Soapy Smith: Number 1 outlaw in Alaska!

oapy Smith wins first place in a list of Top 10: Alaska's Most Wanted Criminals

"We die twice, the first time when our hearts cease to beat; the second time when our stories cease to be told."

― Gay Mathis

FEBRUARY 18

1685: Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and form the basis for France's claim to Texas.
1735: Flora (aka Hob in the Well) is the first opera performed in America (presented in Charleston, South Carolina).
1841: The first continuous filibuster in the U.S. Senate begins. It ended March 11th.
1859: The Eldorado is the first hotel to open in Denver, Colorado Territory.
1861: The Texas state convention votes to secede from the Union. Sam Houston refuses to swear allegiance to the Confederacy.
1861: Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as President of the Confederate States.
1864: Horse thieves in Nevada Territory led by John Daly kill William Johnson for killing Jim Sears, also a horse thief.
1870: The Kansas Pacific railroad reaches Arapahoe, Colorado Territory.
1876: the U.S. Secretary of the Interior turns over the responsibility of Sitting Bull and his followers to the War Department after they failed to report to their reservation.
1878: John Henry Tunstall, an English-born rancher, is shot and killed in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Tunstall’s men, including a young man who came to be known as the outlaw Billy the Kid, vowed revenge thus starting the Lincoln County War.
1885: Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published in the U.S.
1892: Soapy Smith opens the Orleans Club (saloon-gaming house) in Creede, Colorado.
1893: Soapy Smith collects funds for the family of Denver policeman, Sam Inman, who had committed suicide.