Soapy Smith - Skagway, Alaska, and The Klondike Gold Rush

Skagway, Alaska, and The Klondike Gold Rush

When the Klondike Gold Rush began in 1897, Soapy moved his operations to Dyea and Skagway, Alaska (then spelled Skaguay). His first attempt at occupying Skaguay ended in failure when miners committees encouraged him to leave the area after operating his 3-card monte and pea-and-shell games on the White Pass Trail for less than a month. He traveled to St. Louis and Washington, D. C., and did not return to Skagway until late January 1898.

Soapy set up his third empire much the same way as he had in Denver and Creede. He put the town's deputy U.S. Marshal on his payroll and began collecting allies for a takeover. Soapy opened a fake telegraph office in which the wires went only as far as the wall. Not only did the telegraph office obtain fees for "sending" messages, but cash-laden victims soon found themselves losing even more money in poker games with new found "friends". Telegraph lines did not reach or leave Skagway until 1901. Soapy opened a saloon named Jeff Smith's Parlor (opened in March 1898), as an office from which to run his operations. Although Skagway already had a municipal building, Soapy's saloon became known as "the real city hall." Skagway was gaining a reputation as a "hell on earth," with many perils for the unwary.

Smith's men played a variety of roles, such as newspaper reporter or clergyman, with the intention of befriending a new arrival and determining the best way to rid him of his money. The new arrival would be steered by his "friends" to dishonest shipping companies, hotels, or gambling dens, until he was wiped out. If the man was likely to make trouble or could not be recruited into the gang, Soapy himself would then appear and offer to pay his way back to civilization.

When a vigilance committee the "Committee of 101", threatened to expel Soapy and his gang, he formed his own "law and order society", which claimed 317 members, to force the vigilantes into submission. Most of the petty gamblers and con men did indeed leave Skagway at this time, and Smith resorted to other means to appear respectable to the community.

During the Spanish-American War in 1898, Smith formed his own volunteer army with the approval of the U.S. War Department. Known as the "Skaguay Military Company," with Soapy as its captain. Smith wrote to President William McKinley and gained official recognition for his company, which he used to strengthen his control of the town.

On 4 July 1898, Soapy rode as marshal of the Fourth Division of the parade leading his army on his gray horse. On the grandstand, he sat beside the territorial governor and other officials.