Welcome to the Skagway cruise port guide. Skagway is the Garden City of Alaska since 1910 and the gateway of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. With just under a 1000 inhabitants this tiny town is everything what you would expect of a small Alaskan settlement. Skagway might be best known for the role it played during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. Tens of thousands or fortune-seekers arrived in Skagway looking to travel overland to the Yukon goldfields via the White Pass Trail. With already a long journey behind them they would arrive in Skagway, facing the temptation of about 80 saloons, ladies or negotiable affection and competition of hundreds of men all in the race for the gold. The journey to Yukon was an extremely hard one and therefore a group of British financiers began the construction of the White Pass and Yukon Rout Railway. With just 10 million US dollars they had to work around the clock to create a train track through one of the most challenging landscapes imaginable. Blasting their way through rock and mountain sides they created a narrow gauge track with a constant gradient of 4% within a years time. Skagway boomed in the late 1900’s. The town is build around the train tracks and it’s town will always have the rowdy and authentic Gold Rush atmosphere. In summer time the town is visited by almost one million tourists. The winter time is somewhat different though. The people that lives here year round goes about their daily lives create a tight bond in their community. You will find Skagway has five churches, one library, one school and a newspaper that is published twice a month.