Soapy Smith musical

The cast of Stonecliff pose
during the death scene of Soapy Smith.
Is that Jesse Murphy about to shoot Soapy?
(courtesy of Crystal Schick/Yukon News)

(Click image to enlarge)

     Originally, this was to be a post about a play (this one a musical) in which "Soapy" Smith play a part. While that is newsworthy for this blog and Soapy family and fans, I did not take much notice of the photograph of the actors rehearsing until I was ready to publish the post. It appears that (1) Frank Reid (left) is wounded in the lower region, a pistol lays nearby. (2) Soapy (center) is laying down, appearing to be holding his leg (as if wounded), with no rifle nearby, and reaching one arm towards (3) another man (right) who has a rifle, perhaps just grabbing it away from Soapy and now pointing it at him? Could this third man be Jesse Murphy? Is this all just coincidence, or did the writer of the play Stonecliff read Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, or perhaps one of my many blog posts? Very interesting.

hite Pass and Yukon Route musical chugs on without director.

The cast and crew of Stonecliff are pushing forward without Conrad Boyce, who went on medical leave.

Jackie Hong Nov. 16, 2017 8:00 a.m.

At the 11th hour, the cast and crew of Stonecliff, an upcoming musical about railway builder Michael James Heney and the construction of the White Pass and Yukon Route, hit an unexpected obstacle that threatened to derail months of preparation and work.

With less than two weeks before Stonecliff was set to debut in Whitehorse, creator, director and producer Conrad Boyce told the company Nov. 5 he’d experienced a medical issue and needed to fly to Ontario for surgery the next day. He wouldn’t be able to return in time for the opening night Nov. 17, or for any other part of the musical’s tour.

“We were shocked. It’s not something you’d expect,” actor Doug Rutherford said in a phone interview Nov. 8.

But within hours, and over orders of pizza, the shock had given way to planning. The cast and crew decided against pulling the plug and instead, like Heney, chose to forge ahead, splitting up Boyce’s responsibilities among themselves to make sure Stonecliff would make it to the stage as planned.

“It’s really important for us, I think, to go ahead, and it’s an important story and it’s a local story that we can all feel passion for,” said actress Angela Drainville, who, on top of playing Harriet “Ma” Pullen, took over as producer for the Whitehorse run. “I think we were all committed to making sure that it was staged and (that we) really do justice to the presentation and we are confident that we will be able to do that, so here we are.”

Named after Heney’s hometown of Stonecliff, ON., the musical, which stars Shaw Festival actor Billy Lake, follows the struggles and triumphs of Henney and his crew as they build the White Pass and Yukon Route, taking the audience on a journey from from Skagway to Carcross to Whitehorse.

“It’s one of those perfect musicals where it has all of those experiences — it has some tragedy, certainly, you can’t build a railroad without tragedy, but there’s also a lot of great comedic and romantic moments where you’re released from that drama as well,” Drainville said.

Producing the Whitehorse leg felt like a natural fit, she added, since she’s familiar with the Yukon Arts Centre and has extensive experience with producing events, including the annual Atlin Arts and Music Festival.

Other cast members who stepped in include story narrator Bruce Barrett, who will be producing the shows in Skagway and Dawson, actor RP Singh, who will be doubling as technical director and playing character Reverend Sinclair actor James McCullough, who will be filling in as director as well as portraying John Hislop, and actor Brett Chandler, who’s taking over logistical and transportation coordination.

“It’s amazing, actually, how many hats Conrad was wearing, because there seems to be far more people wearing far more hats than they used to, than we were Sunday,” said Rutherford, who’s portraying Eratus Hawkins. Rutherford had originally stepped forward to produce the Anchorage portion of the tour, but the cast and crew ultimately decided, under the circumstances, to scrap it and focus on the Whitehorse, Skagway and Dawson stops instead.

Boyce had also left the cast and crew in as good of a position as he could have, Barrett said, which made continuing on without him easier.

“We more or less just looked at it and we decided it was doable because the actual show itself was kind of at, let’s say, the 95th percentile of completion. The hard work of actual production and direction and all the artistic components, all of these things were in place and the show was really looking pretty good, so I think that’s what made us decide that, yes, we can carry on,” he said.

“I think we’re getting pretty settled in at this point. I would definitely say we’re almost to where we would be comfortable in saying (it’s) business as usual.”

And in a poetic sort of way, Boyce’s departure and the cast and crew persevering through the challenge of filling in the gaps he left has brought everyone even closer to the story, Barrett said.

“It’s so interesting because it’s a show which is all about overcoming adversity,” he said. “The story’s (about) the unlikely success of, basically, a farm boy from the Ottawa Valley who wound up being renowned as the greatest railway man in North America and his passion and his dedication and his ingenuity and his inventiveness which allowed him to do the things he did. I would say, we’re all taking a bit of inspiration from that right now, so that makes the show very much in the spirit of the show’s hero far more so than anybody would have ever predicted.”

Drainville agreed.

“I think it’s really giving us an understanding, a little bit, of what Michael Henney went through in terms of building the railway, in terms of now staging, making sure this gets to the stage without Conrad,” she said, laughing. “There’s an allegory there.”

Stonecliff runs Nov. 17 to 19 at the Yukon Arts Centre.

SOURCE: yukon-news

"It is said of “Soapy” Smith that he lost more money at faro than any other man in the history of Denver, and old-time gamblers do not dispute the claim."

—Rocky Mountain News, July 11, 1915

NOVEMBER17

1800: Congress holds its first session inside the partially completed Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

1856: Fort Buchanan, named for recently elected President James Buchanan, is established near the Sonoita River in southern Arizona as part of the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. The fort protects emigrants traveling through the new territory from the Apache Indians, who are strongly resisting Anglo incursions.

1863: Council Bluffs, Iowa is designated the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad by President Lincoln.

1871: The city of Boulder is incorporated in Colorado Territory.

1874: An earthquake is reported in Yuma, Arizona Territory.

1877: Outlaw Jesse Evans and his gang escape Lincoln, New Mexico Territory after jailers “forgot” to lock the cell doors the night before.

1882: Indian Chief Rain in the Face and 500 Sioux surrender at Fort Keogh, Montana.

1883: Charles E. “Black Bart” Bowles, is sentenced to 6 years in San Andreas, California prison after confessing to the November 3, 1883 stagecoach robbery.

1890: Indian uprising is reported in Mandan, North Dakota.

1896: Judge Isaac “hanging judge” Parker dies from heart trouble and dropsy. Parker had been a Congressman, appointed federal judge for the Western District of Arkansas with jurisdiction over Indian Territory. He sentenced more than 160 to death, although only 79 were actually executed.

Was Soapy Smith better known that Wyatt Earp? Cathy Spude's concern.

The "good-old-days"

athy Spude's endeavor to prove Soapy Smith was nothing more than a small time crook continues. A few days ago she created a new page on her website with the focus of disproving an old post of mine. Her page is entitled, Soapy graphs: Soapy Smith and Wyatt Earp: Who was Better Known? and revolves around a discovery I made back on October 3, 2010 under the title, Was Soapy Smith more well known than Wyatt Earp?



I acquired the idea of using the Google newspaper archives as a simple comparison tool from a friend who used it on a Tombstone forum to show all the newspaper articles pertaining to Wyatt Earp between the years 1880-1970. I have always heard that Wyatt Earp was not real well known when he was alive, and that his fame came much later. Because of that I invariably wondered if Soapy might have been more well known than Wyatt, while the two men were alive (1860-1898). When I saw the comparison graph on the Tombstone forum I thought it would be interesting to show a comparison between the two men using the articles in the same Google newspaper archives. This was never meant to be a precision study as no online data base contains every newspaper ever published, let alone all the issues of the titles they do have, plus, these online data bases consistently add to their collections, so for this reason I did not bother to show the X and Y axis comparisons. This comparison was just a simple case study. Because of this I did not bother to publish every newspaper title, of which there were many, all across the United States, which included Arizona, where Wyatt Earp was most famous, and Colorado, where Soapy Smith was famous, along with most of the other states, but did not include Alaska, where the figures for Soapy would have dramatically increased. Per a request I performed separate comparisons for New York and Los Angeles.

This does not sit well with Cathy, who writes,

If you take a look at his bar graphs, prepared by Google News Archives, you will see that there are no scales, and no idea of what database of newspapers the articles come from. In other words, we don't know if the Wyatt Earp scale is the same as the Soapy Smith scale, and we don't know if Google News's 1880's newspapers were mostly large cities only (including Denver) and didn't include the smaller towns such as Tombstone, Dodge City and the cow towns where the Earp name would have been more familiar.

Checking up with Google News today, almost two years after this posting was made, it is impossible to determine how Smith came up with his data. The graphing feature he cites doesn't exist and Google News does not talk about its database of newspapers.

Again, it was just a comparison of what Google had available, which was quite a lot. At the time I did not wish to write down every single newspaper title as there were just too many. It never dawned on me that anyone would question the graphs because they were easy to do and figured anyone could do their own study in short order, plus the fact that I knew that new titles would be added as time went on.

Cathy did decide to perform her own comparison and writes,

What I CAN do is provide the kind of data that I found missing on Smith's graphs. GenealogyBank.com is a database of over 6,100 historic newspapers that can be searched on-line for a very reasonable yearly subscription fee. They have made an effort to cover every state for all time periods for both large and small population towns.

Cathy is mistaken when she writes, "they have made an effort to cover every state for all time periods for both large and small population towns." I enjoy reading old newspapers looking for clues to fill in the gaps as to where Soapy traveled. I have thoroughly checked out GenealogyBank.com's list of newspaper titles and I can vouch that some key cities and newspaper titles are missing from their data base. There are enough missing to warrant my not using their service. Even so, if you take a look at her graph, you can see that in the 1880s and 90s Wyatt and Soapy are close together, not a "landslide" as Cathy reports.

On January 23, 2012 I performed another comparison, this time using Gale Primary Source Media and Archival Solutions, the largest data base of digital newspapers in the United States. I used the same method as I did in 2010, between the dates 01/01/1860 - 12/31/1899. Once again Soapy beat out Wyatt, by 210% Wyatt's score is 164 while Soapy won with 345.Although the largest data base it is far from complete so again this is just a simple comparison. Apparently Cathy did not see this comparison study as she does not allude to it on her website. She does, however, try to disprove my graphs with another comparison graph of her own, between Soapy and J. M. Tanner. Cathy writes,

Now, to show you why its all a function of what newspaper base you're looking at and how you ask the question, the graph below shows you the number of newspaper articles about Soapy Smith and J. M. Tanner in Alaskan newspapers in the three decades that Si Tanner lived in Alaska. If Jeff Smith's reasoning is correct, the number of newspaper articles written about a man shows how well known he was known in the place he lived. As you can see, Si Tanner was much better known than Soapy Smith.

The main flaw in her reasoning is that she starts her graph in 1900, AFTER Soapy was deceased and at the RISE of Tanner's career as a lawman and politician in Skagway. Naturally, Tanner would have been mentioned in the newspaper a lot more than Soapy, because Soapy was dead. What would have been interesting is for her to include the years 1897-1898 in her comparison, when Tanner was a complete unknown.

"Saluting the memory of Soapy Smith, forever inseparable and significant to the Old West history of the Mile-High City."

―Robert Bandhauer

AUGUST 23

1838: The first class graduates from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts, one of the first colleges for women.

1842: Explorer John C. Fremont carves his name in Independence Rock, Wyoming.

1858: "Ten Nights in a Barroom," a melodrama about the evils of drinking, opens in New York City at the National Theater.

1868: Three members of the 31st Infantry are killed by Indians near Fort Totten, Dakota Territory.

1868: Eight settlers are killed by Indians between Pond Creek, Kansas and Lake Station, Colorado Territory.

1873: Outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez is involved in the “Tres Pinos Massacre.” He is believed to have killed 42 men. On March 19th 1875 Vasquez is hanged for the murders committed during the “Tres Pinos Massacre” at San Jose. California

1877: John Wesley Hardin is arrested by Texas Ranger John B. Armstrong on a train for the murder of Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb in 1874. Armstrong killed Jim Mann and pistol-whipped Hardin until he was unconscious.

1882: Two murders are lynched from a tree in Globe, Arizona Territory.

1892: The printed streetcar transfer is patented by John H. Stedman.

1945: Lawman Elfego Baca dies at age 80 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Skagway, Alaska parade July 4, 2012, part 2.

Recruiting volunteers for the Spanish American War in 1898.
Winner of "Most Patriotic Float"
Pictured left to right: Interpretive park rangers Gina Palmer, Historian Karl Gurcke, Bruce Dansby
and Sebastian Selig.
(NPS photo)

ational Park Historian, Bob Lyon sent me a couple of great photographs taken on July 4, 2012 during the Skagway, Alaska annual parade. The float created by the Klondike Goldrush National Historical Park that I posted about on July 6, won "Most Patriotic Float."

The float theme was just as I thought. My first post on July 6 did not contain any pictures of the front of the float so I took a guess. The photo at top shows Soapy (Bruce Dansby) and one of his gang members (Karl Gurcke) signing up volunteers for the Skaguay Military Company. The signed up volunteers then enter the examination tent with their clothes intact. They exit the rear of the tent sans most of their clothing.  

Close up of the rear of the float
"Volunteers" sans clothing after being "examined"
(NPS photo)

The NPS gang before the parade
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WIN!

The Days of 98 Show float won a category prize as well

The beautiful Allison Graham sells garters for Diabetes research

July 6, 2012

JULY 12

1861: Gunman David McCanles, is shot dead by “Wild Bill” Hickok in the Rock Creek station, Nebraska. McCanles had challenged Hickok to fight because Hickok was seeing the same woman he was.

1862: The U.S. Congress authorizes the Medal of Honor.

1864: President Abraham Lincoln witnesses Union forces repell Jubal Early's Confederate army on the outskirts of Washington, DC.

1870: Battle of the Little Wichita River in Texas. Kicking Bird and 100 of his Kiowa fighters battle Captain McLellan and 54 members of the 6th Cavalry. Capt. McLellan had been dispatched to recover the mail from Indians who had attacked a mail coach sixteen miles west of Fort Richardson six days previous.

1876: “Wild Bill” Hickok, age 39, arrives in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.

1882: The Tombstone Epitaph reports that Johnny Ringo is drunk in Galeyville, Arizona Territory.

1893: Deputy Marshal Sherman Russell is shot and killed by Sam Woodward near Muskogee, Indian Territory. It is unknown if Woodward was ever brought to justice.

Soapy Smith represented again by the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park

"Suckered by Soapy"
The National Park Service parade entry
(photo by Thomas Pickerel)

(Click image to enlarge)

kagway resident photographer, Thomas Pickerel set up his camera on Broadway and 8th to get some great long-range shots of the July 4 parade. He shared them on Facebook and was kind enough to send me larger versions. Thank you Thomas!

This year's parade theme was "volunteerism," and once again the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park was able to work Soapy Smith into their parade entry. When word of the Spanish-American War reached Skagway, Soapy jumped for the cause. There is little doubt that he was a very patriotic man, but there was also big money to be made thanks to President McKinley's offer to financially support military militias that prepared to fight. Original documents and minutes sent to President McKinley and Governor Brady of Alaska pertaining to the newly created Skaguay Military Company clearly show that Soapy was more than willing to create, arm, train, and lead a government authorized company of soldiers, under his command of course. A story created in a Vancouver newspaper in May 1898 told the story of how volunteers were being robbed of their money, and even their clothing, in a fake physical examination set up by Soapy and the gang. Although no actual victims ever came forward with the same story of being robbed, Soapy continued to drill and parade the Company until July 4, 1898. The robbery story was obviously made up but nearly all the Soapy biographers repeated the story as if true. Although my book, Alias Soapy Smith, clearly shows the story the work of fiction, the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park used it as the story for their float. I don't mind it, the float concept was humorous and it seemed to work out well. I am sort of surprised that they would cater to fiction when they are so strict about their non-fiction status elsewhere.

Victims of Soapy's fake examination exit without their clothes.
(photo by Thomas Pickerel)

(Click image to enlarge)

The two photographs above show the rear of the Park Service entry as it turns onto Broadway. They are enough to see that the front portion of the float has Soapy signing up fully clothed volunteers to the Skaguay Military Company. The volunteers then enter the tent for their examination, and come out the back side of the tent in their long-johns, representing the robbery of their possessions. I would have loved to have seen it in person.

Signs on the float and carried by Park employees dressed in period garb, read, "STAND WITH US OR AGAINST US," SOAPY PUTS THE TEARS IN VOLUNTEERS," "SUCKERED BY SOAPY," and "UNCLE SOAPY WANTS YOUR MONEY."     

Thomas Pickerel's blog: Skagwaydelta








Last year's entry by the Park Service
July 7, 2011 

Skaguay Military Company: page 486-505.

JULY 6

1699: Pirate, Captain William Kidd, is captured in Boston, Massachusetts and deported back to England.

1777: British forces capture Fort Ticonderoga during the American Revolution.

1854: The Republican Party holds its first convention in Jackson, Mississippi.

1858: Lyman Blake patents the shoe manufacturing machine.

1863: John Bozeman leaves Fort Laramie in present day Wyoming to blaze a trail to the Yellowstone Valley in what will be named the Bozeman Trail.

1869: Nine Indians are killed and ten wounded by cavalry as reported by Lieutenant McCleave in Arizona Territory.

1876: Captain McCaskey of the 20th Infantry receives a communiqué at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory from General Terry at 2:00 a.m. He summons officers to inform 27 widows. Elizabeth Custer is wakened at 7 a.m. with the news of the deaths of her husband, her brother-in-laws Tom Custer, Boston Custer, and James Calloway, and her nephew Henry Armstrong Reed. Elizabeth then accompanies an officer as he visits 25 other widows.

1885: Louis Pasteur successfully tests his anti-rabies vaccine. The child used in the test later becomes the director of the Pasteur Institute.

1886: The Academy of Music in Denver, Colorado burns down. In addition, the theater, Kinneavy's Saloon (Soapy’s friend), the St. Cloud restaurant, two stores and the Western union office were destroyed. Next door, the hotel Doc Holliday was living in, the Metropolitan, was spared as were the Board of Trade saloon, a warehouse, the German National Bank and Charpiot's restaurant suffered a scorching loss of windows from the heat.

Soapy says, "Happy July 4!"

Jeff Smith's Parlor
July 4, 2012
(photo by Donna Smith)

onna Smith and Jerry Stainer, Friends of Bad Man Soapy Smith members, took a trip to Skagway, Alaska recently. It's definitely not their first trip there but Donna wanted to send me some photographs of how things are looking, Soapy wise.

The photo at top shows that the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park is once again taking interest in the July 4 festivities by decorating Soapy's saloon in red, white, and blue. Soapy was indeed very patriotic, and in fact, photos of Jeff Smith's Parlor without patriotic bunting draped all over it are on the rare side.

Donna says you can't go to
Skagway without visiting
Soapy Smith's grave.
(photo by Donna Smith)

While in Skagway Donna purchased my book, Alias Soapy Smith at the Skagway News Depot, which had been autographed by me, so they also had the entire cast of the Days of 98 Show autograph it! I thought that was a wonderful idea. Donna and hubby Jerry also took in the Temsco helicopter ride and rode the steam train to Fraser and back again. During the ride they saw two bears. Donna said they even did a little geocaching while they were there. That's a game people play where someone will hide small little prizes and then those with a GPS (global positioning system) application try to find it. My daughter Ashley and her boyfriend just started playing the game. Afterwards Donna told me they saw the play and did the usual tourist shopping in the stores of Skagway.

Thank you very much Donna!

Soapy Smith's Olde Tyme Photo Parlor
A modern business capitalizing on Soapy's name
(photo by Donna Smith)

Donna Smith and Jerry Stainer
April 2, 2011
April 1, 2011 

JULY 3

1775: U.S. Gen. George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1844: U.S. Ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiated a commercial treaty with China that opened five Chinese ports to U.S. merchants and protects the rights of American citizens in China.

1862: Union forces are the victors in a battle with Confederate troops in Locust Grove, Indian Territory.

1863: The Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania ends as a major victory for the Union after three days of fighting.

1865: General Connor arrives in Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory (present day Wyoming), with orders to protect the stagecoaches of the Overland Mail Company from Arapaho Indians.

1867: The 3rd Infantry from Fort Wallace, Kansas, reports one soldier wounded near Goose Creek, Colorado Territory.

1869: Four Indians are killed in a fight with the 8th Cavalry in Hell Canyon, Arizona Territory.

1871: The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company introduces the first narrow-gauge locomotive. It is called the Montezuma.

1873: Vigilantes lynch a rustler who stole a widow's cow in Phoenix, Arizona Territory.

1876: The steamship Far West begins the journey down the Yellowstone River, Montana Territory, carrying the bodies of George Custer and his men, Reno's wounded, and the horse Comanche.

1876: The first newspaper account of Custer's battle at the Little Bighorn appear in the Bozeman Times, Montana Territory.

1878: A posse under command of J. J. Dolan terrorizes San Patricio, New Mexico Territory, as they search for the Regulators. One of the Regulators is outlaw Billy the Kid.

1878: John Wise flies the first dirigible in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

1880: The publication, Science, goes on sale, with inventor Thomas Edison having provided the principle funding.

1884: E. C. Abbott, alias “Teddy Blue,” records that the outfit, under the leadership of Granville Stuart, hung a rustler between the DHS Ranch and Fort Maginnis, Montana Territory.

1888: Wyatt Earp's second wife, Celia "Mattie" Blaylock, commits suicide in Pinal, Arizona Territory. Mattie had accompanied Wyatt to Tombstone and separated (abandoned) from the lawman after they left Tombstone. She worked as a prostitute.

1890: Idaho becomes the 43rd state of the Union.

1897: G. A. Lancaster files a claim on Eldorado Creek in the Yukon, later to be known as Gold Hill, located in the Klondike, Yukon Territory.

1898: During the Spanish-American War, six Spanish warships in Cuba's Santiago-de-Cuba Harbor attempt to flee by shooting their way through a U.S. blockade. U.S. warships destroy all of the Spanish ships killing more than 350 Spanish seamen. The U.S. loses one sailor in the battle. Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst maneuvers his steamer close to the action and captures (rescues) 17 Spanish seamen from the water.

1901: Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan, Ben Kilpatrick, “Deaf Charley” Hanks, and an unknown 4th member of the Wild Bunch gang, rob a Great Northern Coast Flyer train near Wagner, Montana, getting away with up to  $65,000, gold watches, and a bolt of silk. After Kilpatrick boarded as a passenger, “Deaf Charley” (or possibly Harvey Logan) snuck onto the coupling between the tender and baggage car, and hijacked the train to a prearranged point where Logan and Kilpatrick then robbed the express car, blowing up the safe with dynamite. Before leaving, the Express Manager asked for a souvenir, and Logan emptied his gun and handed it over, saying, “Thanks for your help.” It is the last recorded Wild Bunch robbery.

Soapy Smith to aid Colorado fire victims!

Soapy would be honored and proud!

ust received some amazing news. Dave Elstun, Friends of Bad Man Soapy Smith member and mastermind behind the annual Soapy Wake in Denver, Colorado came up with the brilliant and very humane idea of donating proceeds from this year's event (July 8, 2012) to victims of the Colorado fires that have wreaked havoc on the state and it's occupants.

Dave told me that the idea came to him because of Soapy's history as a charitable man, which he indeed was. I think this is a wonderful way to advertise the Wake, which will hopefully bring in tons of money for the victims. Soapy would be so proud to know that even in the grave, he can still help those in need. The following is from Dave Elstun

The Lumber Baron Inn and Garden's is pleased to announce "Denver's Second Annual Soapy Smith Wake". A special event to raise money for victims of Colorado wildfires. Soapy's Wake takes place at 7:00 PM, Sunday July 8th, 2012 at The Lumber Baron Inn, 2555 W. 37th Ave., in Denver's historic Highlands Neighborhood. The show features the talents of the Three Soapy's, Magician Dave Elstun, Comedian's Darrin Ray and Matt Vander Muelen also featured Lumber Baron Owner and Historian Walter Keller, Songbird of the west Laura Powers and Physical Comedian and Juggler Reid Belstock. Tickets are now on sale at The Lumber Baron Inn (303) 477-8205 for only $15.00 per person. For more information please visit http://www.magicindenver.com/The-MagiCabaret-.html.

Soapy Smith was a scoundrel! He was a Con Man and one of the countries earliest Crime Bosses. Soapy operated In Denver from approximately 1879 to 1889. He was also said to be a large a generous contributor to charities. Soapy Smith is also an important part of the history that creates Denver's unique western character. It is in this spirit that The Lumber Baron Inn is producing "Denver's First Annual Soapy Smith Wake". The Wake is a recreation of and old fashioned Saloon Show just the way Soapy would have liked it. Imagine if in 1890's a group of Soapy's friends had gathered at Denver's infamous Tivoli Club to toast their friend.

Stay tuned as more develops.

JULY 1

1847: The U.S. Post Office issues its first adhesive stamps.

1861: Confederate forces, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John B. Baylor, occupy Mesilla, New Mexico Territory.

1862: President Lincoln signs the Pacific Railroad Act, which authorized the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroads to build the first transcontinental railroad. The two railroads were loaned capital at the rate of $16,000 per mile over prairie land and $48,000 over mountainous terrain. The act also granted them ten sections of public land per mile for the track that linked Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California.

1862: The U.S. Congress establishes the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

1863: A victorious Colonel Williams leads 800 members of the 1st Kansas Colored along with 500 Indians against a force of Texas Confederates lead by Cherokee chief and Confederate general Stand Watie at Cabin Creek, Kansas

1863: The first day of fighting at Gettysburg begins, during the Civil War.

1865: Camp Tyler is established on the South Platte River Road in Colorado. It is later renamed Fort Morgan.

1871: Grayson County, Texas - Richard Johnson, a Texas cowboy who sided with the Lee faction in the bloody Lee-Peacock Feud that raged during the 1860s, shoots and kills Lewis Peacock ending the feud. Johnson was never apprehended for the murder.

1874: The Philadelphia Zoological Society zoo opens the first zoo in the United States.

1875: The 2nd Cavalry reports killing two Indians in a battle at the Little Popo Agie River in Wyoming.

1876: The first news of the Little Bighorn battle reaches Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory when Crow scouts, Speckled Cock and Horned Toad, tell the Indians there of a big fight and of a white leader (Custer) who committed suicide.

1877: Soapy Smith’s mother, Emily Dawson Edmundson, dies in Round Rock, Texas.

1883: The stage running through Black Canyon, Arizona Territory is robbed for the second time in three days.

1887: Gunman and rancher, Clay Allison dies in a freak accident. He was returning from Pecos, Texas, with supplies. Allison toppled from his buckboard he was driving and fell beneath the wheel of the heavily laden wagon. The horses jerked forward and the wheel crushed Allison's head killing him instantly.

1890: Prohibition goes into effect in North Dakota.

1892: The outlaw Dalton Gang stops a train, near Red Rock, Cherokee Strip. They force the express car door open taking $11,000 from the safe.

1893: The first wooden bicycle race track in the U.S. opens in San Francisco, CA.

1898: Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" wage a victorious assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1898: U.S. forces attack Spanish troops entrenched at El Caney and on the San Juan heights, east of Santiago-de-Cuba. The Americans win tactical victories, driving the outnumbered Spanish defenders to the outskirts of Santiago.

Soapy Smith ranks 6th place.

amily member and Friends of Bad Man Soapy Smith member, Christina Kelley "Tina" Marshall sent me the following "Top Ten" video on CON MEN. Soapy Smith is #6 in the ranking. His story starts at 01:08 on the timer. The two sources mentioned for the bit on Soapy are the books, Scams by T. Ogunjobi and Which End of a Buffalo Gets Up First? by G. Hubbard. I found no information when I Googled the first book. I have heard of the second book but have not read it. I am guessing it is just the usual general information. It's good to see people are noticing Soapy as an important figure of history. Enjoy the video.

JUNE 30

1841: The Erie Railroad rolls out its first passenger train.
1859: Charles Blondin becomes the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1863: George A. Custer, age 23, is made brigadier general of Union Army volunteers.
1864: On the western slopes of the California Sierra Nevadas Yosemite, Valley Park becomes the first state park in the US. It is named after the Yosemite Indians.
1867: The 18th Infantry and Indians fight near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming.
1882: Edward Fulsom, a hardened criminal who fled to the Indian Territory to escape justice in February 1881, is hanged in Fort Smith, Arkansas, for the murder of William Massingill, whom he beat to death with his pistol butt during a saloon brawl. Dropping from the gallows did not snap Fulsom's neck and the outlaw's pulse continued for sixty-three minutes before the doctors pronounced him dead.
1891: The first passenger train ascends the summit at Pikes Peak Mountain, Colorado. In 1806 it was thought that no one would ever succeed in climbing the mountain.
1893: Texas Ranger Captain Frank Jones is killed by Mexican cattle thieves, Jesus Olguin and his son, Severio, when he attempted to arrest them. The Olguins were never prosecuted because the incident occurred on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.
1895: Three armed men escape from the Oklahoma County Jail in Oklahoma City. The men are Bob and Bill Christian, held for the murder of a Pottawatomie County deputy Sheriff, and Jim Casey, held for the murder of a Canadian County deputy sheriff. Chief of Police John Jones and Officer G. Jackson confront the escapees at Grand and Broadway and a gunfight ensues, in which Chief Jones and Jim Casey are killed. The Christian brothers escape.
1908: An explosion in Siberia, knocks down trees in a 40-mile radius and struck some people unconscious near the 40 mile mark. It was believed by some scientists to be caused by a falling fragment from a meteorite.

Scott Silver: The Floor of Heaven film: Part 7.

Screenwriter Scott Silver laughs as he gives his keynote speech
for the North Words Writers Symposium at Poppies.
photo by Katie Emmets

cott Silver, the writer who has been working on the screenplay for The Floor of Heaven, based on the book of the same name, was the keynote speaker during a recent trip to Skagway, Alaska. It was perfectly timed visit that surely helped Mr. Silver gather an authentic perspective on the landscape, considering little has changed since the days of the gold rush.  

The following article was published on June 8, 2012 by the Skagway News.

Symposium showcases screenwriter
By Katie Emmets

The third annual North Words Writers Symposium included panel discussions, train rides and an Oscar-nominated screenwriter.

This year’s keynote speaker was Scott Silver, who wrote 8 Mile and co-wrote The Fighter, which was nominated for best original screenplay.

Right now, Silver is adapting The Floor of Heaven, a gold rush book by last year’s symposium keynote speaker, Howard Blum.

Since getting the contract for the adaptation, Silver has been in contact with local publisher Jeff Brady to check facts and ask historical questions.

Brady and symposium co-founder Buckwheat Donahue thought it would be a great idea if Silver came from his home in New York City to see Skagway up close, so Donahue invited him to be the keynote speaker.

And he came – with his wife, stepson and daughter, who enjoyed Skagway streets and played with husky puppies on the Denver Glacier.

Although he was already adapting another book for the silver screen at the time The Floor of Heaven contract became available, Silver said he fought hard to get it.

“I thought it was great,” Silver said of Blum’s book, adding that his adaptation will be nothing like it.

“There will be some similarities,” he said. “But when I read it, I found certain things I really liked that I am going to expand on.”

Although it was great to be in Skagway this year, Silver said, he wished it was 1898 so he could interview the men who he will be writing about: cowboy turned Pinkerton detective Charlie Siringo, Jefferson R. “Soapy” Smith, and, to a lesser extent, George Carmack.

“I can’t make up things,” Silver said. “I have friends who can make up characters from their heads, but I can’t. I like being able to talk to people when I’m creating a character about them.”
Because he can’t talk to Siringo or Smith, he uses music as an avenue to get into each character’s head.

In his iPod, the characters have their own playlists filled with music that reminds Silver of what he thinks they’re like.

“For Soapy, I listen to a lot of the score from “There will be Blood,” he said. “And for Siringo, I listen to a lot of the “Assassination of Jessie James” soundtrack. Siringo also has a western vibe, so I’ve been watching a lot of “The Unforgiven.”

After giving his keynote speech at the banquet at Poppies on June 1, Silver asked faculty and participants if anyone had tips or opinions they wanted to share about his in-the-works adaptation of The Floor of Heaven, It opened up a more than 20-minute conversation about negative impressions of the book, mostly about the author’s lack of understanding of the north country.

“After his keynote speech, people were really slamming him for something someone else wrote,” Donahue said. “But he took control of what could have been a potentially dangerous conversation and turned it around.”

Donahue has since talked to several faculty members, and they have applauded Silver for asking for suggestions and sticking out criticisms.

“They said they have never seen a keynote speaker stand up and say ‘if there is anything you guys want to tell me about, go ahead,’ ” Donahue said. “Most speakers give their keynote speech and stand in line and shake everyone’s hand, but he stood in front of everyone and said ‘hit me with your best shot.’ ” ... [The remainder of the article had to do with future meetings of the symposium.]

As some of you already know, Mr. Silver has been working with me on the Soapy Smith character. I found out from Jeff Brady that Mr. Silver was speaking with him as well. Above, Mr. Silver asked his audience for tips and opinions. I found this to be very refreshing. He's not pretending to know everything, and does not have the big ego of so many of his peers. I have a great feeling about this film, IF it is completed.

Like Mr. Silver, I too listen to "mood music" when writing about Soapy. His choice comes from the film, There Will Be Blood. You can hear some of this music playing back-to-back here.

I have a variety of tapes and CD's I listen to, but perhaps the two songs that remind me of a Soapy Smith related film come from the PBS film, The Way West, which has fueled my imagination for several years now. In my movie fantasy I imagine that the film is ending. Soapy has been shot dead and people are running about when the first of the two songs begins to play. The camera begins to pan back from the gunfight scene at a slow, even pace, until all of Skagway comes into view. The camera keeps moving back until finally Skagway is but a dot on the screen and the star of the scene is the majestic scenery of the bay, the mountains, and glaciers. The two songs are to be played back-to-back as they sound like they are one song.

Disc #2

1. Native American Theme 1:12 min.

2. Native American Theme (Orchestral) 2:42

If you really want to hear the two songs you can find them online but most are pay to hear. Rhapsody appears to have a free trial in which you can hear music. I have not signed up for this so please use your own judgement. While there on the site (HERE) you can see all the songs of the 2-disc album. Scroll down to song 22 and 23, the names are above. Let me know what you think!

 

The Floor of Heaven: The film
April 22, 2012: Part 6
March 26, 2011: Part 5
March 9, 2011: Part 4
March 8, 2011: Part 3
February 4, 2011: Part 2
October 3, 2009: Part 1

JUNE 26

1804: The Lewis and Clark Expedition reach the mouth of the Kansas River after completing a westward trek of nearly 400 river miles. 

1819: The bicycle is patented by W. K. Clarkson, Jr. 

1844: John Tyler takes Julia Gardiner as his bride, thus becoming the first U.S. President to marry while in office. 

1867: A detachment of the 38th Infantry battle Indians near Wilson's Creek, Kansas. 

1867: A detachment of the 7th cavalry fight with Indians on the south fork of the Republican River, Kansas. Members of the 7th also battle Indians near Fort Wallace. 

1868: Ben Thompson begins a two-year sentence in the Huntsville, Texas penitentiary after being found guilty of "intent to kill." 

1870: The first section of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ, is opened to the public. 

1872: The town of Tucson, Arizona Territory is established. 

1876: Lt. Bradley and his Crow Indian scouts are the first to learn of General Custer's Massacre in Montana Territory from smoke signals sent by Custer's Crows, Harry Moccasin, Goes Ahead, and White Man Runs Him. The scouts had been dismissed before the battle. 

1876: Major Reno and his portion of the 7th Cavalry are still under attack in Montana Territory. The Indians end their attack at sunset. 

1894: The American Railway Union calls a general strike in sympathy with Pullman workers. 

1900: The United States announces that it would send troops to fight against the Boxer rebellion in China.