Skaguay, Alaska Wharves, 1898: A new acqusition for my collection.

ALASKA SCENERY
White Pass and Yukon Railway
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

KAGUAY WHARVES
Circa 1898

      I am very proud to share my latest acquisition to my collection. Mounted on the original board and entitled Alaska Scenery. White Pass and Yukon Railway. It is dated 1898 by the photographer Harrie C. Barley. Note that the original spelling of Skaguay, whereas it was changed to "Skagway." 

      I purchased it as it is a perfect view of the Juneau Company Wharf (second wharf from the left) and the location where the shootout on Juneau Wharf took place. I zoomed in as close as I could get to the entrance of the wharf at State Street, the fight having took place about 60 feet into the entrance.

Juneau Company Wharf
(zoomed in)
Note the railroad tracks along side the wharf
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

Note the train tracks on the beach, to the right of Juneau Wharf. Every day, the tide completely covered the tracks and sometimes made it's way as far as Third Street.

Entrance to Juneau Wharf
(zoomed in)
Soapy Smith was killed 60 feet from the entrance
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

The End of Soapy Smith
By Andy Thomas

Photographer:

Photographer H. C. Barley (also known as Harrie C. and Harry C.) was hired as the company photographer for the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad in the spring of 1898. He worked for two years documenting the construction and early operation of the 110-mile narrow gauge railway which ran from Skagway, Alaska, to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Barley was known for his daring, often risking his life to get the perfect photograph of the construction of the railway. Some construction crews refused to work when Barley was nearby due to the extreme risks he took. He said, "Put me close enough to the blast and I'll stuff the echo." In one of the first accidents at the Rocky Point blasting site, Barley was struck by a rock from the detonation and was unable to walk for a week. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Barley made Skagway his home after relocating north. His first photography studio in Skagway was on Fourth Avenue between Broadway and Spring Street. He later relocated it to the corner of Broadway and Fourth Avenue. He served for a brief period on the Skagway City Council and was a member of the Skagway Elks Lodge. Barley also photographed in the Atlin, British Columbia, area during the gold rush in 1899-1900. Barley died of tuberculosis at his home in San Francisco on November 22, 1909, shortly after the Klondike gold rush. Source Archives West.

Juneau Company Wharf (note: the posts are not in any order of importance. There are several pages of posts.)

Juneau Company Wharf: pages 9, 12, 530-32, 535, 538, 546-51, 554, 564, 575, 595.

"He had an unconquerable aversion to making money by honest means and loved the art of fleecing his prey and then arranging it so his victims earnestly thanked him for his services."

—Alias Soapy Smith, Introduction.

NOVEMBER 30

1782: The U.S. and Britain sign preliminary peace articles in Paris, France, ending the American Revolution.

1803: Spain completes the process of ceding Louisiana to France.

1804: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase goes on trial accused of political bias. He is later acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

1835: America’s most famous literary icon, Samuel Langhorne Clemens is born in Florida, Missouri. Best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876 and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885, both written under the moniker “Mark Twain.”

1875: A. J. Ehrichson patents the oat-crushing machine.

1878: The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe lay railroad tracks crossing Colorado's southern border into New Mexico Territory, the first tracks into New Mexico.

1879: Outlaw Billy the Kid meets with rancher John Chisum, at Bob Hargrove's saloon in New Mexico Territory, to talk about recent rustlings.

1881: Judge Wells Spicer of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, officially states that the Earp’s and Doc Holiday were justified in their actions, which led to, and include the gunfight behind the OK Corral. In another matter bad man “cow-boy” Johnny Ringo is arrested for having robbed a poker game in August 1881.

1884: At nineteen-years-old, Elfego Baca, arrests a cowboy in New Mexico Territory for disturbing the peace. When friends of the cowboy attempt to “teach Baca a lesson,” he shoots and kills the foreman.

1887: Outlaws Robert Leroy “Butch Cassidy” Parker and the McCarty brothers, stop, but fail their attempt to rob the Denver and Rio Grande express near Grand Junction, Colorado. The stubborn express guard refuses to open the safe in the mail car and rather than kill him, the gang allows the train to continue on their way, leaving the bandits empty-handed.

1892: Bank robber Oliver “Ol” Yantis, a member of the infamous Doolin Dalton Gang, succumbs to his wounds after a gunfight with Deputy US Marshal Tom Hueston near Orlando, Oklahoma, the previous day. the lawmen trailed Yantis to his sister’s home outside of Orlando. The two lawmen demanded his surrender. Yantis walked out as if giving up but drew a revolver and fired. The lawmen returned fire, hitting Yantis in the leg and stomach. The lawmen took the wounded Yantis to a hotel in Orlando, where he died on this day. Yantis is the first of the Doolin Dalton gang members to fall. Hueston would later be killed during another shootout with the Doolin Dalton gang members in Ingalls, Oklahoma, during the Battle of Ingalls. It is believed that Soapy Smith’s wife Mary was a cousin of the outlaw Dalton’s.

1897: Thomas Edison's motion picture projector has its first commercial exhibition.

1897: The Rocky Mountain News reports that bad man Soapy Smith is “in New York organizing a Klondyke [sic] expedition to start from the East in February (1898).”