Mike Tranel: Welcome to Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. The park was designated 1976,
and there are four units one is the Pioneer Square area of Seattle.
So here in Alaska we have the other three units of the park.
Downtown Skagway which matches the Skagway Historic District,
we have about 25 historic buildings in Skagway.
Then there is the White Pass Unit and then the other unit in Alaska is the Dyea and Chilkoot Trail area.
Dyea was the former townsite of 8,000 people, now a ghost town.
And the Chilkoot Trail is the 33-mile trail that goes over from Dyea to Lake Bennett
Welcome to the park and we hope you enjoy it.
Gina Palmer: So here in Skagway we offer historic walking tours around town.
We all start at the visitor center at Broadway and Second and we all end up here at the Moore House.
Shelley Butters: And the headline reads "Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold! 68 rich men on the steamer Portland. Stacks of yellow metal."
Gina: Each of us interpretive rangers, we have the opportunity to develop a walking tour based on a theme of our own choosing.
So we have someone that focuses on economics,
another ranger does a wonderful comparison between gardens and the history that has taken place.
My tour, I talk about dreams.
The dreams of individuals who came up here and how that helped build and sustain Skagway.
I want to introduce you to a few more individuals that followed the gold rush and ended up staying up here, following their dreams.
And we'll see how that affected Skagway and also the nation.
Mike: As Alaska's most visited national park,
we have the opportunity to share the historic district of Skagway
with up to 10,000 visitors per day in the summertime.
Susannah Dowds: Skagway has a fantastic community both in the summer and in the winter.
In the summertime we see summer workers which is wonderful ,
and we see cruise ship passengers which is also wonderful
because it is sort of like traveling with out having to leave.
We get this new blood, these new ideas, these new perspectives each summertime.
In terms of the park, too, we have returning rangers and then we have new rangers
and that really refreshes our perspectives, I think, of history and of the Klondike Gold Rush.
Mike: I think what makes the park special to me, personally,
is just that it's a unique combination of just magnificent scenery and natural resources
And then we also have the very interesting history
that we say you know, you couldn't make up stuff like this.
The stories themselves, the real stories, are the most interesting things.
Jason Verhaeghe: Right now in the Junior Ranger center the youth are able to come to this building
and have interactive activities. They can pick up and touch a bear pelt,
they can dress up like a gold miner. They can take this history
and instead of learning about in the classroom,
they can live it by becoming the gold miner, going on the adventure,
playing with Victorian toys, doing what children at that time would have done.
Tony Chandonnet: Where's a two trunk tree?
There's a two trunk tree right here, guys.
Children: whoa!
Tony: Where is it on the map?
I went on a summer camp that we developed.
It was just really a touching experience as well as to teach them.
Some of the kids were talking with our archaeologist, Jenn,
and telling her that she has the best job in the world, the best office,
and it was just a really cool experience.
Jennifer Richards: All of these buildings have gone away
what do you think would be left for us to find?
Child: ruins.
Jennifer: Well, yeah, but even those are gone.
What else?
Child: well, like, stuff that didn't decompose.
Jennifer: right.
Jason: I really look back at my own experience
when I was eight years old I so very clearly remember visiting a National Park
having a park ranger swear me in as a Junior Ranger.
I wasn't given that badge, I had earned that badge.
Children: and protect my national parks.
Gina: we also provide a walking tour out in Dyea. It's about ten miles out of town.
It was a historic town during the gold rush, as well. A boom town with about 5-8,000 people.
It was a rival city of Skagway.
Today there is just one false front still standing and it is a beautiful forest.
Shelby Surdyk: Most visitors that come to Skagway see the historic district in Skagway
and in that context their interaction with natural resources
will be the few swallow that they see flying around town,
the ravens and the crows.
They'll see the mountain side so they'll,
they'll witness the ecosystems as a backdrop to the history that they're visiting.
Johnnie Powell: The park is special because of all the buildings that are here,
and mostly because of the people that are working here.
They make it a special place to be.
Staff: Find your park!