Day 9 of Trip – Day 1 in Skagway, July 8th

Skagway is in SE Alaska and is at the northern tip of Alaska’s Inside Passage.

The name is a variation on the Tlingit (Klink-it) Indian word for “stiffly wind rippled water.”

It is the oldest incorporated city in Alaska – 1900.

It owes its birth to the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890’s. By 1897 the population grew to 20,000 but by 1899 the rush was all but over and down to 500 residents.

The historical buildings on Broadway are well preserved and
Gold of another kind is plentiful.
There must be 15-20 jewelry stores on this 8-block stretch of Broadway.
The cruise clientele (thousands arrive daily) are not your average-income shopper.
We RV-shoppers head to the bead and trinket shops.

The Arctic Brotherhood Hall (built around 1900) is said to be
the most photographed building in Alaska.
This fraternal organization of pioneers placed thousands of pieces of driftwood
on the façade(over 8,000) . It now houses the Visitors Bureau.

The day we arrived there were 4 cruise ships in the harbor
carrying a possible 10,000 shoppers-
talk about crowded streets!!

A local police vehicle. We felt better when we saw they do have a police car too!

View looking into downtown from the harbor.

The Forget-me-not is the state flower
but we saw many more of these beautiful Fireweed plants.