Dyea - The Slide Cemetery

Day 04 - July 17th, 2024

Weather - Rainy 12 degrees C

Well, today could have been better. I had us scheduled to leave Skagway tomorrow, but there were a handful of logistical issues that were giving Earl some pretty significant anxiety. He also wasn't getting very good sleep while we were in Alaska, as it seemed to be raining 80% of the time, and he was sleeping in the truck's box (it has a hard top; I'm not a monster). So, I promised to try to get everything done quickly so we could head back to Whitehorse in the afternoon. But I had a LOT to do!

It was raining quite a bit, but as I have done multiple field schools in the Pacific Northwest, rain is pretty par for the course. I don't mind the rain. I had three goals for the day:

1. Survey the Slide Cemetery and the handful of markers moved from the old Dyea cemetery.

2. Visit Dylan and ask him questions about the Dyea cemeteries.

3. Visit the old Dyea townsite and see if I could locate the original cemetery site.

We headed back to the Slide Cemetery site, and I had gotten about halfway through photographing the markers when Earl called me over to the entrance and urged me to join in with a tour group going through the area. So I did. I listened to the guide telling the ground that this was essentially just a "prop" cemetery; there were no bodies, and the NPS came in the 70s and made this cemetery. This statement didn't make sense to me based on what I had read about the Palm Sunday Avalanche and the sinking in front of many of the graves, indicating that SOMETHING had been buried there at some point.

I kept taking my photographs, and within 10 minutes, a second tour group came through. I always keep half an ear on the tour guides in case they say something I don't know. Earl started asking the second tour guide questions, and the second tour guide seemed to believe that people had been buried there, but they had been disinterred at some point and moved elsewhere. This explanation was plausible, if unsatisfying. With that in mind and the hurry that we were in, it didn't seem worth mapping the cemetery. So, I photographed the markers/burials that had been moved from the old cemetery, and that was it; we left. I felt uneasy; I felt I had left something incomplete and didn't like it.

Our next stop was to see our buddy Dylan. Dylan could tell me a little about the Dyea cemeteries. That's okay, though; not everyone can know everything. Dylan did, however, know the locations of several wilderness graves and outlying cemeteries that I was unaware of, as well as the name of a gentleman in Skagway named Karl Gurcky. Karl is a retired NPS historian who sticks around and helps out because he knows more than anyone else in Skagway about the Klondike Gold Rush.

From Dylan, we popped over to Skagway and the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Visitor Center, hoping they could give me Karl's contact information. They were able to do one better: Karl was actually up in his office! I had managed to catch him on one of the few days that he came in—how lucky!

Well, let me tell you, Karl really does know everything. I asked him questions about the old Dyea Cemetery, when it had been moved, if it had been surveyed or mapped prior, and if anything remained. He could answer it all because he was one of the individuals who had worked on that project. Karl was also able to tell me that everything the tour guides were saying in the Slide Cemetery was hogwash (he didn't use those words, but those seem like words that he would use). Aside from a new fence, regular fresh paint, maybe some new markers and slightly misoriented/placed markers, that was the original location of the slide cemetery. Any bodies that weren't sent home certainly were buried there, and there they remain. We must have spent an hour and a half talking together, with Karl showing me databases, photos, maps and photo essays ALL related to the Klondike Gold Rush dead. I left him with my e-mail and all of my gratitude. He had done SO much to brighten this gloomy day, and he promised to send me all of the relevant documents that he had. Bless that man.

Our last stop of the day was the townsite of Dyea, and what a surreal experience that was. Dyea is little more than part of the forest now, but there are pathways through it where the streets used to be and street signs at the corners. There are park benches every so often and interpretive signs telling you that the nondescript pile of wood just off the pile there is all that remains of a cabin or a boat that had been grounded. We followed the street signs to and all the way up West St., where the cemetery was supposed to reside. Sadly, before we reached the end, the trail had been restricted from access because of the risk of erosion caused by the Taiya River. No surprise there, considering it was the river that had destroyed the cemetery.

That was that; soaking wet and having learned that the Slide Cemetery was the Slide Cemetery and the old Dyea Cemetery really was gone, we headed back to camp, took down the most beautiful setup the world has ever known, and made our way back to Whitehorse, through the mists and the fog. It was an uneventful trip, much of the view masked by the weather. In Whitehorse, we ended up at (what was to become) one of our favourite RV parks, with much of the day remaining. That was okay with me; it was such a day of ups and downs, and I was so sad about leaving Skagway early and unfinished that I needed some downtime.

I purchased some ice cream and a book from the little convenience store on site and sat in the completely empty rec center for a while, just decompressing. I was blessedly able to have a shower and do some laundry, and on the menu for tonight was chilli cheese pasta. 10/10. I would eat it every day if I could; it probably helps that I finally managed to get the correct proportion of water to food. As I sit in the rec center now, typing this by the midnight sun, I keep telling myself that I will be back in Skagway soon with my sister - and maybe, just maybe, we can get back to the Slide Cemetery.