All
events depicted in this original play are taken from the Skagway
historical record and center on Soapy Smith's reign over the
town during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 and 1898. Jefferson
Randolph Smith was born in Georgia in 1861 and ventured west
as a young man. He learned his trade as a con man during the
silver and gold rushes of Colorado and eventually made it to
Skagway in the fall of 1897. Here he and Colorado cohort "Rev." John
Bowers assembled what was reputed to be the largest band of
thieves in North America. Skagway was described by Canadian
Mountie Sam Steele as "a little better than hell on earth," and
Smith's gang reigned supreme for nine months. Smith had a wife
and family in St. Louis but he befriended Miss Belle Davenport
and her "soiled doves," Alice and Mollie in Seattle
before heading North.
The Days of ’98 Show has it all: live
music, singing and dancing, love and rejection, comedy and
drama, and truly brings Skagway’s colorful history to
life.
While his men did most of the dirty work,
Soapy tried to establish himself as a solid citizen of Skagway.
He contributed to the building of Skagway's first church and
founded an "Adopt a Dog" program. City surveyor Frank
Reid and others saw through Smith's good deeds and tried to
run the con man and his gang out of town, but Smith was able
to rally much of the business community around him. Soapy was
riding high on July 4, 1898 as he rode his white horse up Broadway
and then stood on the platform with the Governor of Alaska.
Four days later he was a dead man. His gang
robbed a Nanaimo, British Columbia stampeder named J.D. Stewart
of $2,800 in gold dust. Smith stood by his troops and refused
to give the gold back. Reid's vigilante Committee of 101 gathered
at the Juneau Co. Wharf as there was no hall in Skagway big
enough to contain the mob. Most of Smith's men ran for the
hills, but Soapy grabbed his Winchester and headed for the
wharf to break up the meeting. You'll witness the events leading
up to this historic moment.
Tour Details
Duration: 1 Hour
Cost: $18 per person
