Alaska - The Last Frontier (1930s)

[Music] would you see the last frontier where men still moil for gold where beauty broods in silence over glaciers centuries old then to Alaska sail across the old gold-seekers trail [Music] fifty years ago the City of Vancouver was a small outpost in the wilderness today she is Canada's gateway to the Pacific in half a century she has become a city of Commerce and a trade of tall buildings luxurious hotels and lovely Sylvan parks but young as he is in history around her cling stories of adventure legends of the gold rush days today the graceful Canadian Pacific princess steamer slips out of Vancouver harbour to sail over routes once sailed by nondescript boats jammed to the gunnels with a rip-roaring crowd of gold seeking adventurers today modern comforts surround the traveler to Alaska but Adventure is in the air it seems to come down on the wind from the north the soft lapping of the water against the sides of the steamer speaks of a new world of romance North steams the princess along the Strait of Georgia past Cape much light and Quadra Island through discovery Passage what stories lie behind those names North she steams to alert Bay first port of call here on KO Malad island are descendants of ancient Indian tribes living much as their fathers did totem poles still gaze seaward oblivious of the passage of time perhaps they dream of the days when the Thunderbird spread his wings over their world and to disappear into the mists of the sea from which north across queen charlotte sound the coastline grows more rugged our sinister beauty hangs over the mountains where the wilderness is master north's to Prince Rupert most northerly city and British Columbia here the teeming crops of the sea are harvested fishing boats sail from Prince Rupert for the banks of southeastern Alaska happy hunting ground for halibut no matter how many nets go down the sea still gives up its harbors the salmon boats ride in loaded with raw material for the canning factories British Columbia fish for the tables of America [Music] outgo the fishing boats while the impassive totem faces watch uncaring storms break over the land sunshine night succeeds day and a day night but still the carved wooden faces stare over the western sea watching for the return of the Thunderbird north sails the princess across the international boundary line into United States waters Alaska lies ahead Alaska land of mystery shrouded in the white of eternal snows Alaska the last frontier at Ketchikan first port of call in Alaska most of the population of over 6,000 depend on the fishing industry for their livelihood for the counting of fish from Alaskan waters is the most important single activity in this outpost of the north near by late summer brings the ocean salmon to battle their way up Swift rivers to the spawning beds in many places man built ramps facilitate their passage up the Falls driven by instinct these giant fish fight tremendous odds only to die on the steel mud of the spawning grounds a strange example of nature's power over her creatures [Music] on sales the princess on into a world built on fabulous dimensions over beyond the coastal range our valleys and mountains where man has never penetrated where the wilderness is king where silence has bruited since the world's beginning but on back there is friendship and fun games to while away the sunny hours romance on the northern trail porpoise Playboy's of the ocean caper beside the steamer the leaping leaders of the waves cavorting like clowns at a circus with a laugh in every leaf from the interior of Alaska age-old glaciers ride down to the sea to rare tremendous bastions of ice against the ocean here is the birthplace of icebergs monsters have eyes pushed up from the ocean's bottom by sliding taco glacier [Music] from judo capital of Alaska the princess sails to Skagway town of many legends built in the early days of the gold rush the history of Skagway is the history of the once dreaded white horse pass or it was from this town that the wild horde of gold seekers left across the trail of 98 to the gold fields many never returned old landmarks remain for a few short weeks each summer Blanchard's gardens are a riot of Alaskan flowers showing nature in a gentle mood but there's nothing gentle in the stories of Skagway is early inhabitants a rip-snorting hard-bitten hoard of adventurers they live beyond the reach of the law with death just around the corner [Music] Whitehorse paths journey's end of many a fine dream of adventure for at Skaguay the hunters left the sea to take the trail of 98 thousands tried to cross the trail on foot beyond lay El Dorado well beyond the wildest dreams on the way exposure and cold and hardship proved too much for only the strong could survive in this land of the North today travelers over the past ride in comfort and security the danger has disappeared but the wind still speaks of adventure of the lusty days of the gold rush when men went mad and fought and died for the yellow dust dead horse Gulch is said to hold the bones of a thousand pack animals who slipped from the narrow trail but only legend tells of the man and thought along this trail straggled the mare do well and the younger son the soldier of fortune and the man of business clark's farmers laborers and college men they left them's at the cry of gold and the north swallow them uncaring [Music] over the past into the storied land of the Yukon today's adventurers ride the northern trail to beauty on to Lake Bennett where the miners have left relics of their stay where the winds sigh through the old church winds that blow from back of beyond onto Carcross once it was called caribou crossing but that was too long to say and so it was shortened to car crops here's sourdough cabin still housed the men on the last frontier [Music] around Lake Tagish mile-high mountains shear up from the water and dip into valleys where color runs riot remote far from the cities of men nature has built a world of breathless beauty paddle wheels carry adventurers over the shallow lake past glacier and peak and Valley paths small Eskimo settlements past grim reminders of other days [Music] the journey to Alaska ham the Yukon 1,000 miles by sea to Skagway over the legendary White Horse Pass leads into a wonder world into a land of dwarfed spruce trees serrated mountain ranges and blue shadowed glaciers here vastness and lures here Beauty seeps into the soul catching forever memories of Alaska the last frontier [Music]