Last fall, in an effort to provide recreational options for Skagway residents, the municipality made a vacant campground host cabin available for nightly rentals. Facing criticism from local lodge owners, the Assembly decided to reserve it for a campground host in the summer months and make it free for local residents during the winter. 

The Dyea municipal campground sits about ten miles outside of Skagway. For months the host cabin has inspired impassioned speeches, letters, and more recently, legal threats from Fred and Kathy Hosford of The Chilkoot Trail Outpost, a local lodging business. Kathy Hosford has said repeatedly that the host cabin could destroy her business.

“We have been trying very hard to keep the city out of competition with us since we found out about the unpermitted cabin that was built last winter,” said Hosford at Thursday night’s Borough Assembly meeting.

But to compare the campground host cabin and the cabins at the Chilkoot Trail Outpost proves difficult. The Outpost features double occupancy cabins with full amenities including private baths, linens, satellite TVs, and a full breakfast; and is typically only open during the summer tourism season. The campground host cabin has four wooden bunks and a propane heater with an outhouse just a short walk away, no other amenities are included. 

Last fall, as the Canadian border remained closed due to the country’s COVID-19 response, the municipality made the cabin available for $50/night. This move was popular with Skagway residents looking to escape their homes for brief forays into nature and unpopular with those who saw the cabin as unfair competition against local businesses.

The Hosfords sent multiple letters claiming the cabin was built illegally, and that, according to local law, no rentals are permitted on the Dyea flats. In response, the municipality discontinued the cabin rentals pending further discussion.

Last Thursday night the Assembly voted 4-2 to reserve the cabin each summer for a campground host between April 15 and October 15. For the rest of the year, the cabin will be made available to Skagway residents rent-free through the Skagway Rec Center’s reservations website.

Assemblyperson Orion Hanson, who sponsored the resolution, thinks the cabin should be put to use for Skagway residents during the winter months when no campground host is present. 

“Why leave it vacant? Why board it up? That this would be primarily built as a caretaker cabin, and then in the wintertime, it should be utilized. It’s nice,” said Hanson.

Assemblyperson Sam Bass who owns a lodging business in downtown Skagway disagreed with the resolution and cast one of the two no votes.

“Giving away the cabin for free may even be more damaging than charging for it. It would be hard enough for other accommodation sites to compete with a $50 a night cabin, and very, very hard to compete with a free cabin,” said Bass. He also argued that since the cabin is on the road system, you can drive to it, which puts the cabin in direct competition with lodging businesses.

Hanson noted that the road is not maintained during the winter.

“If anybody tried to go out there this past winter, you were stuck. Okay, it’s not plowed,” said Hanson.

 

Also last Thursday night, the Assembly voted unanimously to extend an offer to the only person that applied for the campground host position this year. That offer would include the use of the cabin and reimbursement for travel expenses of roughly $7,000.  

The municipality had advertised the job of campground host in exchange for the use of the cabin only, with no offer of a stipend or reimbursement of travel expenses. The new host has accepted the offer and is in transit with an expected start date of mid-June.