Abler pens than mine have recorded in novel, poem and play the story of
those eventful days. All know now of the famous (or infamous) gambling
hells with which these places were infested. The spot in Skagway to-day
which most attracts the tourist is the cemetery where lies the body of
"Soapy" Smith. "Soapy" was half-outlaw, half-politician, the "Boss" of
the town, in fact. Skagway was without doubt the wildest and wickedest
place in the world during the reign of "Soapy" Smith. The decent and
sober citizens stood it as long as they could. When they felt, however,
that Skagway had suffered from her evil reputation long enough they
held a meeting and came to a decision! The Sylvester Wharf, now a
half-ruin, has been left standing to mark the spot where the fathers of
the town ran "Soapy" to cover and shot him.
Dawson, in the Canadian Yukon, had a somewhat similar experience. But
the Northwest Mounted Police came to her assistance and brought order
out of chaos. The fame of Dawson during the gold rush is world-wide.
Her affairs are now in the charge of the Canadian government. There is
also a United States Consulate there.
The most important and the largest city in Alaska is Fairbanks. It lies
on the Tanana River, practically at the head of navigation. It is the
site of the Fourth Judicial District and of government activities in
the interior of Alaska. Fairbanks is a city of which any country might
be proud, heated by a central steam plant, with schools, churches,
hospitals, newspapers, long-distance telephone and wireless stations.
The electric plant which lights the city also serves the adjacent
mining camps. Fairbanks may be reached all during the year by a stage
service three hundred and fifty-four miles from Valdez and during five
months in summer steamboat service westward to St. Michael, eastward to
Dawson and White Horse, Yukon Territory, is maintained. Reference has
already been made to the progress of this delightful city, its social
life and the kindly spirit of the people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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