In the heart of the Southeast Alaska cruise region, especially at the towns of Skagway and Juneau, there will be much celebration this year of the centennial of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. If your cruise takes you to Skagway, be sure to visit the museum at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. Cruising Alaska amounts to a grand adventure during the brief summer season, primarily June through August, though there is also some cruising in the shoulder-season months of May and September.

1998 promises to be another banner year for Alaska cruising, with passengers anticipated in excess of 500,000.Thirteen different cruise companies are expected to send 28 ships through Alaska waters this summer. The two major companies are Holland America and Princess, long-term players on the Alaska travel scene. Each will commit six ships with about 110-120 sailing dates in Alaska. Holland America and Princess also own numerous hotels and offer land tours to Denali National Park or Fairbanks with their cruises.

The third major participant in the modern cruise boom, Royal Caribbean, will position two of its megaships, Rhapsody of the Seas and Legend of the Seas, in Alaska for the summer of 1998.

At the economic top-end of the Alaska cruise market are such luxury ship as the Crystal Harmony, which offer opulent accommodations and lavish amenities. Still another style of cruising is provided by such small adventure ships as those run by Alaska Sightseeing/Cruise West, which can make their way directly through the narrow fiords and dock right in the small towns the big ships cannot approach.

These smaller boats give the traveler a different experience from the large ships that need to anchor in deep water and shuttle their passengers to shore. Alaska Sightseeing has two ships devoted to each of three itineraries—traveling between Seattle, Washington and Juneau, doing an in-depth look at the Inside Passage from a base at Juneau and perusing Prince William Sound.

Alternatively, the ship might drop you at Skagway and allow you to begin an overland tour of the Yukon and Alaska. Holland America typically combines an Inside Passage cruise with an overland excursion.

Another pattern, for some ships, is to sail from Vancouver to Juneau and then on to Seward, a town 2.5 hours south by road from Anchorage. This itinerary celebrates the Gulf of Alaska, Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula. Princess Cruises puts particular emphasis on this approach. Passengers offload at Seward and depart by air from Anchorage or participate in a land tour in combination with their cruise. Another covey of passengers flies into Anchorage and sails the voyage in reverse down to Vancouver.

If your cruise ship takes you to Seward, visit the Alaska Sealife Center, an exciting new attraction opening May 1st. This facility is the first cold-water marine institute in the Western Hemisphere. Built at a cost of $50 million, the center will be a major research institution. For cruise travelers, it will display many of the large marine animals, such as whales, that visitors long to see in Alaska waters. The setting for the Alaska Sealife Center is imposing in tiny Seward (population 3,034), directly on the waterfront, surrounded by mountains at the edge of Resurrection Bay, gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park.

Beyond what is new, however, is what is perennial in the Southeast Alaska cruise scene. Year after year, cruise passengers delight in seeing the glaciers and wildlife of Glacier Bay National Park, one of the most inspiring natural settings on the planet. Besides the wonders of nature, the interesting small towns to explore include: Juneau, with its state-capital bustle; Skagway, where patient miners with visions of gold nuggets hiked up across the Chilkoot Pass to the Yukon gold fields; and Sitka, noted for its Russian heritage. Let these introductory remarks help orient you to your potential Alaska cruise pleasures. Where the ship will go may have a bearing on which ship and sailing you might want to choose.

Bluish rivers of ice slowly push their way to the water’s edge. As you watch, amidst the silence, massive chunks of ice fall and crash into the bay. It is for these special sights that Glacier Bay National Park is the single greatest attraction in Southeast Alaska. Glacier Bay is the U.S.’s one national park seen primarily via cruise ship.

Within Glacier Bay National Park, located west of Juneau in Southeast Alaska, you are likely to see eagles and bears along the shore. Humpback whales, orcas or killer whales, minke whales, seals and dolphins disport themselves in the chilly waters. Ocean wildlife flourishes here because the conditions are favorable for their food supplies. The extreme coldness of the water coming off the glaciers supports abundant dissolved oxygen. Long summer daylight hours encourage rapid growth of plankton, krill and other small plants and animals at the base of the food chain.

The major geological phenomenon of interest here is the rapid retreat of glaciers. Currently, these glaciers are making the fastest glacial retreat in recorded history. Park Service maps record the advance or retreat of specific glaciers. Two hundred years ago the entire region was covered with glaciers.

When Captain George Vancouver explored the region in 1794, his log book records that an impenetrable mass of ice impeded his progress at Glacier Bay. He measured the ice mass at 4,000 feet thick, 20 miles wide and 100 miles long. By 1879, observer John Muir found that the ice had retreated 48 miles up the bay. The known forward face of the John Hopkins Glacier in 1907 was about 15 miles farther into the sea than its present position.

Glacier Bay is also a premier example of specialized forms of glaciers, including hanging glaciers and tidewater glaciers (glaciers that come to the water’s edge). The area is a perfect laboratory for the study of how plants successively colonize land newly opened up by retreating glaciers. For example, Bart-lett Cove, at the entrance to Glacier Bay, was solid glaciers 200 years ago, but is now a maturing spruce forest.

A relevant question to ask your potential cruise company is, “How good is your naturalist program?” The more interpretive information you receive on an Alaska cruise, the more satisfying will be your experience. Certain primal moments, such as following a majestic humpback whale meandering around picturesque Glacier Bay, can live in your memory forever.

Juneau began when Joe Juneau discovered gold there. It is said that Joe Juneau wept because he had made more money than he could ever spend in a lifetime. Soon, there were three major mines and a stamp mill.

Juneau was selected as the state capital, though historically it has been overshadowed by Anchorage as a developed area and a population base. There are 254,000 Alaskans in Anchorage and only 29,000 in Juneau, out of a total population in the state of only 615,000. Almost all of the people in Juneau work for the state or federal government.

It would be hazardous to argue that in the lower 48 states there is a state capital as attractive as Juneau. Where else is there a combination of visual pleasures that encompasses the sea, mountains, glaciers, wildlife and salmon spawning, all close to the city’s edge?

In Juneau, take a city tour to orient yourself to the area. The tour will take you outside of town to the Mendenhall Glacier, where you can touch and walk on the glacial ice. Mendenhall is one of 16 glaciers in the 1,000 square miles of ice fields around Juneau. In Juneau, see the Alaska State Museum, with its elaborate collection of kayaks from around the state.

Stop for a drink at the lively Red Dog Saloon, a honky-tonk with ankle-deep sawdust on the floor, player-piano music and stuffed animals on the wall. The beverage of choice here is locally brewed Alaska beer, a hearty drink. Try the award-winning Alaska Amber.

Skagway boomed when miners seeking passage to the Klondike Gold Rush needed a staging area. Canadian authorities required that miners possess a year’s supply of provisions before they were allowed to proceed. Looking at the map, it was determined that traversing the Chilkoot Pass and then taking rivers downstream was the surest route. Skagway booms again today.

The community of 550 people gets about 300,000 summer visitors a year, over half from cruise ships.Skagway’s main appeal is best experienced by walking around the historic area. Stop at the Park Service headquarters for the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. There, you’ll see photos and displays on this major historic event. Photos, for example, show how miners used fold-up canvas boats on the Yukon River to get their supplies downriver. Most of the boats were abandoned when they were found to be too flimsy.

The walls of the Park Service headquarters are covered with quotes from Robert Service’s poetry, echoing a constant Alaskan theme: human perseverance in the face of crushing adversity.The photographic image of long lines of men, chained together for safety, hiking in the middle of winter up the 45-degree grade of the Chilkoot Pass, is one of the most moving images of the Klondike rush.

The weather here can be severe, earning for Skagway the meaning Tlingit Indians had for the word, skagua, “home of the north wind.”

Be sure to see the Skagway presentation, each afternoon and evening, of the Soapy Smith Revue. In the revue, you get a sense of the Gold Rush of 1898 and the consummate con man, Soapy Smith, who knew a thousand ways to separate a sourdough from his gold nuggets.

The Red Onion Saloon is a favorite bar, often featuring impromptu jam sessions led by musicians from the cruise ships. The town is compact and pleasant to walk around exploring the shops, such as Tresham Gregg’s Gallery of his Tlingit Indian art creations. Gradually, many of the buildings are being restored to their 1898 appearance, as the national park applies its influence and funds.

The photo shop Dedman’s, for instance, was one of the original photo studios and still has glass plates from the Gold Rush era.

Sitka was populated by Tlingit Indians for thousands of years. Russia watched the area with interest after Vitus Bering sighted the Alaskan coast in 1741. In 1799, Russian Alexander Baranov began construction of fortifications at Sitka. Baranov intended to colonize Alaska for Russia and develop the fur trade. The Tlingits resented Russian infringement, burning their fort and killing most of the people in 1802. Baranov returned in 1804 with the warship Neva and 1,000 men. He fought a decisive battle against 700 armed Tlingit. The Tlingit retreated and the Russians formally established their colony of New Archangel.

Be sure to see St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral and its historic icons, some from the 14th century. The cathedral was built from 1844 to 1848, burned in 1966 and was then rebuilt as an exact replica. Today, no white Russians live in the Sitka area, though several Tlingit Indians with Russian names and some Russian blood do reside here. One bright aspect of the revived interest in the Russian heritage is the New Archangel Russian Folk Dancers, a group of women who entertain visitors with their repertoire. Be sure to catch their daily performance in the Centennial Building, which also houses a small Sitka City Museum. Because of the declining fur supply, the Crimean War and its inability to defend Alaska, Russia eventually decided to sell Sitka and all of Alaska to the United States in 1867 for $7,200,000—about 2 cents per acre.

Sitka is a picturesque town surrounded by islands and backed by Mt. Edgecumbe, an extinct volcano. At the National Historic Park you can see Tlingit Indians engaged in carving, weaving and jewelry-making. Walk the oceanside path to see Tlingit and Haida totem poles. Today, about a third of Sitka’s 8,600 residents are Tlingit. Interpretive displays at the park headquarters describe how the Tlingit and Russians once lived.

Then, visit the Sheldon Jackson Museum, a missionary’s collection of artifacts gathered from the various native groups in Alaska. The museum is on a college campus of the same name, where 200 students now attend. There, you’ll see salmon-skin garments, masks and many day-to-day artifacts of the Indian material culture, including the ceremonial eating bowls of the Tlingit.

Stop in at the Russian Bishop’s House, which the Park Service has restored. The Russians briefly made Sitka the “Paris of the Pacific.” Ships from 13 nations weighed anchors here. Trade goods ranged from Virginia tobacco to Flemish linens. The settlement included schools, a flour mill, a tannery and a foundry that cast the bells for some of California’s Spanish missions.