Skagway stands within the homeland of the Tlingit, whose trade routes crossed the coastal mountains long before outsiders arrived. Tlingit merchants controlled exchange between coastal and interior peoples through routes later called the Chilkoot and White Pass trails. The Klondike gold discovery publicized in 1897 brought tens of thousands of stampeders to Lynn Canal. A makeshift town erupted at Skagway, where ships unloaded people, animals, lumber, food, and equipment. The boom depended on Indigenous knowledge and dispossession as newcomers claimed waterfront, streets, and access corridors.

Broadway filled with tent businesses, false-front stores, saloons, hotels, warehouses, offices, and entertainment. Outfitters sold the ton of supplies Canadian authorities expected prospectors to carry. Mud, fire, disease, fraud, and violence accompanied rapid growth. Jefferson Randolph Smith, known as Soapy Smith, built a criminal and political network before his death in a shootout in 1898, but sensational stories about him should not eclipse workers, women entrepreneurs, families, packers, Indigenous traders, and migrants who sustained the town. Many stampeders failed to reach or profit from the goldfields.

Completion of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway in 1900 replaced much trail traffic and made Skagway a durable transportation center even as the rush declined. Railroad shops, docks, tourism, military activity during the Second World War, and seasonal commerce supported the community. Buildings disappeared through fire, demolition, relocation, and decay, while others gained new façades or uses. Early tourism already promoted gold-rush memory, and civic preservation protected enough of the streetscape to retain a rare concentration of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century wooden commercial structures.

Congress established Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in 1976, linking Skagway resources with the Chilkoot Trail and a Seattle unit. The National Park Service acquired and restored numerous buildings along Broadway, including former saloons, depots, shops, and offices, while private owners rehabilitated others. Surviving structures contain varying amounts of original framing, siding, windows, and interior fabric; some were moved, extensively rebuilt, or returned to researched period appearance. Boardwalks, exhibits, utilities, fire protection, and visitor services are modern, and the operating railway remains separately managed.

The National Park Service, Municipality of Skagway, private owners, and community organizations share stewardship of the landmark district. Streets and many park exhibits are generally free, while tours, rail travel, museums, and businesses set their own fees and schedules. Cruise crowds create intense seasonal pressure. Interpretation should connect the boom's excitement with Tlingit sovereignty, environmental damage, animal suffering, exploitation, international borders, and the hard labor of transport. Skagway is a living town with authentic and restored buildings, not a single reconstructed gold-rush village sealed in 1898.