August 4 - Skagway to White Pass Train Ride

Construction began on the narrow guage railroad in 1898. The White Pass & Yukon Route was designated an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1994. This honor is shared by the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty and the Panama Canal.

The White Pass and Yukon route climbs from sea level in Skagway to almost 3000 feet at the summit. Construction required cliff hanging turns of 16 degrees, building two tunnels and numerous bridges and trestles. At times men were working in 60 below temperatures.

Our conductor



The railroad operated by steam until 1954.

Our train

This original suspension bridge, no longer in use, eerily appeared out of the low clouds.

An original wooden trestle still in use

Along the way we crossed the U.S./Canadian border

During construction two men were crushed by a 50 ton boulder.  They remain here.

The cemetary where the con man and gambler Soapy Smith is buried.

The Rush to the Klondike

The headline of the Seattle paper on July 17, 1897 broadcast news of gold in the Canadian Klondike. The news spread like wildfire and the country, in the midst of a depression, went gold crazy. Tens of thousands of gold crazed men and women steamed up the Inside Passage waterway and arrived in Dyea and Skagway to begin the overland trek to the Klondike. Six hundred miles over treacherous and dangerous trails and waterways lay before them. Each prospector was required to take in a ton of supplies 50 lbs at a time. Once they completed the climb to White Pass they still had 500 miles to go. 100,000 men and women headed north; only 30,000 to 40,000 reached the gold fields.

The Stampeders trail