File:Martin Itjen in a Skagway Street Car Company vehicle, circa 1920 (AL+CA 500).jpg

On verso of image: Martin Itjen, Skagway, Alaska Filed in Alaska--Cities--Skagway

Martin Itjen was born ca. 1870 in Germany. He came to America ca. 1880. Skagway Street Car Company began in 1923 when local Skagway Ford Dealer, Coal Deliveryman, and Undertaker Martin Itjen took President Warren G. Harding for a tour “To All Points of Interest” in the back of his painted coal delivery truck. Martin continued touring for nearly 20 years with his original three “Street Cars.” The Skagway Street Car Company still operates tours in Skagway. Majestic mountains rise abruptly on either side of Skagway, a town situated in a narrow glaciated valley at the head of the Taiya Inlet in Alaska. Positioned along one of the main transportation corridors leading to Canada's interior, Skagway was established as a result of a gold strike in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory. Beginning in the summer of 1897, thousands of hopeful stampeders poured in to the new town and prepared for the arduous 500-mile journey to the gold fields. Realizing the grueling challenges that lay ahead on the route and the economic potential of supplying goods and services to other stampeders, some chose to remain in Skagway and establish a permanent community. Although it lasted but a brief period, and few obtained the wealth they dreamed of, the Klondike Gold Rush left a lasting mark on the Alaskan and Canadian landscapes. Today, Skagway's "boomtown" era remains alive in the many turn-of-the-century buildings that survive. The city now hosts half a million tourists annually and has a year-round population of approximately 800. [Source: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/75skagway/75skagway.htm

• Subjects (LCTGM): Automobiles--Alaska--Skagway
• Subjects (LCSH): Itjen, Martin; Skagway Street Car Company; Automobile drivers--Alaska--Skagway