Gold Rush Cemetery and the Days of '98

Old caboose

Skagway Small Boat Dock

On Friday morning (June 22nd), we headed down to the dock to see if we could find a place on the Fjord Express to Juneau, a sightseeing tour that was fully booked. We could not, there were no cancellations, much to my happiness (meaning we could stay in Skagway another two nights awaiting our trip on the Fjord Express on Sunday. Woo hoo!). 

Old train near the
WP&YR train yard

Tiny maintenance railcar!

We left the dock and walked into town to finish the second half of the walking tour we started the evening before and midway through took a side trip to the Gold Rush Cemetery and Reid Falls. Our trip took us past the WP&YR train yard where a huge steam engine was parked along with a bunch of colorful railcars. We found a rusted old train locomotive in the grass on its side. Cool!

Frank Reid's huge gravestone

Soapy Smith's meager gravestone

The Gold Rush Cemetery holds the graves of a number of colorful characters from Skagway’s heyday including Soapy Smith, buried with a simple wooden gravestone off in a corner, and Frank Reid (who shot Soapy), whose 7 foot monument erected by the townsfolk boasts an epitaph that reads, “He gave his life for the honor of Skagway.” Ella Wilson, a resident of Skagway’s red-light district, is also buried here and her epitaph reads, “She gave her honor for the life of Skagway.” Ha! 

Lower Reid Falls

About a quarter mile beyond the graveyard we found Lower Reid Falls, a spectacular 300 foot cascade of rushing water spilling over the cliff above. Wow.

We walked back the almost 2 miles into town and stopped to rest along Broadway on a bench in the sun in front of one of the many gift shops. We had lunch at Bombay Curry, and then knuckle-dragged our tired feet back to the RV to rest. But first, we stopped in to pay for two more nights in the RV park (yay!) and to buy our tickets for Sunday’s boat ride to Juneau.

Michael Baish reciting Robert Service poetry

After a lengthy recovery from the morning’s walk, we strolled into town for an ice cream at the Kone Kompany on Broadway Street. Dee-lish. Afterwards, we walked over to the Days of ’98 show at the local theater house (which doubles as a Fraternal Order of the Eagles Aerie, #25). The show was outstanding. For an hour before the show began we were given $1000 in casino chips to play in Soapy Smith’s parlor. And despite the normally crooked dealers, we both came out ahead, me with $4,000, Ken with $21,000…too bad we weren’t in Vegas with real money.

Squirrel Tooth Alice, Belle and Molly

Arvin from Minnesota with his two 'ladies'

The show began with a couple of musical numbers by a local legend, Michael Baish, who also recited (very animatedly) some Robert Service poems. Robert Service was a bank teller from Whitehorse during the Klondike Gold Rush who used to recite famous poems during vaudeville shows. After everyone in Whitehorse had heard them all, he began making up his own, mostly about the stampeders and life in the Yukon. Michael was fascinating to listen to, especially given the excellent material Mr. Service provided him.

The Can-Can Number

The main show was a comedic version of the events of Soapy Smith’s short tenure in the town of Skagway. One skit was particularly funny involving an older, unsuspecting Minnesotan man of the audience named Arvin, two prostitutes (Molly and Squirrel Tooth Alice) competing for his attentions and a madam (Belle).

Another skit involved two more unsuspecting audience members doing the can-can on stage with all three ladies…embarrassingly, one of them was me. But it was great fun.

Jefferson "Soapy" Smith

The actor playing Soapy managed to con one woman out of $20 for a bar of soap after he had insulted the rest of us (for not buying his soap) as the great unwashed, while implying we were all unclean of either spirit, conscience or body. It was hilarious. The show ended, we congratulated each of the cast members individually for a job well done and walked out still laughing. What a great time we had!