Historic Dyea

August 2, 2009
Dyea, AK

Awaking to a cloudy day for a change, we decided to make the trip out to the historic town at Dyea. Pronounced "die-yea", it's a preservation site of the National Park Service (yes, we're back in the US at this point), and we use the term "preservation" very loosely. Once a thriving port, only a few traces are left just over 100 years later.

Dyea was the starting point for the Chilkoot Trail, used by the early stampeders headed for Dawson City in the Yukon in 1897-1898. Each person wanting to cross the mountains into Canada was required to bring a year's worth of supplies with them - roughly two tons of "stuff" - to ensure that they could survive. They had to have everything shipped in by steamer from Seattle, then carried (by themselves or by hired help, usually Native Americans/First Nations people, depending on which side of the border you were on) over the 3,000'+ Chilkoot Pass, then by boat (many self-constructed on the fly) across the lakes and down the Yukon River. It took the better part of a year, depending on the seasons and weather, to make the journey. No wonder they called it "gold fever" - you had to be crazy to try!

Now, all that's left of Dyea are some ruins in what's become a wooded glen, and a few pilings out in the tidal flats. Abandoned in the early-1900s, most of the structures were salvaged for scrap or left to rot. The pier, which extended out into the tidal bay for two miles to reach deeper water, is almost gone. Interestingly, because the valley was formed by glacial forces in the last Ice Age, the land is "springing back" at the rate of 3/4" per year - that means that the town site is over 6' higher than it was during the Gold Rush, changing the ability to support plant life - the whole thing is treed over at this point, to the point where it's remarkable to imagine that there was a bustling port town there just 100+ years ago. Being from the east coast, where "historical" sites are generally from the 1620s-1860s timeframes, it's an interesting change of perspective.

After a self-guided walking tour and a 15 minute session with the on-site Park Ranger talking about the history, we had lunch in the car, spotting a black bear poking his nose out of the brush in the process. We then drove out on the tidal flats to the ruins of the pier, startling a bald eagle resting on one of the pilings in the process. On the way back to Skagway, we stopped at two cemeteries: one in Dyea called "Slide Cemetery" (over 70 people were killed on Palm Sunday, 1898, when a spring avalanche caught everyone by surprise) and the other in Skagway. It's amazing that these cemeteries survive, deep in the woods as they are today.

On the hill above the Skagway "Gold Rush Cemetery", I found a small waterfall that was worth a few photos. It was more interesting than the "world's largest gold nugget" - a painted boulder, ha ha.

Click here for pictures.