Colorful Skagway

Skagway was the most colorful town that we visited in Alaska with an interesting rough-and-tumble history. Legend has it that Captain William Moore was the man who purchased the land in 1887 that would later become the famous gold rush town of Skagway. Gold was discovered in the Klondike in 1896 and by 1897, the first boatland of prospectors landed in Skagway. By October 1897, Skagway had grown to a fair-sized town with well-laid out streets, buildings with "false fronts," stores, saloons, gambling houses, houses of "negotiable affection" and a population of 20,000. By 1900, its population had shrunk to 3,117. Today, its population is 850 in the winter, 3,000 in the summer and 700,000 cruise passengers visiting between May and September. I didn't count the number of jewelry stores in town but there were a lot. It is an interesting site to behold four large cruise ships in port.

During our morning bus tour, we heard a lot about the con man Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith and how he and his gang of thugs reigned over Skagway during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 and 1898. Soapy, Miss Belle Davenport and her "soiled doves," Alice and Molly were the colorful characters you could find hanging out at Jeff's Parlor during those wild times. Steve and I were rather intrigued by the story so we decided to go to the stage production, "The Days of '98 Show" which was featured at Eagles Hall at 6th & Broadway. At the show, we relived the days of saloons, dance halls, shootouts, lynch mobs, floozies and Can Can girls and it was fun.

It was absolutely hilarious when Squirrel-Tooth Alice and Molly Phewclothes came down into the audience and chose my dear Steve as their prize. My shy and unassuming Steve was made to go upstairs with the lovely ladies where he put on a garish dressing gown and was brought back on stage to be fawned over and kissed. I actually wondered whether they taught him anything new. For his efforts, Steve was awarded Soapy Smith's Whorehouse Achievement Award for Service Above and Beyond the Call of the Wild.


All kidding aside, Steve and I did enjoy the free walking tour of the Skagway Historic District which was guided by a ranger from the Klondike National Historical Park Service. She was obviously proud of the National Park Service's achievement in preserving many of the buildings from the gold rush period. I could just imagine myself being there giving Soapy Smith a very hard time.

More photos of Skagway