Skagway - Hell on Earth

Skagway sits atop the Alaska Inside Passage and was the landing place for thousands of stampeders on their quest for gold, sailing up from Seattle and San Francisco. Many were ill prepared, figuring they could purchase what they needed when they got there, and certainly they could. But they were more likely to be fleeced by the organization that controlled the town once the discovery of gold became known. By the spring of 1898, 1,000 prospective miners were passing through the town every week, many of whom described it as ‘Hell on Earth’.

The town was run by Jefferson Smith, known as Soapy – this from a sleight-of-hand street scam selling bars of soap, allegedly wrapped in $20 bills, to the highest bidder. Soapy presented himself as the saviour of the poor while his gang attempted to relieve everyone else of his or her cash.

We arrived by train and walked to our hotel. Skagway is small, dusty and dominated by the mountains on three sides and the Cruise Lines on the other – three large ships sat at the dock as we detrained. And not only ships, the Cruise companies also own many businesses in the town aimed at their passengers – jewelry, fur, art and more jewelry stores – particularly those closest to the waterfront.

Soapy’s Grave

A famous waterfront incident was the so-called Shootout on Juneau Wharf, where Soapy Smith finally met his end at the hands of vigilante Frank Reid, but not before he managed to fatally wound Reid. They are both buried in the Gold Rush Cemetery and I was keen to see their graves. So, we set off on foot.

Carol’s fear of bears almost stopped us in our tracks but I managed to convince her that the cemetery was just at the edge of town. Actually, the graveyard sits in woodland that presumably has grown up through it and is more than a mile from the last building, along a gravel track. But it was well worth the trek.

Martin & Lucy Itjen’s Grave

Often crowded, we visited in the late afternoon – no one was there. The graves have been twisted and distended over the past 100 years by tree growth and frost heaves. Most of the dead were little more than teenagers – surely they didn’t think they’d end up here…  No bears though, but even I could sense their presence.

One pair of graves intrigued me, sitting as they do in front of a large gold-painted rock, chained to a tree. These are the graves of Martin Itjen and his wife. After the Gold Rush, Skagway went in to steep decline and Itjen, who’d arrived as a stampeder ended up being a tireless promoter of Skagway all down the West Coast. He ended up as a Ford dealer and operated the first tour bus in town. Itjen is credited with protecting the Cemetery and much of the historic town from destruction.

He characterized one of his props, a rock painted gold, as the biggest Gold Rush nugget. When he died in 1942 he was buried alongside his famous nugget. …And, in the strange way these things go, Soapy Smith is something of a folk hero now; a latter day Robin Hood, even a martyr, depending on who’s version of the story you read.

Gold Rush Cemetery - Frank Reid’s Memorial is the stone structure to the left

Next week we sail down the Inside Passage. 

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