Follow the muddy, exhausted footsteps of a Stampeder along the Chilkoot Trail, and find out why the route is still notorious 120 years later.
If you thought the White Pass route was bad, you could always try the Chilkoot Trail. Tlingit traders had been using it for centuries. It's just that Tlingit traders weren't doing it, just before winter, with thousands of inexperienced tenderfoots trying to move a year's worth of supplies up the same trail at the same time. Find out why the Chilkoot was an experience the goldseekers never forgot, and why we still talk about it today.
Sources, maps & reading
Map of the Chilkoot Trail and White Pass routes with photos of Dyea and Skagway from around the time Tappan Adney passed through, from the University of Washington collection
The Klondike Stampede by Tappan Adney
Plan your own visit! Links to the National Parks Service website if you want to hike the Chilkoot yourself. The trail continues to be a favourite with locals, including your narrators
The National Parks Service's fascinating "Repeat Photography" exhibit of Chilkoot photos then and now
Photo above in the public domain from Wikipedia Commons.
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