Chilkoot Trail: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
NPS Alaska Regional Office. 2001. Chilkoot Trail: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 100047. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Alaska Regional Office/CLI Database
The Chilkoot Trail is a component landscape of the international Chilkoot Corridor, which extends from the head of the Lynn Canal in Alaska to Bennett, British Columbia in Canada. Few trails of comparable length offer more dramatic changes in climate, terrain, and vegetation. The trail begins in temperate coastal rainforest at sea level, climbing through sub-alpine and montane vegetation zones before reaching alpine tundra below the Pass's summit (3,525 feet). For centuries before the arrival of Euro-American pioneers, the Chilkoot Trail and Pass functioned as an important trading route between interior and coastal Indians. In 1897-98, it became the primary route of the Stampeders traveling to the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush. Use of the trail diminished with the completion of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad over the neighboring White Pass. The Chilkoot Trail is now used recreationally by hikers. Contributing features include remnant structures at former camp areas and a large number of artifacts strewn along the entire length of the trail. Notably, these include remains of infrastructure systems, such as telephone poles, aerial tramway supports and cables, and traces of a former wagon road. The landscape also contains non-contributing features that convey more recent uses, including a sawmill site, trail segments added in the 1960s, replacement bridges, and campgrounds.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- NPS Alaska Regional Office
- Date of Issue
- 2001-09
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- AKR , KLGO
- Keywords
- archeology, Athabaskan, avalanche, Chilkat, Chilkoot, Dyea, engineering, Exploration, exploration-settlement, Gold Rush, historic site, Mining, Native Alaskan, NHL, Recreation, Seattle, Tagish, telephone line, Tlingit, Trade, tramway, transportation, Vernacular landscape