Dyea ( ) is a former town in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. A few people live on individual small homesteads in the valley; however, it is largely abandoned. It is located at the convergence of the

Taiya River The Taiya River (also Dyea River Taiya Inlet Taiya Inlet is part of the upper Lynn Canal located in the U.S. state of Alaska. Taiya Inlet is an estuary which lies in a deep valley, with Skagway, Alaska at its north end and the remainder of the Lynn Canal at its south end. History Taiya Inl ...

on the south side of the

Chilkoot Pass Chilkoot Pass (el. ) is a high mountain pass through the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the U.S. state of Alaska and British Columbia, Canada. It is the highest point along the Chilkoot Trail that leads from Dyea, Alaska to Bennett La ...

within the limits of the Municipality of Skagway Borough, Alaska. During the Klondike Gold Rush prospectors disembarked at its port and used the

Chilkoot Trail The Chilkoot Trail is a 33-mile (53 km) trail through the Coast Mountains that leads from Dyea, Alaska, in the United States, to Bennett, British Columbia, in Canada. It was a major access route from the coast to Yukon goldfields in the late ...

, a

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

trade route over the

Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains (french: La chaîne Côtière) are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia ...

, to begin their journey to the gold fields around

Dawson City Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest town in Yuko ...

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

, about away. Confidence man and crime boss

Soapy Smith Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 – July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier. Smith operated confidence schemes across the Western United States, and had a large hand in organized crim ...

, famous for his underworld control of the neighboring town of

Skagway The Municipality and Borough of Skagway is a first-class borough in Alaska on the Alaska Panhandle. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,240, up from 968 in 2010. The population doubles in the summer tourist season in order to deal wit ...

in 1897–98 is believed to have had control of Dyea as well. The port at Dyea had shallow water, while neighboring

had deep water. Dyea was abandoned when the

White Pass and Yukon Route The White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&Y, WP&YR) is a Canadian and U.S. Class III narrow-gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railr ...

railroad chose the

White Pass Trail White Pass, also known as the Dead Horse Trail, (elevation ) is a mountain pass through the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains on the border of the U.S. state of Alaska and the province of British Columbia, Canada. It leads from Skagway, A ...

(instead of the alternative

), which began at Skagway, for its route. Use of the name ''Dyea'' for its present location first occurred in 1886, when John J. Healy (1840-1908) and Edgar Wilson (1842-1895) opened their trading post there. Prior to that year, only a small hunting and fishing cabin had existed at the location.“May 1886 I established a trading-post at a place now called Dyea, … with Edgar Wilson, … who resided at Dyea up to … his death in 1895.”
Healy Dep., May 20, 1903
''Proceedings of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal'', S. Doc. No. 162, 58th Cong. (2nd Sess. 1903), Vol. IV, App. 2, at page 233, ''reprinted in'', Serial 4602. Prior to 1886, only a small hunting and fishing cabin had existed at this location. , at page 202 (map entry: “''Kleines Jagd & Fischerhaus''”

erman Erman Rašiti may refer to: Given name * Erman Bulucu (born 1989), Turkish footballer * Erman Eltemur (born 1993), Turkish karateka * Erman Güraçar (born 1974), Turkish footballer * Erman Kılıç (born 1983), Turkish footballer * Erman Kunter (b ...

. Prior to 1886, ''Dyea'' or ''Dei-yi'' honetic spellinghad been the second half of the name ''Chilkoot Dei-yi'' hilkoot-owned Trail“The trail … is known among the Indians as the Chilkoot trail … It was monopolized solely by the Chilkoots, who had even gone so far as to forbid the Chilkats, almost brothers in blood, from using it …” , at page 60. It is, however, unlikely that the Indians used the English word for ''trail''! Because the Chilkoot Indians claimed ownership of the trail, it would have been called ''Chilkoot Dei-yi'' hilkoot-owned Trail Prior publications state that ''Dyea'' was derived from the words for “to pack” 'yaa''or “carrying place” 'yaa yé''; , at page 43 (Dyea “Tlingit word purportedly meaning “carrying place”). However, the presence of the initial \d\ sound in ''Dyea'' casts doubt on those latter possibilities, and suggests that the first syllable was in fact ''dei'' (as in ''dei-yi'').

Chilkoot Trail and Dyea Site The Chilkoot Trail is a 33-mile (53 km) trail through the Coast Mountains that leads from Dyea, Alaska, in the United States, to Bennett, British Columbia, in Canada. It was a major access route from the coast to Yukon goldfields in the lat ...

is a U.S.

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. Dyea is now within the

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 stamped ...

. All that remains are a number of foundations surrounded by scraps of lumber and metal, 3 cemeteries, including one where almost every person buried died on the same date in an avalanche on the gold rush trail, and the ruins of the wharf.nps.gov Visitors can usually spot

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...

s, black bears, and eagles. Brown bears tend to use the Dyea inlets to feed during salmon spawning season (July–August).

Demographics

Dyea appeared one time on the U.S. Census in 1900 as an unincorporated village. It has since been annexed into the city of Skagway.

References

External links

Guide to Dyea, Alaska from ExploreNorth
* {{authority control Geography of the Municipality of Skagway Borough, Alaska Ghost towns in Alaska Historic American Engineering Record in Alaska Klondike Gold Rush Mining communities in Alaska Ghost towns in the United States Ghost towns in North America