Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (KLGO NHP) was created by Congress on June 30, 1976 to commemorate the Klondike gold rush of 1897-1898. The park is unusual in that it includes four separate, dispersed units: an interpretive center in Seattle (which falls under the purview of the Pacific Northwest Regional Office), a number of historic buildings in Skagway, and larger land units in the Chilkoot Pass and White Pass areas. The latter units encompass approximately 21 and 6 square miles respectively and contain major physical cultural remains associated with the gold rush. Among these resources are the Chilkoot and White Pass Trails themselves, the remains of several aerial tramways, and the Brackett Wagon Road. Towns and camps which have left material remains along the Chilkoot Trail include Dyea, Canyon City, Pleasant Camp, Sheep Camp, and the Scales. The major settlement along the White Pass Trail was White Pass City, and a few remains are still evident at Porcupine Hill.
In 1962, a trail was constructed from Dyea to Chilkoot Pass by inmates of the Youth Authority Department and its Correction Branch of the State of Alaska through the Division of Lands, Department of Natural Resources. In 1968, the governments of the Yukon Territory and British Columbia restored the Canadian side of the Trail. By 1969, the Recreational Chilkoot Trail which follows parts of the historic trail, was complete. At present, this trail extends 33 miles from the trailhead at Dyea to Bennett, and 17 miles are included in the National Historical Park.
Headquarters of the park is in the southeast Alaska town of Skagway, which is approximately 100 miles north of Juneau. This small town of 695 is situated at the northern end of the Lynn Canal, which branches off the Inner Passage of the Gulf of Alaska. Year round access to the town is by Alaska Marine Highway ferry. There is scheduled and charter airline service by commuter airline, which can be weather dependent. Road access is possible by way of the South Klondike Highway which connects to the Alaska Highway near Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. The gold rush era White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR) railroad originally running from Skagway to Whitehorse shut down in 1982 and only provides tourist service now. There are regular stops by cruise ships at Skagway during the summer months.
Access to the Chilkoot Trail unit is by a narrow, winding eight mile long, mostly dirt, road from Skagway to the abandoned gold rush town of Dyea. The trail is a hiking trail that begins at the trailhead in Dyea, covers 33 miles and is half in the USA and the park and half in Canada. The Canadian portion is located within the Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site and is managed by Parks Canada. Access to the White Pass unit of the park is limited and difficult. There are no trails to or through the unit but the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad and the South Klondike Highway pass through portions of the unit and virtually the entire unit is visible from either transportation route.
Land Ownership
Approximately 13,000 acres of land are included within the boundaries of the three Alaskan units of the park. The existing land jurisdiction includes: State of Alaska owns 10,200 acres; National Park Service owns 2417 acres; and 374 acres are in private ownership. The Chilkoot Trail unit with 9670 acres and the White Pass unit with 3320 acres comprise the major portions of the total park acreage. In the Skagway unit the federal government owns 3.06 acres, which includes the major historic buildings in the town. NPS owns several parcels at the southern end of the Chilkoot Trail unit including most of the old townsite of Dyea. Most of the Chilkoot Trail itself is in state ownership. State land in the Chilkoot Trail unit has been managed by the National Park Service since 1976 under a Memorandum of Understanding between the Service and the State of Alaska. The National Park Service owns all of the land in the eastern portion of the White Pass unit, east of the Skagway River. The land west of the Skagway River is owned by the State of Alaska and is not covered by a Memorandum of Understanding. The Pacific and Arctic Railway and Navigation Company possesses corporate jurisdiction over several miles of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway within the unit through a right-of-way grant for all land within 100 feet of the center line of the tracks. An oil pipeline runs adjacent to the company's tracks.
Environment
The Skagway and Taiya Rivers flow in a southwesterly direction from their sources in the Coast Mountains through two short, narrow and deeply incised, almost parallel canyons, formed by faulting during the Tertiary period and subsequently shaped by Pleistocene glaciation. Glaciers once covered both valleys, leaving only the peak tops, some of which reach 6000 feet, uncovered. The land, at one time below sea level because of the weight of the glacial ice, has been slowly rising at about 3/4 inches per year. The surrounding glaciers have not retreated, however, making the Dyea and Skagway valleys two of only three ice-free corridors into the upper Yukon drainage and the Yukon interior. The other, the Chilkat Pass near Haines, was a longer route, but easier for pack animals. The Chilkoot Pass, near Dyea, was the shortest year-round route to the Yukon but it was high and impassable to wagons. White Pass, near Skagway, was lower in elevation and easier to traverse with pack animals but was somewhat longer than the Chilkoot Trail.
Neither of the valley floors, Skagway or Dyea, were suitable for long-term settlement in aboriginal times. The valleys were low and susceptible to periodic flooding. They had relatively limited exploitable plant and animal populations. The tide flats were too broad at low and moderate tide levels to get canoes within reasonable distance of the beaches. The rivers had relatively small salmon runs. The emerging intertidal zone was not stable enough to support readily exploitable populations of shellfish and the shallow bay was not a good marine fishery. The major migratory waterfowl routes were far to the west. The primary sea mammal migration routes were to the south and there were no bird or sea mammal rookeries nearby.
The winds, particularly in Skagway were legendary long before the Klondikers arrived. In general the climate of the area is influenced by both interior and maritime weather patterns. Skagway has the least precipitation in southeast Alaska but higher elevations receive up to 200 inches of precipitation (mostly snow) annually. The ecological zones also vary by elevation. Pacific northwest coastal rainforest is found mainly on the Alaska side of the passes. Fairly moderate climate, dense vegetation, mostly coniferous and deciduous forest with a heavy understory is typical. The higher elevations are marked by alpine tundra and alpine meadow is particularly well developed on the Canadian side of the passes and on higher, less accessible areas on the Alaska side. The third ecosystem, sub-alpine and boreal forest, is found in the drier parts of the Chilkoot Trail, roughly from Deep Lake to Lake Bennett.
The major big game species in the area are mountain goat and black bear. A small population of moose has moved into the area in recent times. Smaller furbearers such as wolf (occasional), wolverine, marmot, porcupine marten, and others are present but not abundant, as are salmon and shore birds.
Archeological Resources
The archeological inventory of KLGO is relatively advanced. A preliminary, very general survey of the Chilkoot and White Pass units was completed in 1979 and published in 1981 (Carley Report); compliance archeology has been regularly associated with the preservation and restoration of historic buildings in Skagway but only some of the work has been reported or published; and additional inventory and mapping has been accomplished in Dyea. A great deal, though, remains to be done. This park is one of the few NPS units in Alaska in which 100 % inventory is both feasible and desirable.
Very little is known about the prehistoric occupation of the units of KLGO. In late prehistoric times the area was controlled by the Chilkat and Chilkoot Tlingit and the Canadian side was under the control of the Tagish Indians. Since the Taiya and Skagway river valleys were glaciated until relatively recently, and the resource base has been limited and unstable any use of the area would probably have been transient and seasonal. However, the Chilkoot Pass and the White Pass have been used as travel corridors between the coast and the interior for at least the last 200 years, so some signs of that use can be expected. Therefore, the major archeological resources in the park can be expected to be protohistoric and historic, both of Tlingit use and occupation and the Klondike gold rush.
When Captain William Moore and his son arrived in the area in 1887, they discovered a few old campsites, axe blazes, deadfall traps, and an old half-finished cottonwood canoe but nothing else was evident. The Moore's nearest neighbor, an Indian (Tlingit?) named Wausuck, was living at Smuggler's Cove and in fact, the remnants of a small prehistoric site have been found there. That site and two other small shell middens, one at Yakutania Point and one near Dyea, are the only known sites of the Tlingit occupation of the immediate area.
Historical Aspects
Undoubtedly, the major cultural resources of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park are historical and historical archeology. The whole unit was created for the purpose of preserving and interpreting the remnants of the gold rush. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. Most of the remains on the Chilkoot Pass and White Pass trails are ruins and, in many places, scattered and hidden. In Skagway, which has an Historic District in it, many of the historic buildings have been and are being restored, but the historic archeological resources associated with the District are extensive and rich.
After the U.S. purchase of Alaska in 1867, American naval vessels occasionally patrolled the area. The first known excursion into the area took place in 1869 when Cmdr. Richard Meade reached the mouth of the Taiya River. The Tlingits continued to aggressively defend their trade monopoly and trade routes. In the mid-1870's, scattered parties of white prospectors attempted on their own to ascend Chilkoot Pass, but they were turned away by the Tlingits. Remarkably, however, at least one prospector, George Holt, slipped past the Tlingits in 1874 or 1875, and made it over the Pass and back. Missionaries into the region established a Presbyterian reserve at Haines in 1879 or 1880 and two salmon canneries were erected near Chilkat Village by 1883. Around 1884, John J. Healy and Edgar Wilson established a small trading post in the Dyea area.
Within two years of the announcement of the discovery of gold in the Yukon (August 1896), Skagway boasted a population of 8000 to 10000 and Dyea 4000 to 5000. The vast majority of these people were Klondike stampeders bent on getting themselves and their supplies to the gold fields in the Yukon. The stampede totally overwhelmed the small local and Native population of the area. The stampede also overwhelmed the natural resources of the area. Based on historic photographs the devastation and disturbance was extensive - boding ill for the preservation of archeological sites. Populations in both towns dropped dramatically after the initial wave of stampeders passed through. Dyea was essentially gone by 1902 and Skagway's population dropped by 1910 to 875 and around 500 by 1920. This lack of population and use allowed places such as the Chilkoot and White Pass trails and the settlements along them to disappear into the undergrowth. Most of the archeological sites found so far relate to the Klondike Stampede. They are generally shallow sites with artifacts right on or just under the surface - reflecting the brief duration of the stampede. The sites are found on the valley floors. The steep slope of the mountainsides flanking the valleys and trails suggest the site potential is very low in those areas.
Ethnographic Aspects
The Klondike Gold Rush was a watershed event in the area. It dramatically affected the Native culture and devastated the environment. The Dyea village site, which was evidently a semi-permanent settlement of the Chilkoot at the mouth of the Taiya River when the Healy-Wilson trading post was established, is almost all gone, wiped out by the stampede and the Taiya River. Before contact, the Tlingits were a highly organized, aggressive, and sophisticated people with a highly developed art style, and political and social development. Their diet was based largely on salmon, and other marine resources such as halibut, herring, cod and other fish and shellfish. They supplemented their diet by hunting other wildlife - deer, bear, ptarmigan, birds, and mountain goats. Eulachon oil, herring eggs, seaweed and forest greens and berries rounded out the general diet. They were master woodworkers, using local timber for many products such as carvings, tools and boxes, canoes, houses, etc.
It is known that prior to the stampede, the coastal lowlands near the Lynn Canal were occupied by Chilkoot and Chilkat Tlingit groups and the Yukon interior was occupied by Tagish Athabaskans (sometimes called Stick Indians), with Tutchone and Han to the north of them. The coastal groups traded fish oil (eulachon) and sea products to the Tagish for furs and horn over the Chilkoot and Chilkat trails, which were foot paths at that time. The White Pass trail was known but was not used much and its existence was kept a secret. This trade went on for at least 200 years with the Tlingit maintaining a virtual monopoly on the trade with the interior. The Tagich, in turn, acted as middlemen for their northern neighbors.
After contact, the Tlingit acted as middlemen for a thriving trade in local and Euroamerican goods between the interior and Russian, Boston and Hudson's Bay trading companies. The Tlingit used the Chilkoot Trail as their main trading route in the interior and defended their monopoly, not permitting others to use the passes and even burning Fort Selkirk in the Yukon in 1852 when the Hudson's Bay Company attempted to trade directly with the Interior groups. In 1879, U.S. Navy Commander L.A. Beardsley reached an agreement with the Tlingit whereby miners would be permitted to reach the Yukon via the passes but would not interfere with their regular trade. Of course, the stampede overwhelmed the local cultures, the trade and the trails. However, when the miners arrived with tons of goods to transport across the passes, the local natives were the primary packers until the arrival of wagons and horses, the later construction of an aerial tram, and finally the construction of the railroad.
Discussion
As a National Historic Park of about 13,000 acres, KLGO should be surveyed and inventoried at the 100 % level. Good progress has already been made towards meeting the goal of 100 % survey but a great deal remains to be done. A park-based inventory and research program needs to be continued until all goals are met.
Questions, Comments, and Suggestions - please email to: ken_schoenberg@nps.gov