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Train to Skagway

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Title: Train to Skagway

General Information about Item:

  • Tradition, Customary Lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States/Canada
  • Trail of Origin: Chilkoot
  • Informant: Ian Andrews, Sam D
  • Date Collected: 10-29-19, 11-10-19

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.
  • Sam is a 40-year-old man from Juneau, Alaska. Sam grew up in Southeast Alaska, and currently works for the state government. Sam hiked the Chilkoot trail in 2015.

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. (Source)
  • Cultural Context: Many Chilkoot hikers start their journeys in Skagway, Alaska. Once they have completed their hike, they arrive in Bennett, British Colombia. Hikers usually return to Skagway to make their way back home. Skagway is a popular destination for tourists visiting Alaska.
  • Social Context: Ian brought up the train when talking about his father’s experience hiking the Chilkoot. Ian’s dad lived in Skagway in the 90’s and hiked the trail then. Sam mentioned the train when talking about the transition between Canada and the US.

Item:

  • Once hikers have completed the trail, they ride a train that runs between Bennett and Skagway. In the 90’s the train was primarily a cargo train. When the cargo trains stopped running, they were replaced by passenger trains used for tourism. As hikers usually take multiple days to complete the hike, and do not shower during their trip, the passenger train reserves a section for hikers, so the other passengers are not subject to the smell of the hikers. The train is usually the last stop for hikers, and signifies their return to society.

Transcript:

  • Ian:  “Nowadays the train we took isn’t a working train, it’s a passenger train. Twenty or thirty years ago it was still a freight train, so you could hike the Chilkoot during the day, then catch the night freight back to Skagway. Nowadays you have to plan it out a little more to get the passenger train back.”
  • Sam:  “When you get up to Bennett for your train ride home, they have a special cart for the hikers, because the hikers are typically pretty sweaty and stinky.”

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Train
  • Chilkoot Trail
  • Thru Hiking

Sailing Across Lake Bennett

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Title: Sailing Across Lake Bennett

General Information about Item:

  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States/Canada
  • Trail of Origin: Chilkoot
  • Informant: Ian Andrews, Sam D
  • Date Collected: 10-29-19, 11-10-19

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.
  • Sam is a 40-year-old man from Juneau, Alaska. Sam grew up in Southeast Alaska, and currently works for the state government. Sam hiked the Chilkoot trail in 2015.

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. (Source)
  • Cultural Context: Lake Bennett is one of the significant landmarks along the Chilkoot trail, which hikers come to just after completing the hike to the Chilkoot Summit, the most difficult and dangerous section of the trail. Whitehorse is a city in British Colombia, and one of the major destinations for gold rushers after completing the Chilkoot portion of their journey.
  • Social Context: Sam and Ian individually brought up the boats at Lake Bennett when asked about interesting artifacts from the gold rush they saw while hiking.

Item:

  • When gold rushers arrived at Lake Bennett, they would need a boat to cross the large lake with their gear. As it was not feasible to transport an entire boat to the lake, they would bring some materials with them, but only construct the boat once they arrived at the lake. One of the informants mentioned that some of these boats would sink while crossing the lake, so the passengers would have to abandon ship and swim back to shore.

Transcript:

  • Ian:  “At lake Bennet, [the gold rushers] would get to the lake and have to build a ship out of the nearby trees. Some people would go halfway across and start to sink, so they would have to swim back.”
  • Sam:  “There’s one point when you are heading down through the rocks in the Lake Bennett area where there’s a metal framework of a boat sitting on the rocks… People couldn’t build very big boats because they had to navigate little passes while they were working their way to Whitehorse. They hauled quite a bit of the construction material with them, like canvas or whatever they using for the hull.”

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Sinking Ship
  • Chilkoot Trail
  • Thru Hiking

One Lucky Hike

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Title: One Lucky Hike

General Information about Item:

  • Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States/Canada
  • Trail of Origin: Chilkoot
  • Informant: Sam D
  • Date Collected: 11-10-19

Informant Data:

  • Sam is a 40-year-old man from Juneau, Alaska. Sam grew up in Southeast Alaska, and currently works for the state government. Sam hiked the Chilkoot trail in 2015.

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. (Source)
  • Social Context: Sam mentioned this when asked about his experience hiking, and if he would hike the trail again.

Item:

  • The informant talks about the element of luck he experienced during his hike. The weather along the trail can vary greatly, and can greatly effect the overall experience of the hike. He felt very lucky that he had good weather when he hiked, but believed that his luck would run out if he hiked the trail again.

Transcript:

  • “I had an attitude when I did [the hike]. [My wife] had done it a year before with her friend. They had such bad weather that when I did it and had perfect weather, my attitude about it became, ‘If this was perfect, then I don’t want to do it again.’ I don’t want to go hike and end up in a bad situation, because I now have a very good memory of the trail.”

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Luck
  • Chilkoot Trail
  • Thru Hiking

Lying Prospectors

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Title: Lying Prospectors

General Information about Item:

  • Legend, Verbal Lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States/Canada
  • Trail of Origin: Chilkoot
  • Informant: Sam D
  • Date Collected: 11-10-19

Informant Data:

  • Sam is a 40-year-old man from Juneau, Alaska. Sam grew up in Southeast Alaska, and currently works for the state government. Sam hiked the Chilkoot trail in 2015.

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. (Source)
  • Cultural Context: During the gold rush, there was minimal law enforcement around prospecting sites, so people searching for gold were reliant on being able to protect themselves from people who may want to cause harm, such as other, jealous prospectors. One of the few regulations during the gold rush were claims to land, where a prospector could search for gold. Once a claim was filed, the prospector effectively owned the gold located on that plot of land, and could claim ownership of it.
  • Cultural Context: Gold panning is a method of finding gold that has been deposited in streams. A gold panner uses a small dish to scoop up a mixture of water dirt from the bottom of the stream. They swish the water and silt around in the pan, splashing some water out of the pan, then collecting more water from the stream (without adding any more silt). As gold is more dense than water and the dirt around it, the gentle motions will allow the gold to be deposited at the bottom of the pan, while the dirt is washed away in the stream.
  • Social Context: Sam brought up this story when asked about famous figures he heard about on the trail, explaining why most successful prospectors wanted to stay anonymous.

Item:

  • The informant told a story about a man he met who would find suspicious plot claims from the Klondike Gold rush, which are archived by the Canadian government. The man looked for claims held by prospectors for long periods of time, but did not show a significant amount of gold found on the site. Gold rushers would usually be quick to give up claims on sites that were not yielding gold, so this man deduced that the prospectors who held onto plots of land were especially successful. However, the prospectors lied about finding gold, as they did not want to be targeted by the unsuccessful prospectors, who may want to steal from their land.

Transcript:

  • “Another thing to take into consideration is that a lot of times the people who did strike it rich weren’t telling everybody. The smart ones weren’t saying ‘Oh yeah, I just got 500 ounces of gold up at my spot.’ That drew the kind of attention you don’t want. I met a super interesting guy who works on the ferry system… He told me that he would go to Whitehorse, to their equivalent of the MPM*, where claims are filed, and he would research old claims from that area, that had expired long ago. He would go out to those places and check them out. He said that people were required to leave an account of what they had gotten from their land… He looked for [claims] that had been low return, but had been out there for a long time, like years and years, but kept coming back saying ‘low returns.’ Because he figured those people lying, if they kept doing it for a long time. He would go out and do panning at those locations.”
  • * MPM: Mineral Property Management, a division of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Legend
  • Chilkoot Trail
  • Thru Hiking

 

 

Trail Names

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Title: Trail Names

General Information about Item:

  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Trail of Origin:
  • Informant:
  • Date Collected:

Informant Data:

Contextual Data:

Item:

 

Transcript:

Collector’s Name:Tags/Keywords:

  • Trail Names
  • Thru Hiking

Trickster Porters

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Title: Trickster Porters

General Information about Item:

  • Legend, Verbal Lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States/Canada
  • Trail of Origin: Chilkoot
  • Informant: Sam D
  • Date Collected: 10-29-19

Informant Data:

  • Sam D is a 40 year old male from Juneau, Alaska. Sam grew up in Southeast Alaska, and currently works for the state government. Sam hiked the Chilkoot trail in 2015.

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 in the 1890s. 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) Dyea is a small town a north of Skagway, between the residential part of Skagway and the entrance to the Chilkoot trail.
  • Cultural Context: During the Klondike Gold rush, many communities were founded using the money brought in by the gold rushers. People who lived in those communities offered many goods and services to the miners and prospectors coming to Alaska for the gold. Many unprepared people died on the trail, so the Canadian Government restricted the trail only allow hikers along the Chilkoot if they had adequately prepared, carrying a total of 1 ton of gear with them. So, the hikers were forced to hire porters to help them transport their gear.
  • Social Context: Sam provided this story when asked about stories involving the gold rushers on the Chilkoot trail, that he heard while hiking the trail, and growing up in Southeast Alaska.

Item:

This is a story about porters tricking miners and prospectors into paying them more money than originally agreed upon, at the threat of abandonment.

Transcript:

  • “I remember one thing [the Park Rangers] told us about was the [local] people in the area did a lot of packing. They acted as porters. The park service people told us the porters had a reputation for bringing stuff to a certain point along the trail and then demanding more money. They would get them in the middle of nowhere and say ‘If you don’t pay me more, then good luck!’ They were smart enough to know the people [miners and prospectors] didn’t have another option.”

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Trickster
  • Chilkoot Trail
  • Thru Hiking

Hiking in the Morning

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Title: Hiking in the Morning

General Information about Item:

  • Superstition, Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States/Canada
  • Trail of Origin: Chilkoot
  • Informant: Sam D
  • Date Collected: 10-29-19

Informant Data:

  • Sam D is a 40 year old male from Juneau, Alaska. Sam grew up in Southeast Alaska, and currently works for the state government. Sam hiked the Chilkoot trail in 2015.

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 in the 1890s. 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) Dyea is a small town a north of Skagway, between the residential part of Skagway and the entrance to the Chilkoot trail.
  • Cultural Context: Currently, there are a number of public cabins and campgrounds located along the Chilkoot trail, maintained by the US and Canadian governments. These are areas where hikers will often congregate, and rest for the night. Sheep Camp is one such area.
  • Social Context: Sam mentioned this superstition when asked about his experience hiking the Chilkoot, and any advice he would give to someone hiking the trail for the first time.

Item:

This is a superstition about the time of day to hike the section of the Cilkoot Trail leading to the Chilkoot summit, colloquially known as The Golden Staircase.

When you hike the summit of the mountain, there is avalanche danger, unless you hike in the morning.

Transcript:

  • “They [the American Park Rangers] make everyone leave [Sheep Camp] at about 5 AM the day they hike the Golden Staircase. The earlier in the day you do it, the less likely it is for avalanche problems. It’s not much of a problem in the summer, but they have a routine of it.”

Collectors Note:

This is a magic superstition, that uses the law of similarity. The hikers climb the mountain in the morning, like the sun rising to the top of the sky in the morning.

This may also be a practical piece of advice that extends beyond the law of similarity. During the day, snow exposed to the sunlight melts, creating a heavy, unstable slab of snow that is more likely to break off in an avalanche.

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Landslide
  • Superstition
  • Chilkoot Trail
  • Thru Hiking

Chilkoot Pass Landslide

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Title: Chilkoot Pass Landslide

General Information about Item:

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

Informant Data:

  • Sam D is a 40 year old male from Juneau, Alaska. Sam grew up in Southeast Alaska, and currently works for the state government. Sam hiked the Chilkoot trail in 2015.

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 in the 1890s. 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) Dyea is a small town a north of Skagway, between the residential part of Skagway and the entrance to the Chilkoot trail.
  • Social Context: Sam provided this story when asked about stories involving the gold rushers on the Chilkoot trail, that he knew about from hiking the trail, and growing up in Southeast Alaska.

Item:

Sam told the story of a landslide that killed many people at the pass of the Chilkoot Trail. There is now a cemetery in memorial of the victims located in Dyea, Alaska.

Transcript:

  • “One of the interesting things to me was a bad landslide. I think it was in 1898 and a bunch of people died at the base of the Chilkoot Pass. It was a snow avalanche. There is a cemetery down in Dyea for the victims. We went to the cemetery to check it out. Dyea is worth going to in general, I don’t think most people do.”

Collectors Note:

This story illustrates the danger associated with the section of the Chilkoot Trail leading up to the mountain summit. This danger may explain the increased significance of this portion of the trail, and the multiple pieces of folklore associated with it, including a colloquial name, and superstitions.

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Landslide
  • Chilkoot Trail
  • Thru Hiking

Chilkoot Cairns

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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

 

 

Trump Family Origins

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Title: Trump Family Origins

General Information about Item:

  • Legend, Verbal Lore
  • 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. (Source)

Item:

  • The informant relayed a story about the origin of the Trump family fortune. During the Klondike Gold Rush, Fred Trump (President Donald Trump’s grandfather) moved to the Klondike and opened a hotel that also served as a brothel. Trump thrived as prospectors and miners passed through the area and paid for the services of his business. The fortune Trump made in the Klondike allowed him and his family to establish the many companies they now own today.

Transcript:

  • “You think of the gold rushers as being the people making all the money, but there was a whole industry providing services to the gold rushers. Some of those people made as much or even more than the gold rushers… The other notorious family who started their way to wealth on the Chilkoot was the Trump family by providing brothels and hotels. Fred Trump started there.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • The informant suggested that this story should be fact-checked for accuracy. According to the an article published in 2016, this telling of the story is historically accurate. Fred Trump owned a combined bar, brothel, and restaurant in Bennett, British Columbia. Bennett is the small town located at the Canadian end of the Chilkoot, generally considered the end of the trail.

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Legend
  • Chilkoot Trail
  • Thru Hiking