Sometimes you can go halfway around the world only to run into something that makes you feel at home again.
“Alongside the Railroad Dock in Skagway is an impressive wall of solid granite that is home to one of the most unique art collections in Alaska. Since 1928, the crews of ships have been ‘autographing’ this wall to commemorate their first voyage to Skagway. Though access to the dock has been severely curtailed since ‘9/11’, passengers on the cruise ships with use of the dock and off-season visitors can spend hours reading the signatures, which comprise a virtual ‘Who’s Who’ of Alaska passenger ships from the past 80-odd years.” (Lundberg)
The dominating image on this wall in Skagway is a large painted skull dedicated to a man named “Soapy Smith.” Soapy Smith’s skull was painted in the Fall of 1926 on a rock formation that is shaped somewhat like a skull. It was signed by ‘FM’ but nowadays nobody seems to know who that was. (Lundberg)
In this context the story of "Soapy" Smith begins in Denver, Colorado. "Once upon a time, our town had a most colorful villain, Jefferson Randolph ‘Soapy’ Smith, the king of all Western con-men. In Denver, Soapy earned his nickname, opening up a suitcase and offering downtown crowds a chance at easy money. He would flamboyantly wrap a $100 bill around a soap bar before sealing it with pretty pastel tissue. That bar would go on display with the other soap bars. Soapy sang out ads such as: ‘When you raise your arm, do you lose your charm?’ For a mere $1, anyone could pick any bar and take it home. Soapy’s bills, of course, went only to his confederates, whose whoops of elation could be heard for blocks away. Two Denver police officers were among Soapy’s early customers. When he balked at giving them his name, they booked him as Soapy Smith. The name stuck.” (Noel 2016)
He also
became involved in local politics. “Soapy
became a star at recruiting, registering, instructing and shepherding voters to
the polls where they voted early and often. He masterminded the 1889 election
of Mayor Wold Londoner, and election so blatantly crooked that Londoner became
the only Denver mayor forced to step down.
During Denver’s notorious City Hall
War of 1893, Soapy defended a corrupt city hall against the reform troops of
Gov. Davis H. Waite. Supposedly while waving a stick of dynamite from atop the
old city hall at 14th and Larimer, Soapy Smith yelled down at the
forces of reform, ‘I’m closer to heaven than you are, but if you come any
closer you will get there first.
When reformers prevailed, Soapy was run out of Denver. He headed for Skagway, Alaska, where he is now the town’s pride and joy. The National Park Service is restoring Jeff Smith’s Parlor, a saloon, gambling hell and ‘business office’ for Soapy’s gang, which ran the the town and fleeced the thousands of fortune seekers pouring into this base camp for the great Klondike Gold Rush of 1898.” (Noel 2016) Soapy being considered “the town’s pride and joy” strikes me as an example of an anti-hero, but we in Colorado are happy to share this scoundrel with them in a reverse of their loss is our gain.
“Short on law and long on gold dust,
Skagway was the perfect place for Smith to perfect his con games. He soon
became the head of an ambitious criminal underworld, and he and his partners
fleeced thousands of gullible miners. Smith’s success eventually angered the
honest citizens of Skagway, who were trying to build an upstanding community.
They formed a vigilante ‘Committee of 101’ in an attempt to bring law and order
to the town. Undaunted, Smith formed his own gang into a ‘Committee of 303’ to
oppose them.
On this day [8 July] in 1898, Smith tried to crash a vigilante meeting on the Skagway
wharf, apparently hoping to use his con-man skills to persuade them that he
posed no threat to the community. Smith, however, had failed to realize just
how angry the vigilantes were. When he tried to break through the crowd, a
Skagway city engineer named Frank Reid confronted him. The men exchanged harsh
words and then bullets. Reid shot Smith dead on the spot, but not before Smith
had badly wounded him. The engineer died 12 days later.” (History.com)
Old Soapy seems to have been destined for a bad ending hurting a lot of people along the way. With the buffer of time, however, people seem to find a way to admire, even celebrate, scoundrels like Soapy Smith. Denver celebrates running him out of town, Skagway not so much apparently.
NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
History.com Editors, 2019, Soapy Smith killed in Skagway, Alaska, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-histury/soapy-smith-killed-in-skagway-alaska, accessed on 3 July 2022.
Lundberg, Murray, Skagway, Alaska: The “Ship Signature Wall,” Explore North, An Explorer’s Guide to the North, accessed on 13 November 2021
Noel, Tom, 2016, “Soapy” Smith was Denver’s Original Tourist Attraction, 11
September 2008, updated 7 May 2011, https://www.denverpost.com
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