My first full day here was spent exploring and getting to know the town. However, Skagway is just five streets wide and 23 streets long, meaning I was able to explore and re-explore the entire town multiple times before lunch.
That day was significant for me in that it was the first time in my life I have been interested in history. In a word, Skagway is badass. It was incorporated in 1887 and exploded in population a decade later when word of the Klondike Gold Rush spread across the United States. Thousands of "stampeders" dropped everything and moved to Alaska in the late 1890s in hopes of striking it rich in Dawson City.
Skagway was located at the beginning of the most popular trail leading to Dawson City, and as prospectors continued to pour into Alaska, its population swelled to around 30,000 in 1898. However, these were not 30,000 gentle-mannered and law-abiding citizens. These were 30,000 people insane and desperate enough to move to Alaska and embark on a life-threatening journey for a few gold nuggets. When you put several thousand greedy, gold-digging, wifeless dudes together, shit's going to go down. Saloons and whores, this town was. "Little better than hell on earth," one policeman wrote.
But don't take it from me, take it from legendary Alaska newspaper columnist "Stroller" White. The following was published in 1898 in a column titled "Skagway":
"The closer he got to the town, the less he liked what he could see and hear of it as it seemed to be mostly tents, shacks, shanties and noise. The Stroller did not particularly look for sober men, but he did not see any that he remembers, although he presumes there may have been some around since it was still an hour or two short of midnight."Then there was Soapy Smith. Soapy was the rootin' tootinest outlaw in the West before he bailed on Denver and became the rootin' tootinest outlaw in Skagway. He swindled and cheated while maintaining the public image of a celebrity. His henchmen would rob newcomers and Soapy would pay their fare back home. He organized a parade that conveniently ended inside a bar he owned. He overstayed his welcome and was killed in a gunfight, but Soapy remains a legend in Skagway, inspiring the almost-entirely-tongue-in-cheek "Days of '98" musical performed for tourists here three times a day for like the past 85 years.
By 1900, the gold rush had dissipated and the stampeders went home, mostly penniless. Skagway's population today is just over 900. But the buildings and signs remain unchanged, and a quick glance down Broadway reveals a town torn right out of an old-timey photograph. You can feel the history in this place, and from time to time I've walked down the street imagining myself in the year 1898, tipping my cap to strangers while avoiding bullets and shouting hello to Flim Flam Floozie and her team of hungry hungry hookers. My first impression of Skagway was a town frozen in time, a town whose characters are still alive and whose inexplicable allure affirmed my decision to, as they did in the Days of '98, drop everything and move to Alaska.
sick
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