Ice, gold and brothels

 Skagway way is a very small town of 800 permanent inhabitants (about 2000 in the summer), whose history and architecture were defined by 3 major forces: ice, gold, and brothels.  Ice defined it’s geography.  It is on the southeast coast of Alaska, surrounded by mountains, glaciers and ice field, at the tip of a long Fjord.  It is one of only 2 “cities” in Southeast Alaska that is reachable by road – you could drive there from New York (Or at least from White Horse- the nearest largish city – in the Yukon territory of Canada).  The other city reachable by road is Haines, which is even smaller.  Still, most goods come by ship, which explains why a gallon of milk costs about $7.

Joe and I decided to go and explore this side of Skagway history by taking another helicopter ride (we really like helicopter rides….) to the Meade glacier.  This time, the ride itself was not the main attraction (although it was very cool and beautiful),

 but rather the idea was to land on the glacier and spend some time exploring its features.  Along the ride, we saw a striking instance of how much glaciers are receding:  the horizontal line across the face of the mountain is where it use to be less than 1 century ago.....

Glaciers are constantly moving and changing, grinding rocks along the way.  Here is Joe taking pictures of the rocks- He took a lot of them, while I took a few rocks....

  There are some VERY deep crevasses where water is melting:  we threw stones in them and it took up to 3 seconds for them to reach the bottom.  It is a bit scary to look down.

 (these are called "moulin" for the French word that means "mill" - i suppose because that is where the glacier is "milling" the rocks.)

  Where the water is melting, we got a good view of the deep blue of the glacier ice, and of the sediment it carries.  

 

 On the moraine, we saw the variety of rocks that are grounded by the glacier as it comes down, including this bright white marble.

On the way back, we got a nice view of our boat at the end of the Fjord.  

 

 We then walked through the pretty town.  It is really touristy – basically all jewelry stores, but the architecture dates from the early 1900 and has been nicely preserved, and displays nicely for us  the 2 other forces that defined Skaway:  gold and brothels.  Gold of course brought men seeking their fortunes.  

Which, inevitably brought brothels….

 Gold also brought the train station, which links Skagway to White Horse in Canada- over the White pass.  It is supposed to be a lovely ride, but we did not have time to experience it.

 Instead, around 5pm, we were back on the boat, enjoying the scenery from a different point of view…… 

As we floated along the Lynn fjord, we got a good view of a hanging glacier (unlike the tidal and lake glaciers we had seen so far),

and of one of the prettiest light houses that dot the fjords.  This was was automated in 1973, which means that until then, someone lived there….  Before internet and satellite TV….  Hard to imagine.

We are now on our way to our last stop before Vancouver – Katchikan – whose history was defined not by gold and brothles, but by salmon and brothels.