Skagway

In 1897 news of Klondike gold reached Seattle and tens of thousands landed here to cross into Canada, where the Mounted Police required each man to bring a ton of supplies - roughly a year's food and equipment - which meant carrying it up the Chilkoot or White Pass in relays over many trips. Most never reached the goldfields and most who did found the claims already staked. Skagway boomed to around ten thousand and emptied within three years. A few blocks of false-fronted boomtown buildings are preserved as a national historical park. The White Pass and Yukon Route railway, a narrow-gauge line built in 1898 through the pass, still runs excursions on grades and trestles cut into the rock.

What you actually see

• Preserved boomtown blocks - false fronts from 1897-98.
• The ton of goods requirement - explained in the park exhibits.
• The White Pass railway - narrow gauge, built 1898, still running.
• The pass itself - the route the stampeders carried loads over.

When to go

May to September; the town largely closes in winter. A full day.

Honest expectations

Cruise days can put several thousand people into a town of a thousand. Almost everything shuts from October to April. The railway is expensive and books out. Weather in the pass closes services.

Nearby

Dyea and the Chilkoot trailhead are west; the Yukon is over the pass.