The White Pass and Yukon Route railroad connects the port of Skagway, AK with the capitol of the Yukon, Whitehorse and is a smaller than normal gauge (three foot) so that it can weave around the twisty curves working its’ way up and down the mountain. We booked a round trip from Skagway to the top of the White Pass and then back down again. Wonderful scenery:
The train delivered supplies to the gold rush seekers a the turn of the century – 19th that is. A bit of local history here at the cemetery that we passed:
Con artist “Soapy” Smith was killed in a shootout with Frank Reid and Jesse Murphy on July 8th, 1898 on the Juneau Wharf in Skagway. Soapy conned many a gold rusher out of their gold with his “famous” scam of the prize package soap sell racket. I say good riddens!
A family that we know from Libertyville (Blair’s) were also in Skagway on an Alaskan cruise and they took the train ride at 4:30 so we missed them by a few hours. Too bad – it would have been fun to spend some time with them.
Our new friends from Kentucky, Larry and Donna, that we met a few days earlier joined us for dinner back at the Skagway Brewing Pub. Fun to exchange stories of both of our trips to/from Alaska.
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