Old Stuff – Cemeteries and Museums

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 – Day 20

We visited the Gold Rush Cemetery this morning. We arrived there about 7:45, before the Tour buses arrived.  Interesting place. There are a couple of graves of note that we wanted to see., Frank Reid and Jefferson R. (Soapy) Smith. Soapy Smith was an old fashion, western kind of bad guy, a Snidely Whiplash.  One of his tricks was to charge the stampeders $5 to send a telegraph home; for a dollar more they could wait for a reply.  Problem was there were no telegraph lines leading out of the building. He apparently ran a number of illegal drinking establishments and was involved in other criminal activity.  He met his end when he went to the wharf to settle a claim he had with Frank Reid.  Frank was ready for him and put a hole right through Soapy’s heart. Soapy got a shot off and hit Frank Reid in the groin. Ouch!  Soapy was lucky as he died almost instantly.  Frank Reid on the other hand languished in hospital for 12 days before succumbing to his wound.  Soapy got a simple marker but Frank Reid, got a huge monument from the people of Skagway with the inscription, “ He gave his life for the benefit of Skagway”

The Skagway Museum is located in the only stone building in Skagway. This museum has a number of artifacts from the Gold Rush days to the present. They are still working on it and one day it will be very good.  They have an excellent little Gift Shop, where we found some unique treasures.

After dinner we drove downtown.  It almost seems as if they rolled-up the sidewalks after 8:00 PM.  The main downtown shopping area had been totally mobbed in the afternoon with over 9,000 people from four cruise ships.  You could hardly move for all the people.  A few restaurants remained open probably to serve the locals and the many young people who work the stores during the summer.

This is the end of our Skagway stay.  We head back up north to Canada towards Whitehorse and Haines Junction tomorrow.  We will once again follow the route of many of the Gold Rush stampeders through the White Pass and Carcross, YT.