Skagway - Cruise Day 6, Saturday, Aug 4

Skagway experienced two booms. One when gold was discovered in 1896 in the Canadian Yukon which was only accessible by sea and a grueling trek across White (Dead Horse) Pass.

The second was when the U.S. decided to defend against Japanese invasion during WWII. Skagway by then had a rail way to Canada's interior which proved useful to supply the building of the new Canada - Alaska Highway to fortify against the Japanese take-over of one of the Aleutian Islands. I didn't realize the Japanese actually had occupied, and not just bombed, American soil. The Battle of the Aleutian Islands is known as the Forgotten Battle as the Battle of Guadalcanal, in which the USS Juneau sank, overshadowed it. "There were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1,148 were injured, 1,200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to disease, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes, largely Japanese booby traps and friendly fire."

Today it's mostly a historic tourist town keeping the past alive. This photo was in a museum in back of a store.

"Of the twenty mushers who rushed the serum from Nenana to Nome, 674 miles away, the man who drove the furthest in perilous conditions was Alaska's great sled dog racer Leonhard Seppala. And the dog that led Seppala's team on a loop of two hundred and sixty miles, including a long stretch over the fracturing ice of Norton Sound was the same dog with an impressive record of race victories over the previous decade -- a small, feisty Siberian Husky named Togo, the real hero of the serum run. It wore Togo out and he was unable to race much after that." Please read the rest of this dog's story here.