Skagway had a very, very sordid history during the Klondike gold rush, with grifter Soapy Smith and his gang.
My favorite story stems from the Mounties sitting astride the border, requiring one year of supplies to enter Canada (saved a lot of lives in the long run). One of Soapy’s men stormed into the Mounty cabin and asked if he could just shoot his way into Canada in defiance of the regulation. The Mounty opened a desk drawer, pulled out a handgun and put it on the desktop. “Here’s a gun. Start shooting and find out.”
The bunco man retreated back to Skagway.
Good story... :-)
I haven’t been up there, but when I get up to Alaska, that’s the place I want to go to... Skagway and then to Whitehorse...
My wife’s great uncles went north to the Yukon. She has a Gold nugget watch chain that belonged to one of them. They returned to Humboldt County and found more gold cutting the Redwoods...