Portions of the district are preserved as part of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.

[3] Buildings in the district are generally wood-frame structures with one or two stories, which have been brightly painted.

[3] The Arctic Brotherhood Hall (1899), its front covered with driftwood, is one of the contributing buildings.

The valley that rises steeply above Skagway was one of the main routes to the gold fields of the Yukon River.

Two overland routes, the 1897 trail and the Brackett Wagon Road, worked their way up White Pass, as did a water-based route along the Skagway River, and the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, completed in 1900.