Title: Chilkoot Cairns

General Information about Item:

• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States/Canada
• Trail of Origin: Chilkoot
• Informant: Ian Andrews
• Date Collected: 10-29-19

Informant Data:

• Ian Andrews is currently a graduate student at MIT. He grew up in Juneau, Alaska and hiked the Chilkoot Trail after finishing his undergraduate studies. Ian hikes recreationally, from trails in his hometown, to spending a week hiking in the Olympic Mountains in Washington State.

Contextual Data:

• Historical Context: First used by the Tlingit people of Alaska as a trade route, the Chilkoot became an important trail for miners and prospectors coming to Alaska during the Klondike gold rush at the end of the 1800s. The trail was mostly abandoned after the end of the gold rush in 1898, until the trail was restored for recreational hikers in the 1960s. Currently, the trail is a popular recreational hike, and stretches between Skagway, Alaska, and Bennett, British Colombia. (Source)

Item:

A cairn is a man-made stack of rocks, used to mark a trail route. The rocks are stacked and balanced in a manner that would not occur naturally, so they can easily be identified by hikers looking for a trail.

The Chilkoot is a well established trail, so on most routes trail markers and cairns are unnecessary for hikers to avoid getting lost. However, there are some sections of the trails that split into multiple routes. It is more common to find cairns here, as they are useful to confirm that a hiker is following the correct path.

While having a functional use, cairns are also used to mark significant landmarks. On the Chilkoot, there is a particularly large cairn near the boarder between the American and Canadian border. This cairn serves as a reminder to hikers, making them aware of the transition between countries.

Transcript:

• “Before the pass you have different sections. You have a wooded section, which is pretty straightforward and has a boardwalk. You go over some swamps and stuff and that’s all pretty straightforward. And then you have this section where you break out of the forest and go over the pass and there you have some cairns there. You have a few different routes you can theoretically take up, so you have cairns and some amount of blazing there. And then definitely on the over side. When you get into Canada too there’s some spot you could take a couple different routes around some smaller lakes up… I remember there being a larger [cairn] around the border to signify that [the border]. It’s a cool feature of the trail that you are crossing international borders.”

Collector’s Note:

• We found that cairns are a common feature on many trails. They have a functional use, but also seem to be a way for people to leave their mark on a trail using something found in nature.

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

• Cairns
• Chilkoot Trail
• Thru Hiking