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 Want to know more about Alaska? Speak to the locals? Here is your chance!
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Introducing all the way from Skagway, Alaska, gateway to the Yukon Territories, Mr. Steve Hites performer extraordinaire. Dressed in 1890's fashion, Mr. Hites will entertain and educate you through his ballads of the Yukon and the Klondike Gold Rush Era. An Alaskan historian and acclaimed performer, wearing a derby, a mortician's frock coat and a chain of gold nuggets across his vest, Hites looks every inch a gold-rush dandy. ''Ho, for the Klondike!'' calls Skagway's premier tour guide, echoing the refrain of Skagway's early days. . Steve operates the Skagway Streetcar Company and has wonderful stories to tell. Hear about the Gold Rush Cemetery and the celebrated gunfight that ended with the deaths of outlaws Soapy Smith and Frank Reid, the town hero. Don't expect a staid description of facts. Hites' tour is a high-octane mix of everything from historic melodrama to nudge, nudge, wink, wink, local gossip and great musical entertainment. |
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 Steve Hites  |
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| Steve Hites has been in the entertainment business in the North since 1972, when he left his home in Colorado and came to Skagway, Alaska, seeking a job with the White Pass & Yukon Route narrow gauge railroad. While working his way through the company as a brakeman, conductor, train dispatcher, and passenger agent, he performed in local theaters and saloons, and wrote dozens of songs about the Klondike Gold Rush and the history of Alaska
With the rapid growth of the Alaska cruise industry, Hites, concentrated his efforts on recreating the Skagway Street Car Company, a sightseeing operation in Skagway which uses a fleet of eight antique automobiles from the 1920's and ' 30's to show visitors around the historic community and all its points of interest. Hites calls the tour "theater without walls", and dresses up in an 1890's-style black three-piece suit with gold watch and derby hat. "We get to tell old Skagway stories on every tour," he says.
Hites's stories and original songs can be heard daily each summer when he performs at the Club House Theater, or at some 300 special concert performances which he contracts to do aboard the cruise ships which call in at Skagway throughout the season.
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