WHITEHORSE
Whitehorse was the terminus of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway from Skagway, Alaska. At the head of navigation on the Yukon River, the city was an important supply and stage center during the Klondike Gold Rush. It has been the territorial capital since 1952, when the seat was moved from Dawson City after the construction of the Klondike Highway.

The city gets its name from the Whitehorse rapids, which were said to look like the mane of a white horse. The rapids have disappeared under Schwatka Lake behind a hydroelectric dam. With World War II and the highway, Whitehorse became a city overnight, with a wartime population of 10,000. Although the population declined somewhat after the war, Whitehorse became the Yukon's major trading and transportation center. The territorial government was moved to Whitehorse in 1953, replacing Dawson as the government center.

Frantic Follies Performance in Whitehorse
A high-stepping vaudeville revue featuring singing, cancan dancing, slapstick skits and readings of Robert Service poetry. The Frantic Follies is a turn of the century vaudeville revue which depicts the entertainment seen by the pioneers of the Great Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. The company has been in operation for 36 years and is known as the most popular and successful show in the Yukon and Alaska. A performance guaranteed to light up your stay in Whitehorse.

The White Pass and Yukon Railroad (runs from Whitehorse to Skagway) offers an unforgettable scenic train trip over the White Pass. This one of North America's steepest and most scenic railways. The track parallels the trail used by thousands of stampede adventurers, and it's easy to see while climbing the steep mountainside how hundreds of horses and men lost their lives trying to make the ascent. The train leaves the down town depot twice daily, at 8:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., during the summer visitor season, which lasts from early May to late September. The ride takes three hours. A narrow-gauge railroad line that originally ran to Whitehorse, the White Pass was completed after only 2 years in 1900. It's an engineering marvel and a fun way to see spectacular, historic scenery. The excursion begins at a depot with the spine-tingling whistle of a working steam engine. The steamer pulls the train a couple of miles, then diesels take the cars -- some of them originals more than 100 years old -- up steep tracks that were chipped out of the side of the mountains.

SKAGWAY
During the Klondike Gold Rush, Skagway (first spelled Skaguay) was the gateway to Canada and the Yukon River system for most of the adventurers who traveled north to seek their fortunes.

The town still capitalizes on the 1898 stampede, but now as a tourist center with an outstanding heritage restoration.Skagway is reached by road, and from the sea. Alaska ferries arrive daily during the summer months, augmenting the population by thousands of cruise ship passengers who disembark for a few hours to walk around the town and to shop.

Skagway by Streetcar
No one goes to greater lengths to give visitors a unique experience than the Skagway Streetcar Company, which uses antique touring vehicles and costumed guides performing "theater without walls." The very personal and amusing 2-hour streetcar tour, based on a tour originally given to President Harding in 1923.

White Pass Trail in Skagway
The Klondike Highway follows one of the two main routes from the port of Skagway to the Klondike gold fields, taken by thousands of prospectors and adventurers during the Klondike Gold Rush, beginning in the winter of 1897/98. This is the White Pass route, and the modern highway is a far cry from the muddy, treacherous trail which climbed the extremely steep mountainside, resulting in the death of hundreds of pack horses as they carried the prospectors' supplies to the summit of the White Pass.

The White Pass trail was the trail of choice for the more prosperous prospectors who had the financial resources to buy horses for the trip up the slope. Horses were a great help in transporting the ton of goods that were required for each prospector by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for entry into Canada. The trail was so rough and so deadly that most of the 3,000 horses that worked the trail perished on the steep slopes. Some died from exertion, others fell off the narrow trail into the canyon below.

Chilkoot Trail in Skagway
The other "poor-man's" route was the Chilkoot Trail which began at the town of Dyea at the head of Taiya Inlet. This trail followed an old Indian passage from tidewater to Lindeman and Bennett Lakes: the headwaters of the Yukon River. Pictures taken during the stampede show hundreds of men struggling up the ice steps of the Chilkoot Pass, carrying their supplies -- over and over again -- to get their ton of goods up to the Canadian border.

A snow slide in March of 1898 killed more than 100 stampeders as they struggled up the pass. The slide cemetery at Dyea is a memorial to these prospectors who never realized their Klondike dreams.

The Chilkoot Trail was replaced by the White Pass and Yukon Railway in 1900. By the end of the year Dyea ceased to exist. The wood from the buildings was taken away to construct another town.

Today, the trail is a mecca for hikers from around the world and a living museum of the Gold Rush era. Thousands of people walk the trail each year, to experience a scenic and historical adventure. Transportation is available from the Canadian end of the trail, for the return trip to Skagway.

Touring the Historic Park--The main thing to do in Skagway is to see the old buildings and historic gold rush places. Do it with the Skagway Walking Tour Map or join a fascinating National Park Service guided walking tour.