10-06-06
By Carl H. Larsen
SKAGWAY, Alaska —"We landed in
wind-swept Skagway. We joined the weltering
mass, clamoring over their outfits, waiting to
climb the Pass."
Those are the memorable words
of author and poet Robert W. Service in "The
Trail of Ninety-Eight," a poem describing the
rush of humanity slogging up single-file over an
arduous mountain path on the way to find their
fortunes in the Klondike gold fields of the
Yukon, nearly 600 miles away.
Today thousands of tourists
aboard luxury cruise ships land each year in
Skagway under crisp, blue skies if they're
lucky. They may not be seeking gold, but they
carry the same spirit of adventure held by the
earlier fortune seekers, and many are fulfilling
long-held dreams "to climb the Pass."
With only a day in port, it's
not possible for them to make the strenuous trek
on foot up the "Trail of Ninety-Eight." But an
excursion to the White Pass summit aboard the
White Pass and Yukon Route railroad offers a
glimpse of the deprivation suffered and the
determination possessed at the end of the 19th
century by these gold "stampeders." The train
ride is one of the biggest tourist attractions
in Alaska, serving not only cruise passengers
but also individual travelers and hikers, with a
host of daylong excursions from both Skagway and
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
With military precision, the
White Pass excursion trains line up in Skagway
to meet ships at dockside from early May to late
September. They take hundreds of cruise-ship
passengers up the treacherous narrow-gauge line
to the summit of White Pass, 20 miles distant,
and then back to Skagway in time to explore the
historic town, once the largest city in Alaska,
and home to Klondike Gold Rush National Historic
Park.
Then, as the ships weigh
anchor, the trains head back to the yards
awaiting the next day's influx. On some days,
there may be as many as 6,000 passengers making
the 3 1/2-hour run in a succession of trains
climbing to the 2,888-foot-high summit at the
border of Alaska and British Columbia.
It's a bit overwhelming for a
small town to have such a Grand Central feeling,
but there's no jostling or long lines in stores
and restaurants. Most of the passengers have
secured their train tickets before leaving on
their cruises, although there is room most times
for last-minute travelers. The cost of the trip
is $110.
"Get the camera out," advised
Nancy Barnum of Spring Valley, Calif., a White
Pass passenger with her husband, Ronald. "If you
blink, you're going to miss something
interesting."
Barnum said her combined
train-bus excursion on the White Pass route was
the highlight of her cruise.
Indeed, earlier this year,
Parade magazine listed the White Pass excursion
as one of the 10 best train rides in the United
States. Others are even more boastful, and with
good reason. The White Pass calls itself "The
Scenic Railway of World."
The explanation lies in
awesome views from tracks that hug steep
mountain ledges. Passengers look out over
glaciers and the saw-tooth mountain peaks
framing the coast of southeastern Alaska. If you
missed something on the way up, don't worry: The
narrator on board asks everyone to switch sides
in their cars for the ride back.
The names along the way borrow
from the images: Rocky Point, Bridal Veil Falls,
Pitchfork Falls, Glacier Station and Inspiration
Point. At Inspiration Point, the best photo
spot, we looked back down the line to see
Skagway and our cruise ship, the Radiance of the
Seas, as well as the Lynn Canal, the Chilkat
mountains and 6,000-foot Mount Harding.
Beyond the natural beauty,
there's an unspoken human drama played out by
each squeak of the wheels on sharp curves or the
plaintive whistle cry heard from the
diesel-electric locomotive. The railroad itself
is an engineering feat, deemed an International
Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. It is
carved out of solid rock in places and took the
efforts of 35,000 men to build. Some were
roustabouts who lasted a day on the job before
heading to the gold fields while others were
drawn by the security of a steady paycheck.
Construction began May 28, 1898.
Originally the White Pass
railway was 110 miles long, running all the way
to Whitehorse in the Yukon to serve mining
operations. Today, only about 68 miles of the
line, from Skagway to Carcross, Yukon Territory,
sees train service. A golden-spike ceremony
marked completion of the railway on July
29,1900. By then the most frenzied years of the
Klondike gold rush were over.
Stark evidence of the price
paid to build this route lies 10.4 miles up the
tracks at Black Cross Rock, where a blasting
accident brought down a 100-ton block of granite
on two construction workers. A cross marking the
spot serves not only as a remembrance of them
but also of the 33 others killed in building the
railway.
At mile point 18.6, the trains
skirt around the rusting Steel Bridge, built in
1901. At the time, it was highest cantilevered
bridge in the world. In 1969, a new bridge was
built nearby to support heavier loads on the
railway.
Looking down 1,000 feet, I saw
White Pass City, the last refuge before the
would-be prospectors made it to the mountain
pass. At one time 5,000 people lived here in a
makeshift city that is today is overgrown with
brush. Before the prospectors were allowed into
Canada, they had to show authorities they had
with them a year's supply of goods, including
food. This law resulted in many prospectors
making multiple trips up the gold-rush trails
toting their supplies.
Over the years the White Pass
route has had to contend with the boom and busts
of mineral prices. During World War II the
railway was leased by the U.S. Army and used as
the major supply line for construction of the
Alaska Highway. In 1982, metal prices plummeted,
and the railroad was shut down. By 1988, the
growing Alaska cruise industry offered the White
Pass a new lease on life. While most of the
excursions are operated by diesel engines, there
are two steam locomotives that run on Fridays
and Mondays. The fare is $145.
Cruise-ship passenger Barnum
says she and her disabled husband can't wait to
take the White Pass adventure again. Along the
way she took more than 100 photos, hoping to win
the ongoing photo competition on the railway's
website.
But I found there's a happy
medium between snapping camera shots of the
terrific sights along the way, including bears
and other wildlife, and sitting back and
enjoying the ride. And somewhere along the
route, the wind did raise a complaint, recalling
the words of Robert Service for today's
fortune-seekers to contemplate:
"Never will I forget it, there
on the mountain face,
Antlike, men with their
burdens, clinging in icy space;
Dogged, determined and
dauntless, cruel and callous and cold,
Cursing, blaspheming,
reviling, and ever that battle cry —'Gold!'"
IF YOU GO
Klondike Gold Rush National
Historic Park has a Visitors Center and Museum
in Skagway and offers information on hiking
trails used by Gold Rush prospectors:
www.nps.gov/klgo/index.htm.
For information on getting to
Skagway, upcoming events and places of interest,
as well as a listing of cruise-ship arrivals:
www.skagway.com.
White Pass and Yukon Route
railway information on complete schedules and
ticket prices: www.wpyr.com. The railroad also
operates a large store of railroad-related items
at its main depot in Skagway and at a satellite
Train Shoppe at dockside, as well as an Internet
souvenir store.
Carl H. Larsen is a freelance travel writer.
To read features by other Creators Syndicate
writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators
Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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