Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
| Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
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White Pass & Yukon Route Railway Administration Building serves as a museum
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| Location | Alaska and Washington, United States |
| Nearest city | Skagway, Alaska and Seattle, Washington |
| Coordinates | 59°27′23″N 135°18′43″W / 59.45639°N 135.31194°WCoordinates: 59°27′23″N 135°18′43″W / 59.45639°N 135.31194°W |
| Area | 12,996 acres (52.59 km2) |
| Established | June 30, 1976 |
| Visitors | 860,048 (in 2011) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park |
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park is a national historical park operated by the National Park Service that seeks to commemorate the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s. Though the gold fields that were the ultimate goal of the stampeders lay in the Yukon Territory, the park comprises staging areas for the trek there and the routes leading in its direction. There are four units, including three in Municipality of Skagway Borough, Alaska and a fourth in the Pioneer Square National Historic District in Seattle, Washington.
A fuller appreciation of the story of the Klondike Gold Rush requires exploration and discovery on both sides of the Canada–United States border. National historic sites in Whitehorse and Dawson City, Yukon, as well as in British Columbia, complete the story. In 1998, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park joined with Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site, Dawson Historical Complex National Historic Site, and "The Thirty Mile" stretch of the Yukon River to create Klondike Gold Rush International Historical Park, allowing for an integrated binational experience.
The Skagway unit includes much of the historic downtown such as buildings owned and restored by NPS and others, some leased even today for ordinary commercial purposes to recreate the city's bustling activity. The visitor center in Skagway is located in railroad depot building at Second and Broadway and is a good place to begin tours either led by a ranger or self-guided. Junior rangers can plan their activities further and earn their badges further up Broadway at the Pantheon Saloon.
The park includes as one of its units the White Pass Trail. White Pass is a mountain pass that leads from Skagway to the headwaters of the Yukon River in British Columbia. The trail was one of the two main routes used by prospectors to get from Skagway over the Boundary Range on their way to the gold fields in the Yukon. The White Pass and Yukon Route railway, completed in 1900, used White Pass to bring prospectors from Skagway to Whitehorse, Yukon.
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Wikipedia