Will Raid the Camp at Skaguay: San Francisco Call, 09/06/1897.

WILL RAID THE CAMP AT SKAGUAY
San Francisco Call – Bulletin
September 6, 1897

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OLD OPERATIONS OF CRIMINALS."

 

Just weeks after Skaguay’s “founding” Soapy Smith was already entrenched within the gambling and saloon hierarchy of the new camp. Below is the transcription of the article from the San Francisco Call – Bulletin, September 6, 1897. My personal notes and comments follow.

WILL RAID THE CAMP AT SKAGUAY

Officers of Alaska Intend to drive Out the Lawless Element.

SHARKS ON THE TRAIL WITH A SHELL GAME.

Hardships of Unfortunate Gold-Seekers, Who Cannot Go Forward, Increased by the Bold Operations of Criminals.

      SEATTLE, WASH., Sept. 5.—Things have about reached a crises at Skaguay. Trouble, it is asserted, cannot be averted, and the condition of affairs is so alarming that Government officers are gathering in a squad to save Americans. The steamer Queen arrived from the north at 3 o’clock this morning and brings down the latest news. It is alleged that gamblers and other criminals, while robbing miners every hour of the day and night, are doing everything in their power to cause a blockade on White Pass and drive the thousands of desperate men into a winter’s camp at Skaguay, so that the robbery can continue. Some of the most notorious criminals of the country are there. The old shell game is being worked with success almost on the summit of White Pass by “Soapy” Jim Smith, a renowned crook from St. Louis. An ex-convict from Montana is assisting him. Then, too, thieves are at work. On August 27 one miner’s tent was relieved of $1400.
     On the Queen were George B. Kittinger of this city and Colonel F. S. Chadbourne of San Francisco, a State Harbor Commissioner of California. From interviews had with these men it is apparent that the worst has yet to be told concerning the horrors at Skaguay. Mr. Kittinger, who is the Alaska representative of Millionaire J. Edward Addicks, returned for additional funds with which to secure boats and transportation from their camp to the lakes. Before leaving the trail Mr. Kittinger offered two men $200 a thousand for whipsawing lumber at the lakes for two boats. The men refused the job, and Kittinger finally contracted to purchase the boats at $350 each. Kittinger says:

     “The feeling is most intense among the miners on the trail. Trouble of the most serious nature is likely to break out at any minute. The miners’ committee, impelled by the wholesale stealing that has been going on for weeks past, held a meeting and announced that the first man caught in theft would be strung up without the formality of a trial.
     “All the men in the camp have been made desperate by the failure to get over the trail and by the terrible hardships they have been compelled to endure in the hopeless struggle against odds. The miners have become suspicious of each other and quarrels are of hourly occurrence. Every man’s hand is raised against every other man. The lawless characters are much in evidence and dissensions and discords have broken out among the miners until such a thing as co-operation is impossible. Words are utterly inadequate to describe the trail. You cannot put it too strong. If there were 300 there instead of 6000 it would be different, but with men and horses—some of the latter not more brutes than the men—there is much struggling and fighting for a chance to get beyond the summit. All efforts to place the trail in shape for travel are utterly in vain.”

      The attention of the authorities of Alaska have been drawn to Skaguay, and Governor Brady and Collector Ivey detailed and announced to him his intention of raiding Skaguay with a force of deputy marshals, driving out the whisky smugglers, saloon men and dive keepers and arresting the confidence men and thugs.
     “This,” said Colonel Chadbourne, “is the only way in which they hope to avoid crimes of all descriptions during the winter. The whisky men and thieves have conspired to keep the trail blocked so that thousands will be forced to winter at Skaguay. They know that the authorities are not able to cope with them and figure on getting every dollar out of the tenderfeet from the East before spring sets in. All sorts of traps are laid for the unwary Easterners and men from the villages of the coast. Soapy Jim, one of the most notorious confidence operators on the coast, conducts a shell game right out on the open trail. Jack Jolly, the murderer who has just been released from the Montana penitentiary, is on the grounds and says that Skaguay is the easiest graft in the country.”

      Collector Ivey said that if he could break up the whisky smugglers and dive-keepers the camp would disperse, the gold hunters return to Juneau and the Sound for the winter and quiet would be restored.
     Governor Brady is quoted as saying that the situation is laden with trouble, and that he intends notifying the department at Washington of the condition of affairs. The action of the Collector’s deputies in taxing the Canadian mounted police $30 per head duty for their horses has incensed the Canadians, and as they passed up the trail they openly announced their intention of “cinching” the first of the American miners that got to Lake Tagish, where the Canadian customs officers is established.
     In spite of the attempt of the miners’ committee to close the trail so that it could be repaired, one party of twelve, with drawn revolvers and loaded rifles, announced their intention of going through to the summit. They passed a guard of miners and set out for the summit. The committee was called together and a number of armed men were sent after them to head them off. If trouble is averted it will be by the greatest good luck. The men have lost all sense of reason and are desperate and reckless.

GETTING READY FOR THE OPENING.
San Francisco Call – Bulletin
September 6, 1897

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PICTURE

GETTING READY FOR THE OPENING.

      The above picture, which is from a sketch made by H. W. Nelson, represents a scene before the pioneer dance hall of Skaguay just previous to opening for business. The piano on the wagon was formerly used in Morosco’s Theater in this City, but four years ago it was taken to Juneau and placed in the opera-house there. When the Klondike craze set in and gave Skaguay a boom one of the first necessities of the new town was a dance hall. People couldn’t dance without music, and as all the fiddlers had thrown up their positions and gone to the mines, the piano in the Juneau Opera-house was purchased and shipped to the new town. The owner of the wagon in which the piano was transported from the beach was ordered out of town for taking $10 from the body of a man which he had recovered from the river. He accordingly disposed of his wagon and horses for the sum of $2250 and left. The present owner is now earning $240 a day with the outfit. The rope with a running noose at the end hanging from the limb of a tree is termed “The Policeman,” and is intended as a warning to the criminal element.

NOTES

1. Soapy was still in Skaguay as of this newspaper publication, having arrived August 20, 1897 with partners Jerry J. Daly and Jack Jolly, the latter being mentioned as "the murderer who has just been released from the Montana penitentiary." According to Daly, the three men worked 19 days of the 23 days they were in the new camp, netting about $30,000, which was split three ways. After 23 days the trio boarded the steamer Queen and sailed to Seattle, Washington, arriving there on September 22, 1897. 
2. The reporter/newspaper was in error in stating that Jefferson Randolph Smith's first name was "Jim."
3. It should be noted that it was reported in Washington state newspapers that Soapy was "forced to leave" Skaguay by the vigilantes and the deputy marshals. This was not true. Soapy made alliances with the saloon proprietors, Frank and John Clancy brothers, setting up the early stages of his new empire in Skaguay and besides not wanting to get stuck in another Alaska winter as he did in 1896 in Hope, Alaska, he decided to spend the winter in the states. Something else encouraged him homeward. His wife Mary had written him that she was ill. By the time he had reached Seattle she had written again, that she was much feeling better. Bat Masterson, a friend of Jerry Daly, one of Soapy's associates during the Skaguay trip, reported in the newspaper that Soapy was not forced to leave Skaguay via the vigilantes or any lawmen.    
   
4. The White Pass trail had just opened up in July 1897. It was over-grown with brush and trees. In the summer of 2022 I was in Skagway, Alaska. The Chilkoot trail out of Dyea is open and constantly maintained, unlike the White Pass trail, which appears today much as it did in 1897. There are only small sections out of Skagway that have been partially maintained enough to walk on. Other than that, it is pretty dense with foliage to attempt in summer time, let alone in the winter months. Because winter was coming in 1897, it was very dangerous to attempt to get to the Klondike from Skaguay. Many could perish. In fact, those that made it to Dawson (Klondike) in 1897 nearly starved to death that first winter, according to most histories. So much so that the North-West Mounted Police required each man to bring with him 2000 pounds of supplies in order to cross the border into Canada. Imagine if those 6,000 (according to article) had been allowed to continue on to the Klondike, how many might have starved to death, if they even made it to Dawson? Sort of lends credit to Soapy’s "defense" he often used in Alaska, that he was saving lives by sending the hayseeds back home, or in this case, turning them back towards Skaguay to spend the winter.
   
5. Turning the stampeders on the trail back towards Skagway was good for Soapy Smith, as well as for the proprietors of the saloons, gambling dens and the other merchants of Skaguay as it meant more customers and profits in the winter months which were expected to wane considerably. The growing criminal underworld and legitimate merchants surely appreciated Soapy's actions and showed their loyalty by looking the other way when it came to his nefarious activities.
6. The article's drawing, Getting Ready for the Opening, "represents a scene before the pioneer dance hall of Skaguay." Note that although 'pioneer dance hall' appears to be a name of the establishment it is not capitalized. As Clancy's Saloon and Music Hall was one of the first money backed establishments in Skaguay I believe the picture's description could be of the Clancy's place.

 

Clancy's Saloon and Music Hall
Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries

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Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

"When a sucker sees a corner turned up, or a little spot on a card in three-card monte, he does not know that it was done for the purpose of making him think he has the advantage. He thinks, of course, the player does not see it, and he is in such a hurry to get out his money that he often cuts or tears his clothes. After they have put up their money and turned the card, they see that the mark was put there for a purpose. Then they are mad, because they are beat at their own game. They begin to kick, and want their money back, but they would not have thought of such a thing had they won the money from a blind man, for they did think he must be nearly blind, or he could have seen the mark on the winning card. They expected to rob a blind man, and got left. I never had any sympathy for them, and I would fight before I would give them back one cent. It is a good lesson for a dishonest man to be caught by some trick, and I always did like to teach it."

—George Devol