard, 

September 21, 1960; both in File 741, Series 41, RG 01, ASA. 

54

 Clinkenbeard to Riley, October 14, 1960, in File 741, Series 41, RG 01, ASA. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 75 

Later that year, Gary Thurlow, an assistant attorney general for the state, became an 

enthusiastic advocate for the project. He noted that the Taiya River site appeared to be 

"the best site in the world for the cheap production of great quantities of electricity." 

Knowing the project's history, Thurlow suggested the possibility of an atomic energy 

facility instead of an aluminum plant. He suggested that the Atomic Energy 

Commission (AEC) request the construction of hydroelectric facility at that location. 

Thurlow felt that the Canadians might look favorably upon the use of project waters if 

devoted to a national defense installation.55 Egan responded to Thurlow's suggestions 

by urging the AEC to consider the idea. The AEC, however, responded that the agency 

did "not have current plans for the development of new sites or of new facilities that 

would require large amounts of electric power...."56 

Senator Gruening, who in the early 1950s had actively promoted the Taiya project, also 

sought someone to develop the area's water resources. He contacted an ALCOA 

official "wondering whether the [company] might again become a prospect to use energy 

in Alaska...." Several months later, he wrote ALCOA again. "I would like some 

counsel," he noted, "on whether the Aluminum Company of America—or any other 

company in your estimation—might be interested in obtaining energy from this project 

for use for aluminum reduction in the Skagway area." The company's response was not 

encouraging. Gruening, therefore, had to tell Skagway mayor Cy Coyne that ALCOA 

would not be interested now or in the future in a development such as 

that which so nearly came to pass ten years ago. It is in the poorest 

possible political location...literally astride an international boundary and 

subject to basic controls by the federal governments of the United States 

and Canada, as well as the State of Alaska and the Province of British 

Columbia.57 

Having exhausted those possibilities, state and federal officials moved to revoke the 

various land and water withdrawals. On March 6, 1961, the Federal Power Commission 

announced its intention to vacate the April 1948 power site withdrawal.58 By this time, 

state officials had indicated that they would select Taiya Valley lands for themselves if 

the Federal land withdrawals were revoked. The Skagway Chamber of Commerce, in a 

letter to Senator Gruening, expressed concern that the power site revocation would 

55

 Gary Thurlow (Asst. Atty. General) to Egan, December 28, 1960, in File 421.1, Series 41, RG 01, 

ASA. 

56

 Egan to John R. Deny (AEC), February 1, 1961; William K. Maher (AEC) to Egan, February 10, 

1961; both in File 421.1, Series 41, RG 01, ASA. 

57

 Ernest Gruening to R. A. Learnard, March 28, 1961; Gruening to Leon Hickman, January 25, 1962; 

Gruening to Cyril A. Coyne, February 12, 1962; all in Box 85, Gruening Collection. 

58

 BLM, Power Site Classification No. 396, in Federal Register, March 11, 1961, 2138. 
76 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

jeopardize the state's ability to select Taiya Valley lands.59 Gruening, however, 

reassured the body that state selection of Taiya Valley lands would not injure their 

power value.60 

Based on that assurance, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, on March 30, signed 

Public Land Order 2317, which revoked both the 1948 and the 1952 land withdrawals. 

Three weeks later, Assistant Secretary of the Interior John A. Carver, Jr. signed Public 

Land Order 2350, which revoked the April 1948 water withdrawal subject to state 

selection.61 PLO 2350 contained language which gave the State of Alaska until July 24 

to select the lands in question before they reverted to unrestricted Federal ownership.62 

Given that deadline, the state applied for lands in Dyea, the Taiya Valley and vicinity 

on June 23. The state selected those lands, at least in part, for their recreational value; 

state work crews that summer had begun clearing the Chilkoot Trail (see above). But 

the state was also interested in the area's water development possibilities, and officials 

had no intention of precluding the construction of a future Taiya project should political 

conditions change.63 

Interest in Taiya development lapsed for the next several years, and Alaskans hoping to 

develop the state's hydroelectric resources focused their attention on Rampart Dam, on 

the Yukon River. But in early 1964, the Rampart Project ran into a temporary 

roadblock. Morgan Reed, a Skagway resident who served in the state's House of 

Representatives, responded to the situation by introducing a legislative resolution (H.R. 

10) on March 6 which asked that the Taiya project be revived if Rampart efforts were 

quashed. Reed and others recognized that the Yukon-Taiya project was second only to 

the Rampart project in the total electrical capacity which could be generated from 

northern waters; therefore, it was only logical that if the Rampart could not be built, 

Yukon-Taiya should. Reed was less than successful with his resolution. It passed the 

Resources Committee, but then got bogged down in the Rules Committee and went no 

further.64 

59

 Gruening to Stewart Udall, March 20, 1961, in Box 85, Gruening Collection. 

60

 Gruening to James W. Burton, March 20, 1961, in Box 85, Gruening Collection. 

61

 Gruening to James W. Burton, April 3, 1961; Irving Sengel (BLM) to Gruening, April 28, 1961; 

both in Box 85, Gruening Collection. 

62

 Federal Register. April 29, 1961, 3703. 

63

 File A 061057, in BLM Alaska State Office, Anchorage. The state applied for 203,023 acres of land 

in ten townships; only five of those townships were located in the Taiya River drainage system. 

64

 North Wind. March 1964, 1; H.Res. 10 (1964), in ASA; Alaska House Journal (1964), 248, 308; 

U.S. Department of the Interior, Rampart Project. Alaska: Market for Power and Effect on Natural 

Resources, vol. 2 (Juneau, the author, January 1965), 444-457. 
(top) The Sheep Camp Shelter was constructed by Alaska Youth and Adult Authority 

honor camp inmates in 1963. It served as a camping spot and day use area until 1993, 

when NPS personnel completed the laying out of a new campground, half a mile south 

of the shelter, (bottom) Footbridge typical of the Dyea end of the trail, 1968. 

Mark Bollinger photo, KLGO SC #1627 (top); Alaska DNR, "The Chilkoot Trail, Trail of '98," 5 
(top) The Alaska Youth and Adult Authority built this cable crossing to transport goods 

across the Taiya River. In September 1971, when this photo was taken, the tram was 

still standing, but it collapsed soon afterward, (bottom) Mike Leach, of the Alaska Division of Lands, examines an old suitcase while standing in the ruins of a Canyon City 

building during a 1967 trip. By the late 1970s, the building had collapsed. 

Theodore R. Merrell photo, KLGO PC #5466; Alaska DNR, "The Chilkoot Trail, Trail of '98," 1968, 9 
(top) Cyril A. (Cy) Coyne, shown here with his wife May, was instrumental in getting federal authorities interested in preserving the Skagway area's historical resources. Coyne 

served as Skagway's mayor during the 1950s and 1960s; he was also a real estate agent, 

insurance agent, and newspaper editor, (bottom) The Alaska Purchase Centennial Commission contracted to erect this plaque, just south of Chilkoot Pass, in August 1967. The 

centennial plaque was one of 33 that were placed around the state that year; others in 

the Skagway area were located at the Trail of '98 Museum, Arctic Brotherhood Hall, and 

WP&YR Engine 52. 

North Wind. June 1976, 8 (top); KLGO SC #1058 (bottom) 
(top) Rep. Ralph Rivers (D-AK) and Rep. Roy Taylor (D-NC) with two Chilkat dancers 

at Port Chilkoot (Haines), Alaska, August 1, 1965. Rivers recognized the need for federal involvement; Taylor, the head of the House Interior Committee, held a hearing on 

the Klondike park bill a decade later, (bottom) NPS officials (1-r) Alfred Kuehl, Robert 

Luntey, Merrill Mattes (in front) and Bailey O. Breedlove met in Glacier Bay in 1967. 

Mattes, a historian, headed a 1968 team that compiled Skagway, a Study of Alternatives, 

the first agency document directed specifically at the Skagway area. 

Ted Swem Collection (top); GLBA Photo #828 (bottom) 
The NPS Advisory Board on a White Pass & Yukon Route observation car at the Bennett (B.C.) station on August 2, 

1965. Group includes Rep. E. Y. Berry (R-SD), left on ground and Rep. Roy Taylor (D-NC) on right. On platform of 

car, left to right, are Paul L. Phillips, Dr. Joe B. Frantz, Dr. Emil W. Haury, Frank Melvin, Anthony A. Buford, Mrs. 

Buford, Dr. Wallace L. Stegner, Richard Witmer, and Frank P. Briggs. Of those standing on the car, all were advisory 

board members except Melvin, who was an NPS employee; Witmer, who was on the House Committee staff; and Mrs. 

Buford. 

Ted Swem Collection 
(top) WP&YR steamboats were the primary means of transport between Whitehorse and 

Dawson, for both tourists and residents, prior to the early 1950s. During the 1960s, the 

Canadian government began to get interested in preserving these and other Yukon historical resources. This photo shows the Aksala, the Casca, and the Whitehorse on drydock 

at Whitehorse. The Aksala was later hauled away; the other two boats burned in a 1974 

fire, (bottom) In 1968, inmates at the Yukon Correctional Institute constructed the socalled Upper Cabin at the south end of the Lindeman City townsite. This photo, taken a 

year later, shows the cabin (left) and the tents of the YCI workers (lower right). 

Dedman's Photo Shop (top); Ted Swem Collection (bottom) 
(top) Broadway Street, Skagway, looking north from Third Avenue. The photo was taken 

in 1969, before restoration efforts had commenced by either the private or public sectors. 

The Pack Train (left, with tower) was restored with private funds in 1981; the Lynch and 

Kennedy store, adjacent to the Pack Train, was restored by the NPS in 1991-93; Igloo 

Liquors and the Sourdough Inn were destroyed by fire in July 1979; and Keller's Curios 

is still a privately-owned business, (bottom) During the Chilkoot Trail hike which took 

place over Labor Day weekend 1969, Peter Bennett (National Historic Sites Survey, 

Canada), Ted Swem (NPS), Mike Leach (Alaska Division of Lands), and Terry Brown 

(CBC Whitehorse) are shown where the Chilkoot Trail cut-off meets the WP&YR at 

mile 37.4. Note the railroad tracks at bottom of photo. 

Ted Swem Collection (both photos) 
Over Labor Day weekend 1969, seventeen Canadian and U.S. representatives hiked the Chilkoot Trail in order to help 

organize interest in a future park. Members of the group (from left to right) include Ed Hanousek, Mayor of Skagway; 

Peter Bennett, National Historic Sites Survey, Canada; Terry Brown, CBC Whitehorse; Don Cline, park planner, Ottawa; 

Ruth Moulton, Anchorage; Bob Howe, NPS; Yvonne Esbensen, U.S. Interior Department; Vic Ogison, Yukon Corrections; Ron Hodgkinson, Assistant Commissioner of the Yukon; Ted Swem, NPS; Ed Leon, Skagway Chamber of 

Commerce; Gary McLaughlin, Yukon Corrections; Bruce Harvey, Yukon National Historic Sites director, Whitehorse; 

and Robbie Harvey, Whitehorse. 

Mike Leach photo, Alaska Division of Lands; Ted Swem Collection 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 77 

That September, the Governor of Alaska, the Premier of British Columbia, and the 

Yukon Commissioner conferred in Whitehorse on a variety of regional issues. Ray 

Williston, the powerful British Columbia Minister of Lands, Forests, and Water 

Resources, spoke at the meeting and sounded an optimistic note when he stated that 

"There is no doubt that the most attractive scheme of development for [Yukon basin 

water] resources would be one based on the Nechako-Kitimat model with a tunnel 

directly to tide-water near Skagway." He recommended that a joint effort be made 

toward early project development. The three leaders, therefore, resolved to set up a 

power development commission to look into Taiya's power potential.65 

A joint power committee was quickly organized. It was composed of two men: Phil 

Holdsworth, Alaska Commissioner of Natural Resources, and A. F. Padgett, British 

Columbia's Deputy Minister of Water Resources (and Williston's assistant). The men 

met twice during the next two years and held extensive discussions about the proposed 

project.66 

On January 27, 1967, Elton Engstrom, Jr. of Juneau, who represented Skagway in the 

Alaska State Senate, introduced a bill which called for the creation of the Yukon-Taiya 

Commission. The bill, SB 32, called for a three-member commission that would 

make a preliminary determination as to the feasibility of a diversion dam 

at Miles Canyon on the Yukon River above Whitehorse, with the water of 

the upper Yukon being diverted from Lindeman Lake under Chilkoot Pass 

to the Taiya River. If the Yukon-Taiya diversion project is feasible, the 

commission shall take action necessary to initiate a more detailed 

combined Canadian-American feasibility of this project. The commission 

shall make every effort to instigate concurrent international negotiations 

concerning the development of this project. 

Engstrom's bill experienced virtually no opposition. It passed the Senate on March 7 

and the House on April 6, both by unanimous votes, and was signed into law by 

Governor Walter Hickel on April 19.67 

Engstrom introduced two other Yukon-Taiya bills during the 1967 session. One, known 

as Senate Joint Resolution 1, "resolved that a combined Canadian-American feasibility 

study be initiated, resulting in the aggressive promotion of this project." The non65

 Ray G. Williston, "Alaska-British Columbia-Yukon Conference, Northern Power Resources" 

(speech), in File 421.1, Series 41, RG 01, ASA; North Wind. September 1964, 10. 

66

 Phil R. Holdsworth to Carl McMurray, February 21, 1967, in File 421, Series 41, RG 01, ASA; 

North Wind, June 1965, 5; North Wind. April 1966, 5. 

67

 Cy Coyne to Hickel, April 29, 1967; Hickel to Coyne, May 3, 1967; both in File 421, Series 41, RG 

01, ASA; Alaska Senate Journal (1967), 25, 295, 779. 
78 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

binding resolution passed the Senate on February 10 and the House on March 28, both 

by unanimous votes, and was signed by Governor Hickel on March 31. As a result, 

copies of the resolution were dutifully sent out to the Yukon Commissioner, the 

Premier of British Columbia, and the Canadian Prime Minister.68 But a companion bill 

to finance the commission did not fare so well. SB 33, which called for a $25,000 

appropriation, never got out of committee. 

The following year, two major actions took place regarding the Yukon-Taiya 

Commission. First, the commission gained its first funding. In addition, the legislature 

passed a bill, SB 356, that raised the number of commission members from three to five, 

and stated that its duties would be simplified. (Its new purpose was to "seek the 

initiation of a joint United States-Canada study of the Yukon-Taiya hydroelectric 

project and related resources development.") Senator Engstrom introduced SB 356 in 

February 1968. It was approved by the Senate on March 6, by the House on April 5, 

and by Governor Hickel on April 23.69 The commission was finally ready to begin its 

work. 

Canadians Begin Managing the Chilkoot Trail 

During the same period that the Americans were making plans on how to manage lands 

on their side of the border, Canadians were making plans as well. The Canadians' 

interest in the area surrounding the Chilkoot and White passes grew in much the same 

way as it had on the U.S. side of the border. Corrections personnel, who hoped to clear 

out a recreational pathway over Chilkoot Pass, were the first to become involved; after 

that, park planners joined the fray and began to consider protecting the area because of 

its historical qualities. 

Prior to the 1960s, few Canadians or Americans expressed much concern about the 

Chilkoot Trail. When work crews began brushing out the south end of the trail in 1961, 

Alaskan officials informed provincial officials in British Columbia of their actions and 

tried to stir up interest among them.70 No response came from B.C. officials, but two 

years later, Canadian Federal officials began showing an interest when James R. Lotz, a 

research officer with Canada's Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, 

asked Michael Leach about trail conditions. Lotz hiked over the trail that August and 

penned a short report on trail conditions. He then discussed the trail with Yukon 

68

 Alaska Senate Journal (1967), 101, 113, 597; Arthur Laing (Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern 

Development) to Engstrom, May 15, 1967, in File 421, Series 41, RG 01, ASA. 

69

 SB 356, in "Yukon-Taiya Commission," file, Series 100 (1968), Box 5055, RG 01, ASA; Alaska 

Senate Journal (1968), 237, 252, 361. 

70

 Charles W. Pfeiffer to Paul Winsor, May 11, 1961, in Chilkoot Trail Reading File, KLGO. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 79 

Commissioner Gordon R. Cameron, who was interested in the idea of rehabilitating the 

trail.71 (The northern half of the trail is situated in British Columbia. B.C. officials, 

however, had little interest in the area, because traffic in the Skagway-Whitehorse 

corridor had virtually no economic impact on the province. It fell to Yukon Territory 

officials, therefore, to work with the Americans on this and similar area projects.) 

Cameron's interest in the Chilkoot, however, did not lead to a trail restoration project. 

Alaskan officials, who encountered their Canadian counterparts at the annual meeting 

of the Alaska-BC-Yukon Centennial Committee, tried to encourage such a project. 

James Lotz, from Canada's Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, 

hiked the Chilkoot a second time and issued an updated trail guide, and other Canadian 

officials investigated the possibility of obtaining funds from the Historic Sites Branch. 

By 1966, however, those officials had told them that they were restricted to expending 

funds on designated park areas only. Therefore, it was doubtful that they could do 

anything on their section of the trail since it was not a park.72 

Yukon officials, undeterred, embarked upon a new course of action. In early 1967, the 

Yukon Corrections Department was planning to open a new medium security institution 

as well as a new minimum security camp. Once the department established those 

operations, it hoped to be able to undertake responsibility for clearing and maintaining 

the Chilkoot. Upper-echelon British Columbia officials expressed no objections to the 

idea, and on May 8, the territory's first Corrections Director, William R. Morrow, 

predicted that trail work would begin shortly. But Morrow's plan bogged down because 

the anticipated institutions did not open as soon as he had hoped. In addition, Yukon 

officials had to obtain permission from British Columbia's Forestry Services branch as 

well as the province's Attorney General. Plans to clear the trail were postponed 

indefinitely.73 

That summer, however, momentum tipped in the opposite direction. At Morrow's 

behest, Dick North and other members of the Yukon press corps spoke out against the 

delays and about the lack of trail improvements, and they further argued that a 

completed trail would generate tourism income. Readers were urged to write Kenneth 

Kiernan, the British Columbia Minister of Parks and Recreation, and protest the lack of 

71

 Leach to Lotz, May 24, 1963; Leach to Lotz, September 5, 1963; Lotz to Murton, October 21, 1963; 

all in CTHC; North Wind. August 1963, 3; J. R. Lotz, "The Chilkoot Trail To-Day," 1963; Lotz, "On the 

Trail of '98," Seattle Post-Intelligencer. May 31, 1964, PR 10-12. 

72

 J. R. Lotz, "The Chilkoot Trail To-Day, Dyea to Bennett," unpub. mss., December 1965; Leach to 

Phil R. Holdsworth, May 19, 1964; Leach to Bob Knox, January 27, 1967; both in CTHC. 

73

 Gary McLaughlin to the author, February 19, 1995. 
80 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

a trail crew.74 A month after those editorials were printed, a 61-year old Juneau 

woman, Verona Bowles, got lost on the trailless Canadian side; she was stranded for 

three days before being rescued~in good condition but hungry—by a WP&YR railroad 

crew. After that well-publicized incident, the Yukon news media issued a renewed call 

for trail work. In response, Morrow sent out a small crew from the Wolf Creek Bush 

Camp to mark out a likely path for recreational trail. The crew flew in to the trail 

corridor by helicopter over the Labour Day weekend. It discovered that "the trail was 

almost non-existent so an easy walking route was picked and blazed with yellow paint at 

about 200 foot intervals."75 

Morrow kept pressing on the issue, and by the following March he was hopeful once 

again. In a letter to Michael Leach, he remarked that 

You have probably thought that the renovation of the Canadian section of 

the Chilkoot Trail was a lost cause, however ... I am very optimistic, in 

that we will be in a position to commence a program this summer.76 

Four months later, the trail renovation was a reality at last. Victor L. Ogison, who 

became Corrections Director after Morrow's death, finally got the project going. He 

sent a crew of three staff members—R. Gary McLaughlin, John B. Maloney, and Harry 

Deneron—and six inmates from the Yukon Correctional Institute to commence trail 

work. The crew left Whitehorse on July 18; the same day, they had established a base 

camp at the former site of Lindeman City. The summer's primary task was the 

construction of the Upper Cabin, built between July 30 to August 15.77 In addition, the 

74

 As Dick North noted in a 1993 letter to Supt. Alderson, "We did it [the press campaign to open the 

trail] on behalf of Dick Morrow." Herb Adams to L. J. Wallace, March 23, 1967; W. R. Morrow to 

Correctional Supervisor, Adult Camp, Palmer, May 8, 1967; Morrow to Leach, July 17, 1967; Morrow to 

Leach, March 7, 1968; all in CTHC; Yukon Daily News, July 10, 1967, 4, 16; "Newspapers" section, 

KLGO Collection. 

75

 Southeast Alaska Empire, August 11, 1967, 1; Yukon Daily News, August 11, 1967, 1; North Wind, 

August 1967, 4; September 1967, 2; Gary McLaughlin to author, February 19, 1995; Mike Leach to 

author, October 19, 1995. Leach was on the trail when the Juneau woman became lost and unsuccessfully 

tried to locate her. He recalls that the woman, claiming a knowledge of the trail route, had advertised in 

a Juneau newspaper for hiking companions. The three young people that answered the ad, however, 

soon discovered that she did not know her way, and she was also physically unable to complete the trip. 

The trio, hiking southbound, deserted her but reported the incident to Leach and his party near Long 

Lake. McLaughlin, recalling the crew that marked the trail over Labour Day weekend, noted that "Like 

every one else who hiked the trail back then, [the crew] missed the original trail." 

76

 Morrow to Leach, March 7, 1968, in CTHC. 

77

 Morrow had recommended the refurbishment of the Lindeman City "trappers' cabin," which dated 

from the first decade or two of the twentieth century. Perhaps at the suggestion of Mike Leach, however, 

a new cabin was built several hundred yards to the south. Leach to Morrow, March 19, 1968, in CTHC; 

Gary McLaughlin to author, February 19, 1995. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 57 

inmates marked a trail from Lindeman to the railroad tracks at Mile 37.4, four miles 

south of Bennett. They also marked another trail south to the south end of Long Lake, 

built a bridge over Moose Creek, and revamped the old Lindeman City graveyard. The 

crew returned to Whitehorse in early September.78 

Ogison was so encouraged by the results of the first year's work that he laid out a longterm work plan for the trail. Noting that "the 17 miles on the U.S. side of the border 

took four years to complete," he postulated that there was "enough work out there to 

keep inmates busy three or four years." He made plans to dispatch eight inmates to the 

trail in 1969.79 

On June 2, however, just six inmates along with two staff members returned to their 

previous camp. Tasks that year included the clearing of the entire Canadian portion of 

the trail; construction of a bridge just south of Deep Lake, a bridge at Bare Loon Lake, 

and three other bridges; and the erection of a "Chilkoot Trail" sign at mile 37.4. Work 

also began on the construction of the Lower Cabin at Lindeman Lake. The crew 

returned to Whitehorse on September 2.80 

Groups of inmates returned to the trail each year until 1973. In 1970 they completed 

Lower Cabin; the following year, crews moved into it. (The new site was preferred 

because it provided inmates better protection from the wind, fresh water from nearby 

Moose Creek, and an improved boat launching area.) Beginning in 1971, crews were 

primarily engaged in the maintenance of the existing trail.81 

78

 Chilkoot Trail Logbook, 1968, in Parks Canada files, Whitehorse; Ogison to Leach, September 19, 

1968, in CTHC. South of Lindeman, the crew easily found the original trail and reused it. North of 

Lindeman, however, signs were more difficult to trace. Gary McLaughlin, who was assigned to mark the 

trail to Bennett, spent two summers looking unsuccessfully for signs of a historic pathway. He finally 

"concluded that the majority of gold seekers used Lindeman Lake to reach Bennett by boat." He then 

found an old game trail that he followed to mile 37.4. Before long, however, the number of hikers 

walking the tracks began to concern White Pass officials. Corrections officials responded by cutting a new 

trail west of the tracks, and between 1974 and 1976 a new trail was blazed that ran north from Bare Loon 

Lake, passed the cemetery south of Bennett, and ran abreast of the old church before descending to the 

railroad station. Alaska Department of Natural Resources, The Chilkoot Trail: A Guide to the Goldrush 

Trail of '98, 1974; Parks Canada and NPS, The Historic Chilkoot Trail, Trail Guide, c. 1976; Gary 

McLaughlin to author, February 19, 1995. 

79

 V. L. Ogison to Commissioner, Y.T., January 22, 1969, in Parks Canada files, Whitehorse. 

80

 Chilkoot Trail Project, 1969 [logbook]; [Chilkoot Trail] 1969 Visitors Book; both in Parks Canada 

files, Whitehorse. The two staff members, John Maloney and Gary McLaughlin, were later joined by R. 

J. Dunlop and Harry Deneron. 

81

 R. B. Harvey, "International Gold Rush Park, Report of September 1972," CF; "Klondike '73 Canoe 

Pageant Itinerary," in CF; Alaska DNR, Chilkoot Trail Guide, 1968, 18. Plans hatched during the late 

1960s had called for the construction of cabins at the summit and at Deep Lake. These projects, 

however, were never implemented. Bearss, Klondike Park Study, 289. 
82 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

The inmates' work, which was intended to popularize the Chilkoot as a recreational 

pathway, was an immediate success. In 1968, the Canadians' first year on the trail, 

fewer than one hundred hikers signed the logbook which the YCI crew had installed at 

Lindeman Lake. But in 1969, more than 160 hikers signed the register; in 1970, "close 

to 500" hiked over the trail; in 1971, between 600 and 700 made the hike, and in 1972, 

an estimated 800 to 1,000 hikers crossed over Chilkoot Pass.82 Almost all of those that 

crossed the trail in those early days were independent travellers who made the entire 

trip on foot. Some, however, rode on horseback from Dyea to Sheep Camp. Wes 

Nelson, a Dyea resident, conducted horseback trips up the Chilkoot from 1966 through 

1973. Others took the trip under the guidance of local resident Robert O. "Skip" Burns, 

whose Klondike Safaris began operating in 1970 and continued until after the creation 

of the park.83 

During the late 1960s, when the Yukon territorial officials were taking steps to refurbish 

the Chilkoot Trail for recreational purposes, Canadian federal officials began to 

consider designating certain sites in the area because of their historical value. 

Canadian involvement in preserving Klondike-era gold rush sites had begun in 1959 

when the White Pass and Yukon Route donated to the federal government four 

sternwheelers: the S.S. Keno, S.S. Klondike, S.S. Casca, and the S.S. Whitehorse. A 

year later, in August 1960, the National Historic Sites Branch (NHSB) floated the S.S. 

Keno from Whitehorse down to Dawson; it was the only one of the four which fit under 

the Carmacks bridge. In 1961, the Branch repaired the old riverboat, and it was used 

the following year as a casino during the much-ballyhooed Dawson City Gold Rush 

Festival. During this early period, the NHSB also showed an interest in the old Palace 

Grand Theatre. The deteriorated building was declared a National Historic Site in 

1959, and the Branch acquired it in 1961; soon afterward, however, it was demolished 

because of it was deemed unsuitable as a Dawson Festival venue. (The NHSB erected a 

replica in time for the festivities, which took place during the summer of 1962. )84 

Events also took place in Whitehorse. In 1966, as a result of recommendations of the 

82

 [Lake Lindeman] Visitors Book for 1968-1969, in Parks Canada files, Whitehorse; Don McCune to 

John A. Rutter, May 13, 1971, in CF; Canadian Environmental Sciences, Ltd., Chilkoot Trail: Provisional 

Master Plan Study (Ottawa, National and Historic Parks Branch, February 1972), 12; NPS, Proposed 

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Master Plan, hereafter known as KLGR Master Plan 

(Denver, the author, May 1973), 25, 44. 

83

 North Wind, March 1966, 1; Whitehorse Star, May 29, 1967, 5; North Wind. April 1969, 4; Malcolm 

Moe comments, May 26, 1971, in CF; North Wind, February 1971, 6 and July 1971, 8; NPS, "Chilkoot 

Trail Ranger Reports," 1973 through 1978, in Box 1, RG 70, KLGO Archives. 

84

 Richard Stuart, "Recycling Used Boom Towns: Dawson and Tourism," Northern Review 6 (Winter 

1990), 118-21; "Klondike Gold Rush Theme for Four New National Historic Sites" (press release), 

Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, November 1969, in "Klondike Gold Rush 

NHP" file, Box 1, Swem Collection, Denver Public Library. During the early 1960s, the National Historic 

Sites Branch was part of the Department of Northern Affairs and National Development. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 83 

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, the S.S. Klondike was moved across 

town to the Whitehorse waterfront. The HSMBC designated both the Keno and the 

Klondike as National Historic Sites.85 

In 1967, the HSMBC made an additional recommendation regarding the Chilkoot Trail. 

It asked 

That the Department [of Indian Affairs and Northern Development] 

explore the possibility of establishing an interpretive centre at Bennett to 

tell the story of transportation to the Yukon, including trails and the 

building of boats and barges, using the shell of the Presbyterian Church.86 

That same year, the National Historic Sites Branch began making many of the same 

plans as its American counterparts had earlier in the decade when, on a nationwide 

basis, it established a Historic Sites Planning Committee. It began to study and 

inventory sites soon afterward, and in the summer of 1968 the committee visited 

Whitehorse, Dawson, and the Klondike gold fields. In conjunction with that effort, the 

Branch established a staff presence. In the fall of 1967 a full-time custodian began work 

in Dawson; the following March, R. Bruce Harvey moved from Winnipeg to Whitehorse 

and became the first Superintendent of Historic Sites for the Yukon.87 

By January 1968, the head of the National Historic Sites Service (NHSS), Peter Bennett, 

contacted American officials and indicated an interest in being informed of their park 

planning efforts.88 The Canadians, by that time, had been working on plans for 

historic sites in Whitehorse, Dawson, and the Klondike creeks for some time. They had 

little interest in the Chilkoot; their primary goal in that sphere, as noted above, was the 

preservation of the Bennett church and the creation of an interpretive facility within it. 

Beyond that, Mr. Bennett indicated that the NHSS was "studying this chapter of 

85

 National Historic Sites Service, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Klondike 

Gold Rush International Historic Park. Provisional Development Plan: Canadian Sites (Vancouver?, the 

author, c. 1970), "Background Data and Current Position" section, paragraphs 1 and 2; "Judd Buchanan 

Outlines Parks Canada Developments in the Yukon" (press release), June 2, 1975, in "L58 1965-76" 

folder, AHC. The S.S. Klondike was refurbished during the 1970s, and on Canada Day, July 1, 1981, it 

was dedicated by Honorable John Roberts, Canada's Minister of the Environment. Both the Keno and 

the Klondike are now on display, in Dawson and Whitehorse, respectively. The Casca and the 

Whitehorse were destroyed in a Whitehorse fire on June 20, 1974. 

86

 Environment Canada-Parks, Proposed Chilkoot Trail National Historic Park, Management Planning 

Program. Newsletter No. 1 (May 1986), 2. 

87

 National Historic Sites Service, Klondike Gold Rush International Historic Park, paragraphs 4 and 

9; Bennett to Luntey, April 25, 1968, in CF; Stuart, "Recycling Used Boom Towns," 124, 126. 

88

 John W. Bright to Chief, Office of Resource Planning, SSC, January 24, 1968, in CF. 
84 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Canadian history with the object of determining how best to preserve the relics and 

interpret the story of those exciting days."89 

In May 1968, as noted below, various NPS planners travelled to Whitehorse and met 

with Yukon Commissioner James Smith. (Neither Bennett nor Harvey were able to join 

them.) Smith, who was familiar with both Federal and Territorial programs, told the 

team that the American study would dovetail neatly into their plans.90 Thereafter, 

Canadian historical officials awaited the outcome of the Skagway Alternatives Study so 

that more concrete action could take place regarding an international park proposal. 

The Skagway Alternatives Study 

During the summer of 1967, the long delay in beginning an NPS study of Skagway and 

vicinity finally came to an end. Robert Luntey, an NPS official from San Francisco, 

headed a small team which made a quick reconnaissance of Skagway and took the 

White Pass Railroad to Whitehorse.91 Soon afterwards, on October 10, NPS 

representatives met in Juneau with Governor Hickel in a meeting which had been 

arranged by Joseph Fitzgerald, the chairman of Federal Field Committee for 

Development Planning in Alaska.92 The two NPS officials, Director George Hartzog 

and Assistant Director Ted Swem, broached the idea of a national park for the Skagway 

area. Parks were also proposed for the Arrigetch Peaks area (Gates of the Arctic), 

Lake Clark Pass, the Wood-Tikchik Lakes area, all of which had been the subject of 

NPS reconnaissance studies. The governor's support was critical at this juncture 

because the NPS, at the time, lacked a broad national basis of support for Alaska parks. 

At that meeting, Hickel expressed a definite interest in the Skagway park proposal. He 

agreed to speak to local officials about the project, and he assigned Dr. Carl McMurray 

(one of his staff assistants) as a contact person. The governor, however, gave no such 

support for the other three projects, perhaps because they involved relatively large 

amounts of acreage.93 

89

 Bennett to Luntey, April 16, 1968; Bennett to Luntey, April 25, 1968; both in CF. 

90

 Mattes to Chief, Resource Planning, SSC, May 8, 1968; Mattes to Howe, June 12, 1968; both in CF. 

91

 Robert S. Luntey to Peter Bennett, March 8, 1968, in CF. 

92

 Ted Swem, interview by author, November 18, 1994. The so-called Federal Field Committee had been 

created in 1964 following the disastrous Good Friday earthquake; since that time, the committee had served 

as a conduit for federal assistance funds. These monies had initially been directed to specific impact areas, 

but later were used for more broad-based economic development projects. 

93

 NPS, Skagway: A Study of Alternatives, 4; Hartzog to Hickel, December 7, 1967, in File 882, Series 41, 

RG 01, ASA; Theodor Swem, interview by author, November 18, 1994. As Swem noted years later, Hickel 

"made no further real commitments to help us out except in the case of the Skagway-Chilkoot Pass study. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 85 

The Skagway Alternatives Study, which was proposed after that meeting, was intended 

to examine alternative ways of ensuring the preservation of the historic scene; it was to 

do so by "exploring ways and means of achieving this through the cooperative efforts of 

private owners, and various levels of government." The study was to be organized by 

Merrill J. Mattes of the agency's San Francisco Service Center. He was to be assisted 

by Reed Jarvis, a regional-office historian; Robert E. Howe, Superintendent of Glacier 

Bay and Sitka national monuments; and Bailey O. Breedlove, the landscape architect 

who anchored the Alaska Field Office in Anchorage. Howe was asked to serve as 

"keyman" or local contact person.94 

The study finally began in March 1968. The NPS, well aware that any proposed park 

would be a multi-agency affair, asked the governor's office to seek the advice of 

Skagway officials. State Park representatives, as well as a state legislator, were also 

invited to assist in study preparation. NPS officials also contacted their counterparts in 

Canada. Peter Bennett, who served as the Assistant Director in charge of historic sites 

in the National and Historic Parks Branch of the Department of Indian Affairs and 

Northern Development, immediately showed a keen interest in the project.95 

Field work for the study was conducted in late April and early May. Study organizer 

Merrill Mattes, along with Howe, Breedlove, and Jarvis, spent a week in and around 

Skagway; as part of the trip, they spoke to civic and railroad officials and flew over the 

Chilkoot and White Pass trails. The team then took the train to Whitehorse, where 

they and DNR official Mike Leach met with James Smith, the Commissioner of Yukon 

Territory.96 

Mattes spent much of the summer traveling, but by September he was in the midst of 

efforts to complete a preliminary study on NPS management alternatives in the Skagway 

area. He entrusted historian Reed Jarvis with writing the report; Jarvis, however, was 

study. In that case he opened the door for us with the Skagway town fathers, and this enabled us to look 

at the area in a more open fashion during 1968." Swem to John Kauffmann, November 9, 1976, in 

"Roger Allin 1966 Report" file, Box 6, Swem Collection. 

94

 Robert S. Luntey (Chief, Office of Resource Planning, SSC) to RD/WRO, March 8, 1968, in CF. 

95

 John W. Bright (Acting Chief, Division of New Area Studies and Master Planning) to Chief, Office 

of Resource Planning, SSC), January 24, 1968; Luntey to RD/WR, March 8, 1968; Hall to RD/WR, 

March 26, 1968; Hall to Edward Hanousek, April 15, 1968; Bennett to Luntey, April 16, 1968; all in CF. 

Bennett, though a resident of Ottawa, had a longstanding interest in the Klondike, having first visited 

Dawson in 1948. Bennett to Ted Swem, November 26, 1974, in "Klondike Gold Rush NHP" file, Box 1, 

Swem Collection. 

96

 Mattes to Chief, Resource Planning, SSC, May 8, 1968; Mattes to Bob Howe, June 12, 1968; both 

in CF; Southeast Alaska Empire, May 8, 1968, 8. 
86 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

sidetracked for months with other duties.97 It might well have been delayed even 

more, but NPS staff became so concerned about the fate of the White Pass railroad 

depot (see section below) that they rushed the study through to completion. An 

advance copy of the alternatives study was sent off for Washington review on March 19, 

1969.98 

The Skagway Alternatives Study, designated as a "report to explore alternatives for 

Federal participation in a program to save historic Skagway, Alaska, from extinction," 

offered three visions of National Park Service involvement in the area. Alternative One 

retained the status quo, and called for no direct NPS involvement in the area. 

Alternative Two called for the designation of Skagway as a National Historic Site. The 

NPS would establish a superintendent in Skagway; it would acquire, however, "only 

those structures needed for an orientation, information, and interpretation complex." 

Planners recommended the acquisition of the three-building Mascot Block, the 

"Salvation Army Building" (now called the Boas Tailor and Furrier Building), the twobuilding White Pass and Yukon Railway passenger station, and the old Customs House 

adjacent to the station.99 Both the Chilkoot and White passes would be managed by 

the state. The proposed NHS would encompass a total of 2.4 acres. 

Alternative Three, which called for the largest degree of NPS involvement, gave the 

agency management control over the 17-mile Chilkoot Trail and the 12-mile White Pass 

Trail. This plan, though more comprehensive than the others, called for little more 

involvement in Skagway than Alternative Two had outlined; regarding the two trails, it 

envisioned NPS management over just a 208-foot wide corridor. It also called for the 

preservation of 160 acres in Dyea, which included the two Dyea cemeteries, and 40 

acres in the White Pass City area. The three-unit proposal, which planners termed 

"admittedly unusual," encompassed just 977 acres. It called for three permanent and 

two seasonal staff. The Skagway and White Pass Trail areas were tentatively called 

"Skagway National Historical Park;" the Chilkoot Trail corridor would become a 

97

 Mattes to Carl Mulvihill, September 18, 1968; Team Captain, RPSSC to Chief, RPSSC, January 29, 

1969; both in CF. 

98

 Luntey to Assistant Director, Cooperative Activities, March 19, 1969; Mattes to Bailey Breedlove, 

March 20, 1969; both in CF. 

99

 Reed Jarvis, the team's historian, noted at the time that "I often feel that the Service gets bogged 

down in having a greater number of historic structures than it can really use for interpretive purposes. If 

we cannot find uses for the historic structures, they are for all purposes dead; just being there to complete 

a picture is not a sound economic or interpretive reason. At Skagway, I have tried to keep the actual 

number of Service-owned structures to a minimum, yet including all those historic structures needed to 

convey the essence, spirit, character of the gold rush era to the visitor." Jarvis to Mattes, March 26, 1969, 

inCF. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 87 

segment of the "Klondike Gold Rush International Trail," which would stretch from 

Dyea to Dawson.100 

The plan was significant for several pioneering concepts. Included, for example, was the 

first compilation of data on the historical buildings in the downtown area. Most of the 

historic business district was included; off-Broadway buildings included the Alaska Cable 

Office (at First and Main), City Hall, the Pullen House, and Captain Moore's Log 

Cabin. The report proposed the first historical district—an essentially rectangular area 

which included all lots within 100 feet of Broadway—and proposed an ordinance and 

advisory board to regulate the appearance of the structures contained within it. The 

NPS was quick to point out that it was not the first agency to delineate a historic district 

in Skagway (the Alaska State Housing Authority had described a "Historical 

Commercial" area five years earlier when it prepared a comprehensive plan for the city), 

but it was the first to suggest a protective status for the gold rush-era buildings.101 

The report also proposed several ideas that would later prove controversial. For 

instance, Alternative Three proposed the elimination of parking along Broadway and 

the laying of railroad tracks down the center of the street. Planners also called for the 

two trainsets—Engine 52 and an 80-series engine, each with period cars—to become 

static displays along Broadway.102 

The NPS planning team recommended that Alternative Three be adopted. The 

principal difficulty of the first alternative, they noted, was that "barring a miracle in the 

form of a private Rockefeller-type philanthropist, it cannot succeed. The resources of 

Skagway and Alaska alone can only lead to a pessimistic conclusion about the fate of 

historic Skagway." The agency was more hopeful about the second alternative, primarily 

because it called for a historic zoning ordinance, the creation of a Historic Advisory 

Board, and the establishment of tax benefits for landowners who were willing to 

participate in an historic preservation program. But the final alternative was considered 

most desirable in terms of interpretation, preservation, and management.... 

[It] incorporates the best feature of Alternative Two—joint participation in 

Skagway—and suggests a pathway to preservation and interpretation 

outside of the city.... The strength of the alternative lies in its enlistment 

100

 NPS, Skagway: A Study of Alternatives. 33-41. 

101

 Ibid,, 23-24, 35. 

102

 The idea of a locomotive on Broadway was not new. Tracks had been a fixture on Broadway from 

1898 to the end of World War II, and in 1964 Cy Coyne, the local newspaper editor, suggested "that we 

mount Engine 52 on a concrete pedestal in the middle of Broadway." North Wind. August 1964, 7. 
88 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

of more people outside the Service, yet actually requires a relatively small 

amount of land in dirept National Park Service control.103 

Others in the agency concurred with the recommendations of the report writers. 

Northwest District Director John Rutter gave an informal "unqualified endorsement" of 

Alternative Three on March 25. The Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation 

agreed as well. The agency's Washington planning office noted that 

this alternative, we think, is the only one which would permit an adequate 

job to be done in communicating the historic theme and its significance. 

If we are to become involved at Skagway at all, we should avoid limiting 

ourselves to the town itself, lest we end up communicating only the 

tinseled and somewhat shopworn dancehall aspect of the history of the 

Alaskan gold rush. The trails up to the gold fields are at least equal to 

the town in importance to the story.104 

William Bowen, the Director of the Western Regional Office, also preferred the third 

alternative. He was skeptical, however, that the NPS could do much to preserve 

Skagway's historical resources. Citing the report's contention that the preservation of 

Skagway through zoning and voluntary action could not succeed barring a Rockefellerstyle "miracle," Bowen noted that 

We do not see that you have made it clear how Service participation 

under Alternatives Two and Three would remedy this basic situation. No 

large Federal appropriations for preservation are recommended, and no 

other source of funds is suggested except a tax benefit to private owners 

for historic features of private development.... It is not made clear in your 

report exactly what State or Federal funds would be forthcoming and why 

they would not be available without National Park Service participation. 

Bowen also expressed concern about the report's emphasis on a cooperative planning 

effort. Noting the agency's failures on the subject at Nez Perce National Historical 

Park, he cautioned, "Remember that enforcing a zoning ordinance depends upon the socalled 'police power' of the community and that enforcement can be very lax if an 

unsympathetic city administration should come into power at a future date."105 

Bowen's concerns were valid in any situation where the agency had less than total 

103

 NPS, Skagway: A Study of Alternatives. 42. 

104

 Luntey to Assistant Director, Cooperative Activities, March 27, 1969; Ernest Allen Connally 

(OAHP) to Associate Director, Planning and Development, April 14, 1969; Arthur C. Allen to Associate 

Director, Planning and Development, April 7, 1969; all in CF. 

105

 Bowen to Chief, Office of Resource Planning, SSC, April 3, 1969, in CF. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 89 

control; as noted in later chapters, they have resulted in frustrations experienced by 

each of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park's superintendents. 

By May 1969, the NPS had publicly announced its decision to back Alternative Three. 

In a brief released that month, which in retrospect appears both biased and hyperbolic, 

the agency 

recommended that the Congress establish the Skagway National Historical 

Park, preferably placing under Federal ownership approximately 977 acres 

of land.... While some kind of miracle has spared a substantial number of 

buildings to date, their numbers are dwindling rapidly from neglect, 

abandonment, or deliberate acts of destruction. 

Given the completion and approval of the Alternatives Study, NPS officials looked 

forward to coordinating their efforts with Canadian officials and to the eventual 

preparation of a master plan for the proposed park areas.106 

Preserving the White Pass Depot 

A major issue which confronted Merrill Mattes and the other NPS park planners was 

the fate of Skagway's turn-of-the-century White Pass and Yukon Route railroad depot. 

Soon after the planning team began its investigation of the area's historical resources, it 

met with WP&YR officials. Roy Minter, assistant to the WP&YR president and a 

Vancouver resident, happened to be in Skagway. He informed the team that a few 

months earlier, the company had decided to erect a new depot. Once it was completed, 

the company planned to demolish the existing depot. Mattes, clearly alarmed at the 

prospect of the town losing one of its most significant buildings, quickly alerted his 

superiors in San Francisco.107 

Minter did his best to articulate the railroad's position on the subject. He noted that 

"during the last five years the old depot has been the subject of many discussions within 

our Company." He was well aware that the depot was "full of history and nostalgia." 

The building, however, was quickly falling victim to the elements; it had crooked beams, 

a heaved floor, a poor heating system, and a virtually nonexistent foundation. A new 

depot was clearly needed. The land where the old depot stood, moreover, was needed 

as a parking and service area for the railroad's increasing auto-carriage traffic. NPS 

106 NpS j »propose d Skagway National Historical Park," May 1969, in "Klondike Gold Rush NHP" file, Box 

1, Swem Collection; Luntey to Assistant Director, Cooperative Activities, April 15, 1969, in CF. 

107

 Mattes to Chief, Resource Planning, SSC, May 8, 1968, in CF. 
90 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

officials were told that the depot would not be torn down for another year; the decision 

to raze it, however, had already been made.108 

MPS officials did what they could to publicize the impending demolition. They realized, 

however, that they were still in the early stages of studying the Skagway area; a park, 

should it be authorized, was many years in the future. The best they could do, 

therefore, was to pass their concern on to the two state officials that managed tourism 

and historical sites, respectively. They hoped that the two state officials would request 

Governor Hickel to personally intervene in the affair and halt demolition long enough 

to allow the planning effort to reach its logical conclusion.109 

The NPS's pleas for help began to have some effect. Martin Schafer, the Director of 

the state's Department of Economic Development, was fully cognizant of the value of 

the depot in Skagway as a tourist destination. He expressed surprise at the recent turn 

of events and wrote Minter about it. Secretary of State Keith Miller called him as well. 

Minter was cordial and cooperative to both, and even offered the building, without 

charge, "to anyone who has the financial means to move the depot to a new location 

and preserve it as a historical building." If no such arrangement could be made, the 

depot was to be demolished. The company scheduled a demolition date of late May 

1969. Meanwhile, in late November 1968, construction work began on the new 

depot.110 

Word of the depot's impending demise spread throughout the NPS's Washington, D.C. 

and San Francisco offices. Most officials could do little but wring their hands over the 

matter; Mattes, however, vowed to fight the matter as best he could. He soon learned 

that Governor Hickel was reluctant to intercede prior to the completion of the 

alternatives study.111 Mattes also knew that because Skagway was a company town to 

a large extent, few there were in a position to influence the railroad's actions. Mattes 

could only hope that "someone with 'official clout' might yet convince the WP&Y RR 

people that they should at least defer demolition long enough to enable the NPS, the 

State, and the city of Skagway to explore the possibilities of salvation." He also knew 

that the depot was located within the Skagway and White Pass National Historic 

108

 Mattes to Schafer, September 20, 1968; Minter to Schafer, October 31, 1968; both in CF. 

109

 Mattes to Martin Schafer, September 20, 1968; John Rutter (RD/WRO) to Ted G. Smith, October 

16, 1968; both in CF. Rutter's letter had been written by Luntey a month earlier; it noted, with an 

admirable prescience, that "If a preservation plan based on national recognition by the Congress of the 

United States becomes a reality, preservation of the old depot by the Government would become a 

distinct possibility. It might be conceivably adapted as a future NPS headquarters and museum." 

110

 Schafer to Mattes, October 25, 1968; Minter to Schafer, October 31, 1968; both in CF; Southeast 

Alaska Empire, November 19, 1968, 7; North Wind. November 1968, 1. 

111

 Theodore G. Smith to John A. Rutter, November 14, 1968, in CF. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 91_ 

Landmark, and that the demolition of the depot, although legally permissible, would 

jeopardize the quality of that NHL. Therefore, he hoped that Ernest Allen Connally, 

chief of the NPS's Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, would write to Frank 

H. Brown, WP&YR's president. A letter from Connally, forcefully reminding Brown of 

the depot's historical importance, might cause Brown to appeal to his "better instincts" 

and preserve the building. Better yet, he hoped that either NPS Director George 

Hartzog or Interior Secretary Hickel might be able to convince President Brown to 

delay the impending demolition.112 

On April 7, Hartzog wrote Brown and asked him to reconsider the WP&YR's decision, 

noting that in the professional judgement of NPS planners "the Yukon and White Pass 

station is the most significant surviving structure in Alaska illustrating and 

commemorating the Klondike gold rush period." He asked for a meeting between NPS 

and WP&YR officials "to discuss ways of preserving this important historic 

structure."113 Meanwhile, Howard Pollock, Alaska's Congressional representative, was 

notified of the situation. 

Hartzog's original letter to Brown somehow got lost in the mail, but Rep. Pollock's 

office intervened and provided him a copy. Roy Minter of the WP&YR, who replied to 

Hartzog, painstakingly explained the situation. The railroad, he noted, had no malicious 

intent in the matter and had even publicized the depot situation in area newspapers. 

He restated, however, that little could be done to save the depot. He wrote that 

The old building is done. It is with regret that we announce its passing. 

Many people have written to us urging reconsideration. Unfortunately, we 

have received no specific or practical suggestion as to how its removal and 

preservation are to be engineered and financed. 

He reiterated that it would be a highly expensive proposition to move the building 

(something that even Mattes had admitted was "a rather sorry idea"), and remained firm 

that the building had to go. He delayed the scheduled demolition date, however, until 

the end of July, and as per Hartzog's suggestion, agreed to meet with NPS officials.114 

Recognizing the immediacy of the situation, the NPS dispatched two architects, Richard 

C. Mehring and A. Lewis Koue, to Skagway to determine the feasibility of moving the 

depot and the adjacent customs building. Mehring noted that "all buildings are 

112

 Mattes to William J. Murtagh, January 20, 1969; Mattes to Bailey Breedlove, March 20, 1969; 

Luntey to Assistant Director, Cooperative Activities; all in CF. 

113

 Hartzog to Brown, April 7, 1969, in CF. 

114

 Minter to Hartzog, May 27, 1969; Minter to Robert A. Frederick, May 27, 1969; Mattes to Martin 

Schafer, April 21, 1969; all in CF. 
92 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

structurally sound" and that each, theoretically, could be moved. Each building, 

however, presented special problems, of which the vault in the depot's administration 

building was perhaps the most egregious. In Koue's opinion, "Disuse and neglect of 

some areas has resulted in obsolescence and disrepair of some elements, resulting in a 

dilapidated appearance; but the authenticity and integrity of the buildings are very well 

preserved." The architects made a historical analysis and completed measured drawings 

of the depot.115 

Koue noted that if the depot and customs buildings could not be preserved in situ, they 

should be moved over to the north side of Second Avenue, in the vacant lots behind the 

various Broadway businesses. But Robert Luntey, a San Francisco-based NPS planner, 

offered an alternative plan. He recommended that the NPS purchase the vacant land 

between Second and Third avenues for use as a WP&YR parking lot. Such an action 

would necessitate the removal of the customs building—perhaps to the west side of 

Broadway-but would keep the depot intact. If the WP&YR were unwilling to do so, 

consideration would then be given to moving both the depot and customs building to 

the south side of the railroad tracks and west of Broadway.116 

The NPS was also quick to arrange a meeting with WP&YR executives. That meeting 

took place in Vancouver on June 23-24 and was attended by Merrill Mattes, John 

Rutter, Roy Minter, and other railroad officials. The discussion was long and cordial, 

but the railroad was unyielding in its position that both the depot and the U.S. Customs 

office had to be either demolished or moved. The NPS, however, gained several 

concessions. First, at Mattes's insistence, it saved the customs building, at least for the 

time being. (Company employees were about to proceed with demolition when Minter 

sent a telegram ordering them not to do so.) Second, WP&YR officials agreed to delay 

depot demolition until July 1970, but only if a workable way could be found to remove 

the building by that date. (The new depot, which began to be constructed in November 

1968, would be completed a year later, thus exacerbating the need for adjacent space.) 

Finally, White Pass officials agreed to a less tangible though critical concession. They 

were fully aware that they had been suffering poor public relations because of their 

intransigence on the depot issue. Therefore, NPS officials perceived that railroad 

officials would fully cooperate if a depot relocation effort were attempted.117 

115

 Mehring to Mattes, June 18, 1969, and Koue to Chief, Branch of Restoration, July 17, 1969, both 

in CF; NPS, Project Prospectus, Preservation of Historic Railroad Structures. Proposed Klondike Gold 

Rush National Historical Park. October 1969, 2. 

116

 Koue to Chief, Branch of Restoration, July 17, 1969; Luntey to Assistant Director, Cooperative 

Activities, March 19, 1969; Bearss to Chief Historian, September 2, 1969; all in CF. CF. 

117

 Mattes to Rutter, June 30, 1969; Minter to Rutter, September 30, 1969; both in CF; North Wind, 

November 1968, 1; March 1969, 1; November 1969, 1. 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 93 

Given a new window of opportunity, NPS officials did what they could to save the 

various buildings. On September 12, Merrill Mattes and Bailey Breedlove visited 

Skagway to consider alternatives for their preservation. While there, they were glad to 

learn that the WP&YR was planning to move the customs building across Second 

Avenue and sell it to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen.118 

But no other opportunities came forth. 

Lacking other possibilities, the NPS looked into the possibility that a new organization, 

the National Park Foundation, might be able to help preserve the old depot. The NPF 

had been established by Congress on December 18, 1967; it had held its first meeting on 

July 31, 1968. The tax-exempt, non-profit, charitable Foundation was created, in part, 

to accept, receive, solicit, hold, administer, and use any gifts, devises, or 

bequests...of real or personal property...Provided, that the Foundation may 

not accept any such gift, devise, or bequest which entails any expenditure 

other than from the resources of the Foundation."119 

The regional offices knew little about the NPF before October 1968, and not until June 

1969 was it considered as a possible solution to the dilemma over the depot. At that 

time, it was one of several organizations to be contacted "to determine if any party or 

parties exist who can provide needed funds and continuing responsibility for the 

structures pending consideration of a park proposal by Congress."120 But none of 

those other possibilities were successful, and by October 1969, Mattes recognized that 

"the only hope for these buildings is to secure the interest of the National Park 

Foundation in spending the necessary funds," estimated to be $75,000 to $100,000. 

Funding the building relocation would require a "definite show of interest" by Director 

Hartzog.121 

In order to convince both Director Hartzog and the National Park Foundation of the 

project's worthiness, NPS Western Region officials hurriedly produced a report entitled 

Project Prospectus, Preservation of Historic Railroad Structures. The report noted that 

the Service still hoped, if at all possible, to preserve the depot in situ. The Service had 

no illusions about the intransigence of WP&YR officials, but still felt that 

118

 Luntey to District Director, Northwest District, September 18, 1969; NPS, Project Prospectus. 

Preservation of Historic Railroad Structures. 6. 

119

 Director NPS to The Directorate and all Regional Directors, October 3, 1968, in CF; "Bodman to 

Accept Historic Skagway Depot for National Park Foundation" (press release), May 24, 1972, in Alaska 

Parks/Miscellaneous, Box 2, HFC. 

120

 Mattes to DD/NWD, June 30, 1969, in CF. 

121

 Mattes to DD/NWD, October 13, 1969, in CF. 
94 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

one more effort should be made to convince the officials that the buildings 

should remain in their original location, since any alternative location 

would be inferior by preservation standards. Accordingly, it is proposed 

[as historian Edwin Bearss had suggested during an August 1969 visit] that 

we first confront the railroad with an offer to buy the eight vacant lots in 

Block 35 exchanging this real estate for the two lots which contain the old 

railroad structures.... This offer [which would cost the NPF $35,000] 

should be made "cold turkey" to the railroad with no mention whatever of 

other possible alternatives. 

If the WP&YR proved adamant that the buildings had to be moved, the NPS would 

adopt Lewis Koue's suggestion that they be relocated to the vacant lots on the north 

side of Second Avenue. If that possibility proved unworkable, then the buildings could 

be moved to city land at the southeast corner of Third Avenue and Spring Street. The 

two alternative plans each entailed $45,000 in relocation costs; the cost of either plan 

totalled $80,000.122 

The completed report was passed along to the Director in early November. Secretary of 

the Interior Walter Hickel, the former Alaska Governor, also backed the plan. The 

proposal thus had strong support when it was presented to the National Park 

Foundation board at their December 4 meeting; based on that support, the Foundation 

board approved the NPS proposal.123 The Foundation then proceeded to negotiate 

directly with White Pass. On March 6, 1970, several NPF officials met with railroad 

officials Roy Minter and John S. Butterfield. The NPF expressed its desire to acquire 

the depot, and asked once again that the company refrain from any actions that would 

result in its demolition. Moving the building was not discussed; instead, the NPF 

encouraged the railroad to take advantage of the tax benefits to be gained from 

donating the structure to the Foundation.124 

By early 1971, White Pass finally told the NPS that it would be willing to consider 

leaving the depot complex in situ and transfer it to the National Park Service. Soon 

afterward, the company agreed to donate the complex to the National Park Foundation, 

recognizing that by doing so they could obtain tax credits from the donation. On May 

19, the NPF at long last acquired the land and buildings via a quit claim deed, and soon 

afterward, it assumed maintenance of the property.125 

122

 NPS, Project Prospectus, Preservation of Historic Railroad Structures. 7-12. 

123

 Mattes to DD/NWD, October 13, 1969; William J. Bowen to DD/NWD, October 31, 1969; both in CF. 

124

 Robert R. Garvey, Jr. to Roy Minter, March 12, 1970, in CF. 

125

 NPS, Proposed Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Master Plan, preliminary working draft, 

March 1971, 31; Douglas Cornell to Reed Jarvis, June 8, 1971; "Briefing Statement for the Alaska Field 

Committee on the Proposed Klondike Gold Rush International Historical Park," February 8, 1972; both in 
Chapter 3: State and Federal Agencies Show an Interest 9![ 

More than a year later, on May 27, 1972, the White Pass and Yukon Route officially 

donated the depot to the National Park Foundation at a ceremony in Skagway. White 

Pass was represented by Marvin P. Taylor, the company's vice president in charge of 

operations, while Assistant Secretary of the Interior Richard S. Bodman represented the 

National Park Foundation. (The Secretary of the Interior is the ex officio chairman of 

the NPF board.) Both men made brief remarks. Additional speakers that day included 

Roy Minter, the special assistant to White Pass president Albert P. Friesen, and John 

Bryant, an assistant secretary of the NPF.126 

CF; Property Deed Books, Volume 17, page 151, in Skagway Magistrate's Office; Marvin Taylor, interview 

by author, March 19, 1996. 

126

 "Bodman to Accept Historic Skagway Depot for National Park Foundation" (press release), May 24, 

1972, in Alaska Parks/Miscellaneous, Box 2, HFC; North Wind, May 1972, 1; June 1972, 1; Southeast Alaska 

Empire. May 29, 1972, 4; Judy Smith (NPF), interview by author, February 23, 1994. 
Chapter 4 

Authorizing the Park 

The International Park Proposal 

As noted in Chapter 3, Alaska corrections personnel opened up the U.S. side of the 

trail in 1961-64, and by the winter of 1967-68, both state and NPS officials were aware 

that a park proposal was in the works. Canadian officials, during this period, watched 

the ongoing activities with an increasing degree of interest. They had little knowledge 

of the Chilkoot, however; the only Chilkoot trips yet taken by Canadian officials had 

been James Lotz's hikes in 1963 and 1965 and a 1967 reconnaissance by Yukon 

Corrections officials. 

In order to spur interest in the trail by officials from both sides of the border, Canada's 

National Historic Sites Service (NHSS) chief Peter Bennett, in April 1968, proposed an 

international Chilkoot hike. Such a hike would take place late that summer and would 

include representatives from a wide variety of agencies that had an interest in the 

Chilkoot Trail. The purpose of such a hike would be to discuss the trail's desirability as 

an international trail.1 

Because of the impending Skagway Alternatives Study and the crisis over the Skagway 

railroad depot, the proposed hike had to be delayed.2 By the following summer, 

however, the alternatives study had been completed, and a joint, late-season hike was 

planned. 

The long-anticipated event was held over Labor Day weekend, 1969. Seventeen hikers 

participated in the four-day event. The state of Alaska was represented by Mike Leach 

from the Division of Lands. NPS representatives included Robert E. Howe, the 

Superintendent of Glacier Bay and Sitka national monuments, and Ted Swem, the 

Washington-based Assistant Director for Cooperative Activities. The Interior 

Department was represented by Yvonne Esbensen, a assistant to Secretary Hickel. 

Yukon Territory representatives included Ron Hodgkinson, the Assistant Commissioner, 

and both Victor Ogison and Gary McLaughlin of the territory's Corrections 

1

 Bennett to Luntey, April 25, 1968; Mattes to Howe, June 12, 1968; Luntey to RD/WRO, June 24, 

1968; all in CF. 

2

 Howe to Bennett, August 9, 1968, in "Chilkoot Trail History Construction" file, KLGO. 
98 Legacy of the Gold Rush 

Department. The National and Historic Parks Branch was represented by Peter 

Bennett, Director of Historic Sites in Ottawa; Don Cline, an Ottawa-based planner; 

Gordon Gilroy, the Assistant Regional Historic Sites Director in Calgary; and Bruce 

Harvey, the NHS representative in Whitehorse. Several Skagway residents also made 

the trip. They included Mayor Edward Hanousek, Chamber of Commerce President 

(and local banker) Ed Leon, and packer Dave Hunz.3 

Officials from the two countries had organized the Chilkoot hike as part of a larger 

effort to publicize the historic resources along the entire gold rush corridor. 

Participants, therefore, followed the hike by taking the train from Bennett north to 

Whitehorse; they then flew to Dawson and spent a day examining that area before 

returning to Whitehorse to evaluate what they had seen during the previous week's 

activities. On September 4, Swem and Bennett jointly produced a confidential report 

which outlined their proposal for an international historic park based on the Klondike 

Gold Rush theme.4 

The hike and its aftermath were successful by all accounts. Director Hartzog, who 

received a copy of the joint report, noted in a memorandum to Interior Secretary 

Walter Hickel that 

it greatly stimulated interest in the need to conserve the historic and 

scenic values of the entire Gold Rush route starting at Skagway and 

terminating at the gold fields near Dawson in the Yukon. The Canadian 

Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development officials and the 

National Park Service enthusiastically endorsed not only their own 

respective historical preservation proposals, but also the concept of an 

international historical park.5 

Less than a month after the hike took place, Ted Swem met with Merrill Mattes in 

Washington and gained more background on the Skagway National Historical Park/ 

Klondike Gold Rush International Trail proposal. By early November, Northwest 

District Director Rutter had officially approved the concept, and Swem had gained the 

Director's approval for the new park, to be called Klondike Gold Rush National 

Historical Park.6 Hartzog, in turn, recommended the park's establishment to Interior 

Secretary Hickel. That park was to include 

3

 North Wind. September 1969, 2; Whitehorse Star. September 4, 1969, 1. 

4

 Whitehorse Star, September 4, 1969, 31. 

5

 Director NPS to Secretary of the Interior, November 6, 1969, in CF. 

6

 Mattes to District Director, Northwest District, October 13, 1969; NPS, Project Prospectus. Preservation 

of Historic Railroad Structures, October 1969, 2. 
Chapter 4: Authorizing the Park 99 

a historic district in Skagway, a small area at Dyea, including 

reconstruction of three buildings [a barn, store, and house] at the old 

townsite, and sufficient lands along both the Chilkoot and White Pass 

Trails to allow public use and facility development and to protect 

adequately the historic and natural scene.7 

The Canadians were likewise active. On November 11, 1969, the Minister of Indian 

Affairs and Northern Development, Jean Chretien, flew to Whitehorse. Before a crowd 

at the Chamber of Commerce, he announced the creation of new national historic sites 

at Dawson City (where four buildings were to be designated) as well as at Bonanza 

Creek, Whitehorse, and Bennett. He also unveiled a $2 million development package 

designed to assist in site restoration. Along the Chilkoot, the Canadians planned to 

stabilize the Bennett church and construct a historical interpretation center.8 Beyond 

that, they hoped to coordinate their Chilkoot Trail development activities with those on 

the U.S. side. Hartzog, for instance, recommended the implementation of a series of 

measures, all of which had been agreed to by Swem and Bennett in September. The 

NPS director suggested 

that a standard sign and marking system be used on both sides to reflect a 

unity in approach and the true international aspect of the project, that we 

issue joint maps and publications covering the Gold Rush story, and that 

we cooperate in interpreting the story of the Gold Rush.... Also, we 

would hope to move ahead to establish certain stretches of the Upper 

Yukon River in Canada and the United States as a historic riverway as a 

part of the Klondike package. 

To help achieve this coordinated effort, we recommend the appointment 

of an international advisory committee made up of representatives of all 

levels of government involved, plus outsiders, to advise on implementation 

of this proposal, and also a steering committee comprised of 

representatives of the park agencies from both countries. We believe the 

legislation on our side and any official action on the Canadian side should 

recognize this as a truly international park, even though each country 

would be responsible for development and operation of its own park 

units.9 

7

 Hartzog to Secretary of the Interior, November 6, 1969, in CF; Harthon Bill (Acting Director, NPS) 

to Secretary of the Interior, November 7, 1969, in "Klondike Gold Rush NHP" file, Box 1, Swem 

Collection. 

8

 "Klondike Gold Rush Theme for Four New National Historic Sites" (press release), Department of 

Indian Affairs and Northern Development, November 11, 1969, in "Klondike Gold Rush NHP" folder, 

Box 1, Swem Collection. 

9

 Hartzog to Secretary of the Interior, November 6, 1969, in CF.