The fame of Soapy Smith continues into the mid-20th century

Dr. W. C. Carr as "Soapy Smith"
25th Anniversary parade
Landing of the Portland in Seattle
Seattle Daily Times
July 18, 1922

(Click image to enlarge)

oapy Smith's fame
continued to grow and prosper in the decades after his death.

The following newspaper article clippings are just a quick glimpse of his fame in the 60 years since 1898. His fame reached the summit in the mid-1960s and seemed to disappear. It started a comeback in the late 1970s and zenithed in 2009 with the publication of Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel. With Skagway, being one of the top Alaskan destinations and the public reopening of Soapy's saloon Jeff Smith's Parlor, there seems to be a constant interest in his story. Now, if a descent motion picture is produced is will ensure another 60 years of infamy.   

"Soapy Smith" the reindeer
Seattle Daily Times
November 16, 1930

(Click image to enlarge)

Bill Armstrong as "Soapy Smith"
Seattle Daily Times
February 24, 1918

(Click image to enlarge)

"Soapy" in the Potlatch parade
Seattle Daily Times
July 24, 1934

(Click image to enlarge)

"With the sports with whom he associated Smith was easily chief. He was clear-headed and willing to fight if necessary to maintain his supremacy. In a big mass-meeting held in Skaguay early this year he was chosen Captain of a military company to fight the Spaniards, and the company offered its services to President McKinley. If they had been accepted, not a man would have welched on going to the front. "

—R. M. Eddy
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 590.

SEPTEMBER 21

1784: The first daily newspaper in the U.S., the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser is published in Philadelphia.

1873: George A. Custer's command arrives at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory.

1876: Jim, Robert, and Cole Younger are arrested for the bank robbery at Northfield, Minnesota. Frank and Jesse James manage to escape capture.

1891: Deputy U.S. Marshal Joseph Wilson is shot dead by Sam Hickory, a liquor runner the deputy had just arrested at his home on Fourteen Mile Creek near Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The body of the dead marshal was taken to a ravine about a mile away and left there. Three days later Wilson's body was recovered. His throat had been slit and there was a bullet wound in his knee. Hickory was arrested. Tried and found guilty of the murder.

1893: Frank Duryea took what is believed to be the first gasoline- powered automobile for a test drive.

1897: The New York Sun ran the famous, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" editorial, in response to a letter from 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon.

1904: Nez Perce Indian Chief Joseph dies on the Colville reservation in northern Washington at the age of 64. In 1877 he surrendered the surviving Nez Perce forces after the Battle of Bear’s Paw in northern Montana. It was there that he wrote "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."