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The thing that settled the contest, and outlived the gold, was the railroad. In May 1898 crews began blasting a narrow-gauge line straight up the coastal wall behind town — the White Pass & Yukon Route, engineered by the Irish-born contractor Michael Heney, who liked to say he could build a railroad anywhere a man could climb. Working with hand tools and black powder through brutal winters, they reached the 2,885-foot summit early in 1899 and drove the last spike at Carcross, in the Yukon, on July 29, 1900. By then the rush was fading, but the "Scenic Railway of the World" had given Skagway a permanent reason to exist — and today it is the town's signature excursion.
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.
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.
