Location of the shootout on Juneau Wharf where Soapy Smith was killed.

(#1) Postcard view from Juneau Wharf
Circa 1908-1915
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

ocation of the shootout on Juneau Wharf

     This recent acquisition shows one of the closest photographs I have yet to see of the location where my great-grandfather, "Soapy" Smith, met his demise at the hands of vigilantes Frank Reid and Jesse Murphy on July 8, 1898. It is a postcard dated by the seller between 1907-1915.

     The earliest this photo can be is May 1908 as that is the date that the Dewey Hotel moved to Broadway and 2nd Avenue (see photo #2).

 

(#2) Same postcard cleaned up and identified
Circa 1908-1915
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

     The railroad tracks in the picture above (#2) confirm that this photograph was taken from where the Juneau Company Wharf ruins then stood. The wharf posts are still in place and wharf planks litter the ground. The spot where the photographer is standing, as well as the direction he/she is shooting, is noted on photo (#3).

(#3) Skaguay street plan
March 8, 1898
Note that this plan was created with the aid of Frank Reid,
the vigilante who shot and wounded Soapy Smith.

(Click image to enlarge)

November 3, 2016
October 14, 2014
February 23, 2014
May 2, 2012
April 19, 2012
June 2, 2009
November 29, 2008

"I find people putting their money into savings banks. Now, this is dead wrong. The faro bank is the only safe bank. It is run by honorable, high-minded men, who would scorn to do evil."

— Jefferson R. Smith
Rocky Mountain News, 9/25/1894
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 352.

MAY 17

1792: The New York Stock Exchange is founded by 24 brokers.

1875: The first Kentucky Derby is run at Louisville, Kentucky.

1877: The first telephone switchboard burglar alarm is installed.

1881: Frederick Douglass is appointed recorder of deeds for Washington, D.C.

1849: Fire destroys much of St. Louis, Missouri. At around 9 a.m., a paddleboat on the Mississippi River catches fire. As it drifts, bumping into other steamboats along the way, it destroys 22 more steamers. The fire leaps to shore and spreads through the town. Fire Captain Thomas Targee dies trying to use gunpowder to create a firebreak; He is the first known firefighter killed in the line of duty. The city burns for nearly 12-hours. Remarkably, only two other lives are lost. St. Louis is home to the Noonan family, whose daughter, Mary Eva, marries bad man “Soapy” Smith.

1853: Fort Riley is established in Kansas Territory.

1868: Camp Cooke, on the Judith River, Montana Territory, is attacked by an estimated 2,500 Sioux Indians.

1870: The Union Pacific water tower in Kit Carson, Colorado Territory is torn down by Indians.

1871: Town lots go on sale in Tucson, Arizona Territory.

1872: Tracks for the Denver and Rio Grande railroad are still 20 miles from Pueblo, Colorado Territory when the workers run out of iron.

1876: George Armstrong Custer begins his campaign against the Indians. He will die this year during the Battle of Little Bighorn.

1883: Buffalo Bill's first touring outdoor show, The Wild West: Honorable W. F. Carver's Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition, debuts in Omaha, Nebraska.

1885: Geronimo and Nana lead 134 Apache Indians off the San Carlos reservation, Arizona Territory, and begin a series of raids, killing 73 civilians and soldiers on their way to Mexico.

1891: Cash and other relics left behind by the Donner Party are found in Truckee, California.