Sheilaclapkin's Blog;

According to several locals, there are no Hawks in Alaska.  Now I understand my difficult time becoming immersed in this place of exquisite, pristine beauty.  My spirit sign is a Hawk and I do not exist in Alaska.  Perhaps I can create a more productive present, yet invisible. It has been suggested that I adopt the spirit of the Raven, but frankly I do not want to change birds in mid-flight.

An invisible spirit is free. Freedom allows changes and adjustments to be done without visual knowledge. How powerful is that?  It is a bit scary to think about what is being done behind the scenes, unnoticed, undetected, but not disregarded and overlooked in all avenues of existence. From time to time I will report invisibility of existence. Thank you.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” –Helen Keller

Rocks posing as postal boxes in earlier times.

When we arrived in Skagway and were finally docked, we opened our curtains to a wall  of painted rocks. They are charming, but only later did we learned  the beginning history of these painted rocks.  They were used as a suitable mail gathering system and now they have become dock art.  Names of people and businesses were painted on the rocks with a curved spike in the middle. The mail ships would come along the sides of the rocks, dutifully hanging mail on these rocks to be retrieved by the owners at some point that day. Outgoing mail was hung on the spikes and picked up a day later.

Beautiful Skagway

According to the Alaskan, Skagway’s leading paper, Skagway is a good place to live and amazes all who venture here. They welcome you to come and partake in its future.  As we drove up to the top of the White Pass Summit our guide made the history of the construction of the White Pass Railroad an important addition to Skagway’s position as a gateway to the interior and the Klondike’s Gold Rush opportunity.

The  White Pass Summit

It was explained that not only was getting gold from the land a most arduous task, but there were new distinct rules stating that you had to bring a ton of food and goods over the pass making it even more daunting. If you have an opportunity to Google the difficulties men had claiming and sustaining a claim during the Klondike Gold Rush you will learn other harsh realities of gathering gold and the stampede for the money.  This history of time past is still in the making.  There are those who look for gold today and find it.  Many stories can be told about tragedy, suffering and riches, but we were told two stories of riches from those days. One is that Donald Trump’s ancestor made a fortune during the Gold Rush era and invested it in property. Donald has done well to continue the tradition.  Also, there was a man who realized he was not up to the rigors of working to stake a claim, but noticed that many of the men needed their shoes repaired.  He repaired their shoes.  After the shoes were repaired the owners paid in goods. Having amassed a fair amount goods, Mr. Nordstrom decided to open a store to sell them.

Good Bye lovely Skagway full of stores, full of people, full of promise.

We walked the long walk back to the ship, and with four ships to choose from, we went the wrong way. The long walk was doubled and a good rest was needed to proceed with the rest of the day and nighttime activities

The following photo of the sunset was taken at 10:55 p.m., as we head for Glacier Bay.