Skagway, City of the New Century

Book excerpt: Shgagwai, as it was first called centuries before by the Tlingit for the “bunched up water” in its bay caused by strong winds, was “discovered” in 1887 by a father and son with visions of a gateway port to the riches of the Yukon and Alaska. Ten years later, after the discovery of gold in the Klondike, their vision came true with the arrival of prospectors from all over the world. The towns of Skaguay and nearby rival Dyea boomed. Each had multiple newspapers which chronicled the stampede and the competition between the White and Chilkoot passes, but Skagway would win the war with the construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway and settle on a way to spell its name. The community has survived smaller booms and busts since, but remains a vital tourism and industrial port as the Gateway to the Klondike. In 1898 editors called Skagway the “City of the New Century.” In this book of stories and photographs, the rich history of this area and its people is chronicled through that new century, and into the next.