Re: White Pass #71

Comparing the No. 71 view with the June 1982 view below, you can match up the mountain top on the other side of Skagway Bay, along with the exact patches of snow on the mountainside.



The upward rock formation on the right of the mountaintop is now “Face Mountain,” originally Kanagoo’s face. The upward formation to the left is her feet. Kanagoo was the woman who transformed herself into stone here, shortly after Raven created the world. Since then, whenever she gets angry, she has made strong north winds blow, creating nasty seas in the Taiya Inlet. Kanagoo’s nickname was “Pretty Woman” in English or “Skagway” in Tlingit. The nasty seas formed by the winds in the Taiya Inlet also came to be known idiomatically as “Skagway,” since she causes them.

In 1897, the Government officially named Kanagoo’s Face / Face Mountain “Parson’s Peak,” after the head librarian of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. That name lasted until 1985, when it was officially renamed “Face Mountain,” finally recognizing that it’s a woman’s face.