NATIONAL PARK SERVICE • U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Foundation Document Overview Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Alaska
Contact Information For more information about the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Foundation Document, contact: [email protected] or (907) 983-9200 or write to: Superintendent, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, P.O. Box 517, Skagway, AK 99840 Significance and Purpose Fundamental Resources and Values
Significance statementsexpress why Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park resources and values are important enough to merit national park unit designation. Statements of significance describe why an area is important within a global, national, regional, and systemwide context. These statements are linked to the purpose of the park unit, and are supported by data, research, and consensus. Significance statements describe the distinctive nature of the park and inform management decisions, focusing efforts on preserving and protecting the most important resources and values of the park unit.
Fundamental resources and values are those features, systems, processes, experiences, stories, scenes, sounds, smells, or other attributes determined to merit primary consideration during planning and management processes because they are essential to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining its significance.
The Great Klondike Gold Rush: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park commemorates a great The purpose of Klondike Gold Rush National human drama that caught the attention of the world, and Historical Park is to preserve in public transformed the demographics, culture, and environment of ownership for the benefit and inspiration of Alaska and the Yukon. the people of the United States, the historical • The Story Itself…and the Park’s Capacity To Tell it structures, trails, artifacts and landscapes • Historic Integrity of Resources and stories associated with the Klondike Ribbon of Sites: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Gold Rush of 1898. Park preserves an integral link in a ribbon of sites that connects the places, events, and resources of the Gold Rush, extending across the international border from Seattle to Dawson and beyond. • Partners • Ribbon of Sites • Interpretation & Education Fundamental Resources and Values
Explore the Past: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park provides outstanding and diverse opportunities for Natural Resources: Klondike Gold Rush National visitors to retrace the steps of the gold rush stampeders, Historical Park fosters an understanding of the physical and in so doing, gain personal insight into the motivations, and biological processes, and associated unique flora adversities, impacts and significance of the event. and fauna of the Northern Lynn Canal, where subarctic, alpine, coastal, and boreal ecosystems converge within the • Skagway Taiya and Skagway river valleys. • Dyea • Flora & Fauna • Chilkoot Trail • Biogeography Gradient • Natural Setting • Dynamic Landscape • Gold Rush Collections
Historic Resource Preservation: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park fosters preservation of the resources within two National Historic Landmarks of two principal American boomtowns of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897- 1898, the most popular routes to the Klondike gold fields, and the most vivid reminders of the struggle and determination of the stampeders. • In Situ Artifacts & Archeological Resources • Museum Collections • The Scales and Golden Stairs • Chilkoot Trail • Dyea • Skagway, Alaska • White Pass Trail Description
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park was i toric o rai Bennett Lake established on June 30, 1976, to preserve in public nn tt nn tt ownership for the benefit and inspiration of the from a a an a tation people of the United States, historic structures and trails associated with the Klondike Gold Rush of Lindeman Lake o arcross, 1898. The park includes 13,191 acres in three units, laska Hi h a , and hitehorse, ukon erritor Skagway, Dyea and Chilkoot Trail, and White Pass in man Cit are It is the only NPS area authorized and established oon ANA A ake solely to commemorate an American gold rush. Deep Lake Long o In the late 1800s, gold was discovered in the Canadian Lake H KOO RA Ca in NA ONA H S OR S B R S H O B A Yukon, Klondike region, setting the stage for a great a OF ANA A Cam I human drama that caught the attention of the world A A S K A and transformed the demographics, culture, and ra r environment of Alaska and the Yukon. From 1897- Crater I Cana a C tom Lake 1898, tens of thousands of stampeders in search of ton Cri Chilkoot Pass Bernard Lake o n tair f o gold swarmed to the gold fields through the small N ca t Alaskan cities of Skagway and Dyea. These gold rush o Summit Lake S A S I r boomtowns played a critical role in providing access c i r to the goldfields of the Canadian interior via the White Cam o t and Chilkoot Passes, and the upper Yukon River. i
I Relive the “Last Great Adventure” by visiting C a ant Cam White Pass protected historical sites in Washington, Alaska, K ON K a or c y British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory. In 1998 Can on Cit GO R SH a w NA ONA h g the international significance of the Klondike Gold i H S OR A H K ON K e PARK k ANA A Rush was officially recognized by Canada and the i GO R SH d n NA ONA o United States with the creation of the Klondike l K H S OR A
h Gold Rush International Historical Park. The site inn an oint t PARK
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o it a Cit S
in Skagway, Alaska, represents the “Gateway to the r
e i hite Pass
R Klondike” and preserves the setting of two Klondike ukon Route a
i Railroad r Gold Rush boom towns and trails to the Yukon a e nit tat i R C tom gold. Other units making up the international park ountain a ma a N include the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical at ft k C i oot Park in Seattle, Washington, and the Canadian rai a S A S a parks. The Chilkoot Trail National Historical y o n e a
it R Site and Dawson Historical Complex National o
a
d Historical Site make up two units in Canada. Reid Falls TONGASS c ake Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park NATIONAL FOREST Skagway is situated at the northernmost point of a a o er er De e De e ake the Inside Passage in Southeast Alaska. Skagway can T ake
E be reached by air with charter flights from Juneau L De ils N
I Punch o l North
and other southeast Alaska towns, by sea with 0 1 5 Kilometers A
Y daily trips in the summer by the Alaska State Ferry I 0 1 5 iles A System, or land by accessing the Klondike Highway T from Whitehorse Canada, although it requires international travel on the Alaska-Canadian Highway.