An estimated hundreds of thousands of people descended on Skagway, Alaska, the entrance to Canada's Yukon Territory to stake their claims to these riches. I learned that prior to becoming America's most prolific best selling authors in the early 1900s, Jack London became obsessed with "Klondike fever" and departed from northern California to the seaport of Skagway. He traveled in a Tlingit (Native American) freight canoe loaded with almost 2,000 pounds of equipment---including warm clothing, food, mining implements, tents, blankets, stoves and a copy of Miner Bruce's Alaska. After overcoming the journey on rugged Alaska trails, he moved into a cabin and after a month of prospecting he staked his claim on a nearby creek. During the harsh long winter months, Jack London gained recognition for his story telling of the excitement of the "wild country" by his fellow prospectors. His Alaskan experience later became the nucleus for his brilliant literary career in the early 1900s. Unfortunately his hunt for gold ended abruptly when he came down with a crippling case of scurvy caused by the lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in icy Alaska. He had to return to California without achieving the gold strike of the heavy metal he sought. But fame and riches came to him through his writing. Jill, Maris and I panned for gold on one of the Regent Seven Seas Mariner shore excursions where all the novice prospectors ended up with a souvenir gold nugget before returning to the ship and the Mariner's exquisite Le Cordon Bleu cuisine, rich in luscious fresh fruit, vegetables and proteins. We also enjoyed our stroll in the unique gold rush town of Skagway (the gateway to the Klondike). We walked on the planked boardwalks, past false- front shops, the driftwood Arctic Brotherhood Hall, horse-drawn carriages and local folks in 1890's costumes. The local historians regaled us with tales about the cribs (huts of ill-repute) and the ladies of the night, "Ma" Pullen and Mollie Walsh in addition to the ghost stories at the Great North Hotel. The Red Onion Saloon, a favorite watering hole was another colorful reminder of the last grand adventure of the 19th century. We were told that 20,000 optimistic gold-seekers paddled and steamed up the Inside Passage, the easiest of six-routes, landing at the boom-and-bust town of Skagway on their way to the Klondike gold fields. This was a far cry from the smooth as glass, luxurious cruise through the Inside Passage on Regent's Seven Seas Mariner that the Abramson-Wasser family experienced for seven nights. On our short visit to Skagway we were informed that this modest homestead grew into Alaska's largest metropolis and its first incorporated town. The town rapidly became a lawless boom town where bunco artist Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith and his gang of hoodlums and "sure thing" men fleeced unwary Cheechakos (new comers) and robbed successful Sourdoughs (experienced prospectors who used sourdough starter as yeast to make their bread and pancakes). The "Soapy Smith Saga" is remembered as the gang that fed the hungry and then robbed them in their sleep. A Canadian Mounty, Sam Steele was quoted as saying that, "Skagway with 70 bars, a bevy of bordellos, and schemers fleecing dreamers was the roughest place in the world, little better than a hell on earth." W found no evidence of this on our tour through Skagway and learned that Hell actually ended on July 8, 1898 when surveyor Frank Reid, another character of dubious morals shot "Soapy" Smith with a bullet to his heart simultaneously as Smith shot Reid in the groin. We chose not to visit Skagway's cemetery where both men are interned. However a hike through the Gold Rush cemetery was recommended to us as a less than strenuous hike to the real wilderness from the docks. The epitaphs offer strange but lively bits of social commentary of an era that ended when the rush to the Klondike dwindled and the gold diggers took off to Nome and Fairbanks to the North. Gold production in the Yukon was diminishing during the 1930s. Until the end of World War II in 1945, the remaining gold mines were shut down and Skagway was used for military storage. Our next port of call on the regal Regent Seven Seas Mariner will be the colorful city of Ketchikan. Copyright by Marcia AbramsonE-mail: mascribe@verizon.net
