Haines & Skagway

Haines, Alaska

To the Indigenous people, the area around modern Haines, Alaska was known as Deishu, which means “beginning/end of the trail” in the Lingit language. That was a fitting name because today Haines is a crucial link between the roadless Inside Passage and the Alaska Highway. Haines is located at the northern end of the Inside Passage, surrounded by mountains, glaciers, and the Lynn Canal, North America’s deepest and longest fjord. The town was named after Francina E. Haines who was a French woman and Protestant missionary who helped raise the funds for the Chilkat Mission building. Established in 1881, it was this mission that led to the first white settlement in Haines.

To reach Haines from Valdez, I had to retrace part of my previous drive on the Alaska Highway. Heading north out of Valdez on the Richardson Highway and Tok Cutoff, I arrived back in Tok where I intercepted the Alaska Highway. Traveling east back into the Yukon Territory, I had to retravel along that bad section of the Alaska Highway to Haines Junction. This time they were doing a lot of road construction and Rosie got absolutely filthy. After spending the night at Pine Lake again, I drove south along the 149-mile Haines Highway which is a beautiful stretch of highway. I crossed back into the United States about 20 miles north of Haines and the first thing I did when I arrived in town was to get Rosie a good wash.

Not long after arrival of the missionaries came the salmon canneries and then gold mining around the turn of the century. In 1904, the U.S. Army constructed Fort Seward in Haines, establishing the first military post in the territory. The construction of the Haines Highway in 1943, part of the World War II military preparedness, led to the growth of the town. Today, tourism plays an important role in the economy of Haines as visitors arrive by cruise ship and on the Alaska Marine Highway System’s ferry after traveling up the Inside Passage. The town has several museums for visitors including the quirky Hammer Museum which displays over 2,300 hammers.

Haines is also a great place for wildlife viewing, especially bald eagles and bears. The Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve was established in 1982 to protect and perpetuate one of the world’s largest concentrations of bald eagles and their habit. Each October and November, up to 4,000 bald eagles descend on the 48,000-acre preserve just north of Haines to feast on late runs of salmon before the harsh winter months. Photographers and wildlife enthusiasts come to Haines each fall from around the world to witness this huge gathering of these majestic raptors.

Chilkoot State Park, about ten miles northeast of Haines, is an excellent location to spot grizzly (brown) bears. Located at the end of the park’s access road, beautiful Chilkoot Lake is surrounded by snowcapped mountains and the Rainbow and Davidson Glaciers are within view. The lake drains into the Chilkoot River which flows into the Lutak Inlet. Grizzly bears frequently visit the river, especially during the salmon run in late summer, and visitors gather in mass to catch a peek at the bears. During my visit to Haines, I spent half a day at Chilkoot State Park where I witnessed several grizzly bears in the river near the weir. The weir is used by state officials to count salmon making their way up the river, but they will chase the bears away with loud noise or bear spray if they approach while they are working. Once the work day ends, the bears show up like clockwork and use the weir to capture their fill of salmon. I observed one young male being very particular with his meal. He seemed to only be interested in female salmons that are full of nutrient-rich eggs. Another female grizzly bear surprised us all by approaching from behind using the river as a walkway. Although the bears were sometimes as close as 15-20 feet, I never felt threatened by these magnificent animals that were really only interested in getting some delicious salmon for dinner. It was a real treat to see this bears in their natural habitat.

Ferry – Haines to Skagway

The easiest way to get between Haines and Skagway with an RV is on the Alaska Marine Transit System ferry. Fortunately, there is daily ferry service during the summer months aboard the MV Hubbard. Named after the Hubbard Glacier, the 280-foot-long vessel began service in 2023 and seats 300 passengers with a capacity on the auto deck for 53 standard vehicles. The MV Hubbard was actually built at the Vigor Shipyard in Ketchikan, Alaska along with its sister ship the MV Tazlina. The onboard amenities include observation longues with comfortable chairs, a covered heated solarium, and a café. It is a short one-hour trip up the North Lynn Canal to Skagway with beautiful scenery of towering mountains, stunning glaciers, and waterfalls. The port of Skagway can be very congested in the summer months when cruise ships visit the town and we encountered four cruise ships docked when we arrived on the ferry.

Skagway, Alaska

The valley at the north end of the Lynn Passage was known to the Tlingit people as “Shghagwei,” which means rugged or wind place. In 1887, Captain William Moore settled in the valley and based on the number of prospectors working in Alaska and the Yukon, Moore predicted that there would soon be a major gold strike. He gambled on his prediction and established a 160-acre homestead and began making improvements on the land. Over the next ten years Moore and his son, Ben, built a wharf and sawmill to support their homestead claim and began opening the White Pass Trail. They named their homestead Mooreville as they patiently waited for the gold rush Moore foresaw to arrive.

When gold was discovered in the Klondike in 1898, thousands of prospectors from around the world descended on Mooreville to find a shortcut to the goldfields to the north. Another boomtown nearby called Dyea was the start of the Chilkoot Trail which was a shorter, but steeper, path to the goldfields. In comparison, the White Pass Trail started at the wharf in Mooreville and offered a longer, but easier, path to the goldfields that pack animals could navigate. It wasn’t long before the masses of people had overrun Moore’s limited infrastructure and took over the bustling town renaming it Skagway.

In 1898, Sir Thomas Tancrede, representing London investors, and Michael J. Heney, an experienced railroad builder, met in Skagway to discuss the construction of a narrow-gauge railroad following the White Pass Trail. Construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route began the following year and workers had reached the Summit of 3,000 feet by February 20, 1899. By July 6, 1899, construction crews had reached Lake Bennett and began the final stretch towards  Whitehorse where it would intersect the mighty Yukon River. It was a difficult construction project with cliff hanging curves, tunnels through solid rock, and the need for numerous bridges and trestles. A total of 35,000 men worked on the railroad construction and it cost a total of $10 million to build. Finally, on July 29, 1900, a golden spike was driven by Samuel H. Graves, the railroad president, in Carcross and the White Pass & Yukon Route was completed.

Completion of the White Pass & Yukon Route really accelerated Skagway’s growth where the population topped 8,000 residents. The main street of Broadway was lined with wooden sidewalks and crowded with shops, saloons, boarding houses, and even a few brothels. On June 28, 1900, Skagway was incorporated as the first city in the Alaska Territory. Unfortunately for Skagway, the Klondike Gold Rush was shorted lived and was essentially over by the time the railroad was completed. The population began to dwindle and the railroad survived by hauling ore down to Skagway for shipment by sea. For decades, Skagway survived at a subsistence level until the outbreak of World War II when Skagway became a key shipping hub for materials in the construction of the Alaska Highway. Following the war effort, the community again struggled to survive and the railroad actually suspended operations in 1982.

The rise in the popularity of cruising in the mid-1980s, thank you Love Boat, brought new life to the town of Skagway. Today, this community at the end of the Inside Passage is a major destination for most Alaskan cruises where the Port of Skagway can accommodate up to four large cruise ships at once. During the summer months, the population of 1,200 year-round residents swells to 3,000 with all the seasonal workers to serve the tens of thousands of tourists that descend on the small town. The downtown historic district of Skagway is part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park which is managed by the National Park Service. In addition to a visitor center, the historic park features wooden sidewalks and numerous period structures like the Arctic Brotherhood Hall (1900) and Mascot Saloon (1898).

Tourism also saved the White Pass & Yukon Route when it reinvented itself as a tourist attraction in 1988. There are several excursions daily from their depot on Second Street that take guests 20 miles up the line to the White Pass Summit. They even accommodate cruise passengers by backing up railcars to the cruise ship docks. In the 1990s, the White Pass & Yukon Route was reopened to Lake Bennett which is 40 miles up the line from Skagway. During my visit, I elected to take the Lake Bennett trip because it is powered by a steam locomotive. I departed Skagway by bus that took me up to Fraser, British Columbia where I cleared Canadian Customs and then boarded our train. The oil burning Engine No. 73 was built in 1947 by the Baldwin Works in Philadelphia and is a 2-8-2 Mikado class steam locomotive.

The train took us north to Bennett, British Columbia which was a gold rush town that formed at the junction of the Chilkoot and White Pass trails. Sitting on the shores overlooking Lake Bennett, this town once had a population of 10,000 people but today it is part of Parks Canada’s Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site. The train stopped at Bennett for about 45 minutes allowing us to disembark and explore the townsite and museum in the old White Pass & Yukon Route Depot building. One of the few standing structures is the beautiful St. Andrews Presbyterian Church which served the community as a place of worship and gathering hall up until 1902. It was remarkable to see such a beautiful wooden structure in the middle of wilderness. After the break at Bennett, we reboarded our train and made our way south to Skagway. Although it was a cloudy day, the scenery was still spectacular as the train hugged cliffsides with waterfalls, passed through two tunnels, and crossed some trestles. My four hours on the rails was a very relaxing and memorable way to spend an afternoon.