The Skagway Commercial Club
started a small salmon canning settlement in the 1870s ; Juneau developed because of gold quartz strikes in the 1880s ; and Petersburg was established as a Norwegian settlement in 1897 . All these locations established Commercial Clubs to market their unique history and location . This article will discuss the efforts of the Skagway Commercial Club ( SCC ) to promote Skagway as a tourist destination , how these efforts were supplemented by outside sources such as the cruise ship literature and individual shop brochures , and how Skagway compared with other locations in Southeast Alaska .
While the Club was not the only promoter of Skagway ’ s interests , the organization was dominated by businessmen and women in Skagway through the 1920s . Martin Itjen was a very colorful advocate of Skagway ’ s interests , particularly in the 1920s , with his Yellow Bus driving tours in Skagway and a visit to California to promote Southeast Alaska . The White Pass and Yukon Railroad would tout its daily excursion to the Canadian border and back for “ day trippers ,” as the daily visitors were called . Promotional material published by the cruise ship lines described each destination in their travel brochures and they would become more detailed and colorful through the 1920s as towns in Southeast Alaska expanded their excursions . The Club is most often mentioned in the newspapers , so it is a primary focus for this study in the promotional efforts of the Club and its supporters for the first four decades of the 20 th century .
Skagway ’ s unique location as one of two entry points to the Klondike Gold Rush , which began in 1896 , created a boom town overnight . Dyea , the second location and the starting point of the steep but shorter Chilkoot Pass , sank into insignificance after the Gold Rush ended by 1899 , and with the completion of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad to the Canadian interior in 1900 . 2 Robert Spude ’ s work on the construction and architecture from 1884 – 1912 divides Skagway into four distinct construction phases , which is useful to trace the town ’ s ascendancy during the Gold Rush , and its struggles to maintain its relevancy after the decline . The completion of the White Pass and Yukon Railroad was the centerpiece of the town ’ s remarkable resilience . Supplies still needed to reach the British Columbia and Yukon interior so freight , mail , and passengers kept the railroad profitable . Several sources tend to agree that Skagway ’ s tourism industry took off after the White Pass & Yukon Railroad realized that visitors would expand freight and resident passenger trips to the Canadian Interior after the Klondike Gold Rush . However , the creation of a “ new ” Skagway required civic cooperation and the local businessmen were willing to capitalize on Skagway ’ s natural beauty and Gold Rush history to attract visitors . From a tent city in 1897 to an orderly procession of one-story buildings down Broadway to the multitiered saloons , hotels , and businesses just after the turn of the century , 3 Skagway took on the characteristics of permanent town rather than a Gold Rush boom town . By end of the first decade
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