Carnival buys historic Alaska railroad

Cruise operator Carnival Corp. has bought the Gold Rush-era White Pass Railroad at Skagway, Alaska, along with its retail business and port facilities.

The White Pass, featured last year in a Gumbo blog, was built to take prospectors over the mountains to the Yukon during the 1898 gold rush; previously they had to make the climb carrying their equipment.

Now a tourist attraction, the railroad was a vital freight link until the Yukon highway was built. Carnival has teamed with a local company to operate it and to improve cruise-ship mooring areas.