Location. Location. Location. Until visiting Skagway, I was unaware of the Dyea Townsite, about 10 miles north of Skagway, where in 1898 the population rose to an estimated 8,000 people when it was the principal port city of the stampeders bound for the Klondike gold fields via the Chilkoot Pass. The town’s poor harbor, devastating snow slide in April 1898, and newly built White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad out of Skagway all contributed to the end of Dyea. The only structure left “standing” is the A.M. Gregg Real Estate Office on what was then Main Street. At the peak of the last glaciation, the land was covered by a glacier nearly a mile thick. I found it astonishing that due to the removal of the weight of the glacier over the last 10,000 years, the land is 7 feet higher today than it was in 1898.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Dyea Township, Alaska
Location. Location. Location. Until visiting Skagway, I was unaware of the Dyea Townsite, about 10 miles north of Skagway, where in 1898 the population rose to an estimated 8,000 people when it was the principal port city of the stampeders bound for the Klondike gold fields via the Chilkoot Pass. The town’s poor harbor, devastating snow slide in April 1898, and newly built White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad out of Skagway all contributed to the end of Dyea. The only structure left “standing” is the A.M. Gregg Real Estate Office on what was then Main Street. At the peak of the last glaciation, the land was covered by a glacier nearly a mile thick. I found it astonishing that due to the removal of the weight of the glacier over the last 10,000 years, the land is 7 feet higher today than it was in 1898.
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