Skagway, AK Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

SKAGWAY , the northernmost ferry stop on the southeast route, sprang up overnight in 1897 as a trading post serving Klondike Gold Rush pioneers about to set off on the five-hundred-mile ordeal. It was also the last stop before the harrowing White Pass Trail, known as the "Dead Horse Trail," on which over three thousand horses perished during the winter of 1897–98 from severe weather, rugged ground and exhaustion. Having grown from one cabin to a town of twenty thousand in three months, Skagway, rife with disease and desperado violence, was reported to be "hell on earth." It boasted over … more »