What rose on Moore's claim was extraordinary. Within a year Skagway went from a scatter of tents to a town of close to 10,000 — for a moment the largest settlement in Alaska — with a main street of false-front stores, outfitters, hotels, and saloons running wall to wall up Broadway. It was the supply depot for the whole stampede: nearly everything bound for the Klondike came ashore here first. A few miles west, a rival townsite called Dyea boomed at the foot of the steeper Chilkoot Trail, and for a season the two raced each other. When the railroad chose Skagway, Dyea emptied out and faded into the ghost town it remains today.
Our Skagway logo carries the distressed Alaska bear above "Alaska Territory — Est. 1959," the shared retro emblem of our Alaska towns; the bear stands for the wild, mountain-walled country the stampeders pushed through, and 1959 marks the year Alaska joined the Union as a state. Rendered in worn black-and-white, like a stamp on a shipping crate or an outfitter's mark, it ties Skagway to every other Alaska town we make. What makes this one Skagway is the town behind the brand — the Trail of '98, the railway up the pass, and the boardwalks that never came down.
Why People Visit Skagway
Visitors come to Skagway for the most intact Gold-Rush town in Alaska — a real boomtown you can walk through — and for the railway that climbs straight out of it into the mountains. It is compact, dramatic, and easy to explore on foot, with the harbor, the historic district, and the trailheads all close together. Equal parts living history and big northern scenery, Skagway rewards anyone who wants to stand at the starting line of the Klondike stampede.
