Hyder

The tiny town of Hyder sits at the head of narrow Portland Canal, a 70-mi-long fjord northeast of Ketchikan. The fjord marks the border between Canada and the United States, and Hyder sits just 2 mi from the larger town of Stewart, British Columbia. It's also one of the few Southeast settlements that is accessible by paved road. Highway 37A continues over spectacular Bear Pass from Stewart, connecting these towns with the rest of Canada.

The 1898 discovery of gold and silver in the surrounding mountains brought a flood of miners to the Hyder area, and the town eventually became a major shipping port. Mining remained important for decades, but a devastating 1948 fire destroyed much of the town, which had been built on pilings over the water. A small amount of mining still takes place here, but the beauty of the area now attracts increasing numbers of tourists. Today, Hyder calls itself "the friendliest ghost town in Alaska."