Skagway

During the Klondike gold rush of the late 1890s, thousands headed north to Alaska and the Yukon Territory in search of personal fortune. Goldseekers came through Skagway, the port nearest to embarkation points for the famous Chilkoot and White Pass trails, on their way to Dawson City and points beyond. The first boatloads of stampeders arrived in Skagway and nearby Dyea in the summer of 1897. By October, a Northwest Mounted Police report estimated Skagway's population at more than 20,000.