Arcadia in Alaska – Skagway, Sitka, and Endicott Arm.

Panama Canal 3 June 2011

Hello blog readers Nigel is back with you.

Alaska is approximately 2,700 miles from east to west and 1,400 miles from North to South.

Today it’s my last of the three blogs about the Alaskan ports and scenic cruising we have done. Today I am going to cover Skagway, Sitka, and Endicott Arm.

On 18 May we called at Skagway - the name derives from the Native Indian, ‘Home of the North Wind’.

Skagway found its fame (and notoriety) after gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Canada’s Yukon Territory in 1896. The town filled with prospectors heading to the Klondike and soon became lawless and was described by the North West Mounted Police as ‘little better than hell on earth’.

You will be pleased to hear it is a really pleasant town now and our passengers could walk off Arcadia and be on Broadway (its main road) in ten minutes or so. Many of the buildings in town date back to the 1890s and it still has a frontier feel to it, ‘The Red Onion Saloon’ dates from 1898 and many of our passengers headed there to soak up the atmosphere and have a few cold ones. Young ladies dressed in late 1890s style were available to give our passengers a tour!!!

Skagway gets approximately 1,000,000 visitors during the summer months each year and is connected to Canada and the rest of Alaska by road. This year in the five summer months this little city will get 265 cruise ship calls! Eleven shore excursions were on offer here, from a visit to the Yukon on a Steam Train to a Ghosts and Goodtime Girls Walking Tour, I know which one I would choose! The population of Skagway is only 862 but this nearly doubles in the summer months with seasonal staff to look after all the tourists.

On 19 May we called at Sitka, it is historically the most important city in Alaska. Sitka was in 1808 the Capital of Russian America, and remained so until Alaska was sold to the USA in 1867 for $7.2 million which worked out at two cents an acre, a good deal!

Eight shore excursions were available from a ‘Fortress of the Bears and Sea Otter Quest’ to ‘Sitka’s Colonial and Cultural Heritage’ tour.

A must to see in the city was St Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral; in fact Sitka has a great many attractions and is very different from the other ports of call in Alaska due to its Russian heritage.

On 20 May we did scenic cruising in Endicott Arm, it is a deep and narrow fjord. It is 30 miles long and one-fifth of the area is covered in ice. The wildlife in this area includes brown bears, deer, wolves, harbour seals, mountain goats and a large variety of birds. Ice floats can be the size of a three storey building!

It is 1200 feet deep and there are mountains up to 7000 feet on either side of it, some of the sheer granite walls are 2000 feet high.

The highlight of Endicott Arm is the Dawes Glacier. The ‘arm’ is part of the ‘Coast Mountain Range’, which is greater than 800 miles long and up to 80 miles wide!

It is a beautiful but barren and cruel land, nature rules in this wilderness.

I hope you enjoy the photo gallery today.

Skagway 18 May

In Skagway we were berthed at the historic ‘Railway Dock’. It has been tradition since the 1890s for ships' crews to paint on the steep cliffs adjacent to the ‘Railway Dock’ and this is what greeted our passengers on our arrival.

Flying the flag in Skagway, P&O Cruises Rules!!

The White Pass and Yukon Route Railway is legendary, it was built in 1898 and over 100 years later is still in operation. Originally it took prospectors to the Yukon to pan for gold; it now carries cruise ship passengers on the very same route.

This was one of the original steam trains on the White Pass and Yukon Route, it was built by Brooks Locomotive Works of Dunkirk New York. It is number 52, its wheel arrangement is 2-6-0 and its build date was January 1881, you train spotters will be going mad over this shot!!

I did manage to get off for a walk in Skagway and two and a half miles along the railway line from Arcadia I came across the ‘Gold Rush Cemetery’.

Featured there are the graves of Jefferson (Soapy) Smith, and Frank Reid. ‘Soapy’ was the leader of a band of rogues, thieves and murderers who held the prospectors hostage during the Gold Rush years of 1897 and 1898. Frank Reid was the surveyor who laid out Skagway, he shot ‘Soapy’ dead on 8 July 1998, but unfortunately was hit himself and died twelve days later. They both now lie in this graveyard.

Two of the fine buildings in Skagway.

‘Broadway’, Skagway, it’s the heart of the city.

This is me at the Skagway Centennial Statue. Skagway was founded in 1887 and this statue was commissioned to celebrate 100 years of the city. Arcadia is in the top right of the photo.

Your blogger outside the ‘Red Onion Saloon’ - it dates from 1898. The sign is in the window of the saloon!!! During the Gold Rush there were 80 saloons in Skagway, what a great place it must have been for a pub crawl!

The City of Skagway Museum - the building opened in 1899 as a school and it now houses ‘The Trail of 98 Museum’.

‘Lemon Rose Bakery’

This was my refreshment stop in Skagway. It was full of locals which is a good sign anywhere! I had a cup of coffee and a pastrami sandwich, both American sizes which just about kept me going for the rest of the day!!!

The Salmon Hatchery in Skagway

Arcadia at her berth in Skagway

I took this shot as we departed Skagway, it looks back towards the city, with the White Pass in the background.

Sitka 19 May

Mount Edgecumbe

This was the view our passengers got of Mount Edgecumbe from our anchorage in Sitka. Mount Edgecumbe was named by Captain James Cook in 1778 after a hill overlooking Plymouth Harbour! It is a dormant volcano that last erupted 2220 BC. On 1 April 1974 a local prankster ‘Porky Bickar’ flew in and ignited 100 old tyres in the crater convincing residents of Sitka that the volcano was erupting!!! It has an elevation of 3,201 feet.

Sitka from our anchorage, one of Arcadia’s tenders can be seen in the lower left of the photo.

Views from our anchorage in Sitka

St Michael’s Cathedral - St Michael’s was completed in 1848, and is in the Russian Orthodox style.

Russian Bishop’s House

This log building is the oldest Russian building (1842) in Sitka. Initially home for the Russian Orthodox bishops, the house was later a school and orphanage.

Alaskan Eagle in Sitka

The Fortress of the Bears

These are five members of our fantastic Headliners Theatre Company. Left to right, Show Singer Darren Tough, Show Singer Shona Damms, Line Captain Wesley Waring, Show Singer Gemma Andrew, Dancer Emily Johnson.

These five members of our Headliners Theatre Company were on a shore excursion to the Fortress of the Bears. This is a Brown Bear cub’s rescue facility.


Bears at play and relaxing!

Endicott Arm/Dawes Glacier 20th May

Your blogger and Dawes Glacier.

Dawes Glacier

Dawes Glacier - on the bottom right of this photo you can see how pieces of ice have ‘calved’ - split from the face of the glacier.

Endicott Arm

I shall be back in three days with tales of Victoria and Vancouver.

Cheers

Nigel