Shgagw�i, as it was first called centuries ago by the Tlingit for the "bunched up water" in its bay caused by strong winds, was discovered in 1887 by a father and son with visions of a gateway port to the riches of the Yukon and Alaska. Ten years later, after the discovery of gold in the Klondike, their vision came true with the arrival of prospectors from all over the world. Skaguay and nearby Dyea were rival towns, booming from the rush for gold. Each had multiple newspapers which chronicled the stampede and the competition between the White and Chilkoot passes, but Skagway won the war with the construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway and settled on a way to spell its name. The community has survived smaller booms and busts since, but remains a vital tourism and industrial port as the Gateway to the Klondike. In 1898 editors called Skagway the "City of the New Century". In this book of stories and photographs, the rich history of this area and its people is chronicled through that new century, and into the next.

Shgagwai, as it was first called centuries before by the Tlingit for the “bunched up water” in its bay caused by strong winds, was “discovered” in 1887 by a father and son with visions of a gateway port to the riches of the Yukon and Alaska. Ten years later, after the discovery of gold in the Klondike, their vision came true with the arrival of prospectors from all over the world. The towns of Skaguay and nearby rival Dyea boomed. Each had multiple newspapers which chronicled the stampede and the competition between the White and Chilkoot passes, but Skagway would win the war with the construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway and settle on a way to spell its name. The community has survived smaller booms and busts since, but remains a vital tourism and industrial port as the Gateway to the Klondike. In 1898 editors called Skagway the “City of the New Century.” In this book of stories and photographs, the rich history of this area and its people is chronicled through that new century, and into the next.

The story of Harriet Smith Pullen’s early life, from her childhood journeys by covered wagon to her family’s subsistence in sod houses on the Dakota prairie where they survived grasshopper plagues, floods, fires, blizzards, and droughts is a narrative of American migration and adventure that still resonates today. But there is much more to the legendary woman’s life, revealed here for the first time by Eleanor Phillips Brackbill, her great-granddaughter, who has traveled the path of her ancestor, delving into unpublished material, as well as sharing family stories in this American story that will capture the imagination of a new generation. After migrating by emigrant train to Washington Territory, Harriet endured typhoid fever and a shipwreck, then homesteaded among the Quileute people on the coast of Washington, where she married Dan Pullen, with whom she was an equal partner in ranching and managing an Indian fur-trading post before a life-changing series of events caused her to strike out for the north. In 1897, she landed in Skagway, Alaska, broke and alone after leaving her husband and four children in Washington, determined to make a fresh start and to reunite with her sons and daughter. Newly independent and empowered, she became an entrepreneur, single-handedly hauling prospectors’ provisions into the mountains where gold beckoned and then starting the Pullen House, an acclaimed hotel. Later in life, Harriet would entertain her guests with fabulous stories about the gold rush and her renowned collection of Alaskan Native artifacts and gold rush relics. She achieved near-legendary status in Alaska during her lifetime and The Queen of Heartbreak Trail brings to life moments that are well known and moments that have never before been published—her arrest for holding a claim jumper at gunpoint, her grueling courtroom testimony defending herself against the spurious accusations of a malevolent employer, and, how, in her father’s words, she “turned out” her husband of twenty years.

We Fought the Road is the story of the building of the Alaska-Canada Highway during World War II. More than one third of the 10,607 builders were black; thought to be incapable of performing on a war front by many of their white commanding officers. Their task--which required punching through wilderness on a route blocked by the Rocky Mountains and deadly permafrost during the worst winter on record--has been likened to the building of the Panama Canal. Unlike most accounts that focus on the road's military planners, We Fought the Road is boots-on-the-ground and often personal, based in part on letters from the "Three Cent Romance," the successful courtship via mail discovered in the authors' family papers

Historical and preservation data on the Skagway Historic District compiled for the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and the people of Skagway.

The town of Skagway was born in 1897 after its population quintupled in under a year due to the Klondike gold rush. Balanced on the edge of anarchy, the U.S. Army stationed Company L, a unit of Buffalo Soldiers, there near the end of the gold rush. Buffalo Soldiers in Alaska tells the story of these African American soldiers who kept the peace during a volatile period in America's resource-rich North. It is a fascinating tale that features white officers and Black soldiers safeguarding U.S. territory, supporting the civil authorities, protecting Native Americans, fighting natural disasters, and serving proudly in America's last frontier. Despite the discipline and contributions of soldiers who served honorably, Skagway exhibited the era's persistent racism and maintained a clear color line. However, these Black Regulars carried out their complex and sometimes contradictory mission with a combination of professionalism and restraint that earned the grudging respect of the independently minded citizens of Alaska. The company used the popular sport of baseball to connect with the white citizens of Skagway and in the process gained some measure of acceptance. Though the soldiers left little trace in Skagway, a few remained after their enlistments and achieved success and recognition after settling in other parts of Alaska.

2017 Nancy Pearl Book Award After the tragic death of her husband and son on a remote island in Washington’s San Juan Islands, Eliza Waite joins the throng of miners, fortune hunters, business owners, con men, and prostitutes traveling north to the Klondike in the spring of 1898. When Eliza arrives in Skagway, Alaska, she has less than fifty dollars to her name and not a friend in the world—but with some savvy, and with the help of some unsavory characters, Eliza opens a successful bakery on Skagway’s main street and befriends a madam at a neighboring bordello. Occupying this space—a place somewhere between traditional and nontraditional feminine roles—Eliza awakens emotionally and sexually. But when an unprincipled man from her past turns up in Skagway, Eliza is fearful that she will be unable to conceal her identity and move forward with her new life. Using Gold Rush history, diary entries, and authentic pioneer recipes, Eliza Waite transports readers to the sights sounds, smells, and tastes of a raucous and fleeting era of American history.

Ghostly footsteps and flickering lights, a silhouette in the window of an abandoned building, a restless presence at the scene of a sunken ship, spectral wails and poltergeist theft of office supplies, mythical Native American legends, and other paranormal happenings scattered across the Alaskan panhandle come together in Spirits of Southeast Alaska, a grand adventure into the historical hauntings of the southeastern corner of the Last Frontier. Author James P. Devereaux lived in Alaska for years, working as an archaeologist. Inspired by ghost stories as a child, and by accounts of Alaskan residents of paranormal phenomena in the area, he set out to collect both the ghost stories of Southeast Alaska and their history.