Creede Camp: The Great Divide Mag., May 1892.

The Great Divide
Pages 50-51

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REEDE CAMP
The Great Divide Magazine, May 1892.

“If you have a cut or vain in the bowels of the earth, we have the sucker.”

Below is the text of a great article on early Creede, Colorado published in the May 1892 issue of The Great Divide, a magazine published in Denver.

CREEDE CAMP.

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Various phases of Life in Colorado’s New Silver City.

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[In the following article on Creede Camp we get the results of the observations of many men who have visited the new town. These opinions are presented in narrative form, in order that the reader may have a connected story of Creede life, and these opinions are, to the best of our knowledge, the observations of truthful correspondents. The illustrations are from the photo–negatives made on the spot, especially for THE GREAT DIVIDE, by the well-known Denver photographers, W. H. Jackson and Co., And give actual views and occurrences, instead of being merely artistic fancies. — EDITOR.]

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The Great Divide
front cover
May 1892

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     A FEW months ago Creede was so thoroughly unknown that the legislators and geographers overlooked it entirely in cutting up the state into counties. Now there are 8,000 people there, blowing bubbles of fortune and chasing them over the three-mile strip of Mountain Gulch.

     Five months ago Creede Camp had scarcely a population of 500. Willow Creek tumbled and roared down its narrow bed between the great cañon walls rising a thousand feet in the air, almost from its very banks, its waters swishing against logs and boulders in their course to the Rio Grande. To–day the foundations of a thousand houses encroach upon the channel of the stream, and all winter did its frozen surface furnish a resting–place for saloons and gambling–houses.

     Buildings have been forced into every nook or cranny in the rock walls, and no coign of vantage has been lost sight of.

     The precious metal in the rockribs of Bachelor, Mammoth and Campbell Mountains has drawn to Creede the human bee in every guise— the prospector, who has grown gray in his search for a “strike”; gamblers, with roulette wheels and other implements; merchants, who have grown tired of the sloth and dullness of the San Luis Valley; frail women, in search of new fields of excitement and gain; bunco steerers, thimble riggers, the bad man with his gun and all the other strange and dangerous elements that go to make up the population of a booming Colorado mining town.

     With the rush came the struggle for lots. There were the hillside and the creek bottom to choose from, but surveys and titles there were none. The first building up made a street, the stake took the place of a paper title, and the gun or the Dirk–knife was more powerful in holding a claim than a whole line of transfers would have been. “I claim this lot for building purposes,” was the notice Johnnie, the tough, Jenny, the adventurous, or Jones, the merchant, served on the world when he or she had picked out a place for a house. Attempts at stake–jumping were exciting and sometimes caused bloodshed.

     A Mr. and Mrs. Osgood were among the first arrivals. Mrs. Osgood was the business and of the concern, and she opened a hotel and staked out a number of lots. Then she went back to the valley town to rest, leaving her husband in charge. Hardly was she out of sight when Jack Pughe, the bad man of Creede, seeing in one of the lots an eligible site for a saloon, jumped it. While he held possession with his gun, two of his lieutenants hustled around, and by midnight lumber from the sawmill far below was holding the lot for him.

     Mrs. Osgood heard that her rights of property were in danger, and flew back on the next train. In the cold and snow she held the jumper at bay while a carpenter put up her building. “I’ll stand here till I’m frozen stiff,” she said, “but I’ll hold my lot. I ain’t afraid of Jack Pughe.” A few weeks later Mrs. Osgood sold her lot for $10,000.

     Just now everybody is making money, and each branch of the boom is booming.

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The Great Divide
Page 65

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     “Oh, hello, the little joker—that’s the time you got me—ah, no, it was that—here, here is where it was all the time!” is one of the steady cries on the street of Creede, and the old prospector, the minor or the hardy pioneer, who has seen the three–shell game from New York to California, bites again at Creede because he has money, and the spirit of chance and recklessness is in the air.

     In a big gambling–saloon, one Sunday evening, Rev. Joseph Gaston, a Presbyterian divine from the camp of Ouray, mounted the chair of the faro–dealer. The games stopped at a signal from the proprietor, and the 300 gangsters in the room, at the site of the preacher, uncovered their heads and stood quietly for fifteen minutes listening to a sensible talk on the text: “if a man dies, shall he live again?”

     At the conclusion of the sermon the preacher commenced a recital of the Lord’s Prayer. First one or two weak voices began to follow him, then another here and there from all over the room came in, and at the last, men who had said the prayer the last time at their mother’s knee back in the States before the Pike’s Peak excitement call them to Colorado found the words on their lips.

     The closing was most impressive, and not a few drops of moisture hung on half–shamed faces as one caught the other in symptoms of weakness. Then somebody laughed. It was all over. The silence was broken.

     “The Queen wins and the tray loses.” “Thirty–one and the black and nobody there.” “First ball 41.” The men who had held their stacks of white and blue and yellow chips in their hands turned again to the play. The preacher folded up his Bible, shook hands with the proprietor and started out. Someone in the rear of the room cried out:

     “By ——, boys, we forgot something. We must make a collection for the parson. I’ll start it with $5. Pass it around.”

     But the preacher turned, smiled good-naturedly, and thanking them, said that was not what he had come for, and departed.

     These incidents give some idea of the “tough” side of life in Creede Camp.

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     There is a clangor of hammers and saws, a slamming of planks, a calling of men to one another, a din as of the war. That is the way they make mining camps in Colorado, at places where there are millions in sight. Now and then a man shoots out of a saloon door or a barbershop—for there are barbershops—with a foot or a fist behind him. The man from the barbershop at once goes into the saloon, the man from the saloon hunts another. The shanty on poles across the creek flourishes, as does the smoke–begrimed tent.

     The creek furnishes all the water for the camp, and already a waterworks company has been incorporated to pipe the water through both towns and preserve the purity of the water from garbage and sluice boxes. But every saloon and store is lighted by electricity. The construction of the electric plant was the quickest ever known in the history of this country. The town has not organized, and what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.

     The train, when it comes in, is a sight to behold, the smoking–car being and an especial marvel. It is jammed. Men set on one another and on the arms of the seats, stand in the aisles and hanging to the platforms. Pipes, blankets and dilapidated satchels form the major part of their equipment.

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The Great Divide
page 51
Soapy Smith's Orleans Club (under flag)

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     “Don’t jostle that fellow. he may be a millionaire to–morrow and resent the insult.”

     Such are familiar warnings in Creede of to–day, and they are not without sense. There is not another spot on earth which contains within its four miles of settlement so many men poor to–day who may by the turn of a card by the fickle goddess of fortune be a millionaire to–morrow.

     The man who peddles apples on the street, the woman who washes clothes, the carpenter of the boom and wood chopper of ordinary life, the hustler who does odd jobs, the merchant, the banker, the real estate dealer, the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, each and all are working but for the money that goes to pay the man upon the hillside who is putting down “a hole” for him.

     To–morrow one of those men of the pick-and-shovel brigade may put in a shot just far enough to tear nature’s guarded secret from her, and presto! all will be like the transformation scene at the play–guys will be gentlemen, fellows men, and mayhap some men pure statesmen and politicians. So wags the world, and if Creede does not turn out its quota of the latter class it will be an exception to the rule which was heretofore maintained in Colorado mining camps.

     It would amuse one to pick out from the 8,000 players at the game of chance those who would be most likely to take front rank in the business, social or political life of the State after that elusive period of time having struck it rich, and the cynic can find much material for his grist from such speculation.

     Up and down the narrow, rough streets of the new city these prospected millionaires rush about, sustained in the fire of excitement and the pace that kills with ever recurring tales of new strikes, and the feverish flame is kept alive by rocks brought at night from the cut or shaft bearing in their composition hints of riches to be had when the working has gone deeper down in the door to the storehouse of silver opened to where the thievish elements of air and water have not penetrated.

     “If you have a cut or vain in the bowels of the earth, we have the sucker.” So advertises a confident broker of the camp, but the fellow with the prospect says he wants no sucker and has nothing to sell on those terms. So he puts up his money to the man on the hill and hopes on for the day when the “maybe” shall be “is.”

     Up on the hills all is not peaceful and serene. Even millionaires are not satisfied, and the Oliver Twist principle rules. Claim jumping as a means to an end is the resort, and is becoming of daily occurrence and dangerous quality.

     Up at Deer Lodge, a new camp at the head of Willow Creek, the miners have organized a Vigilance Committee and issued notices to jumpers to keep off the grass.

     A jumper sent an engineering corps up there recently to run out some claims. The leader of the committee was asleep in his tent when the lieutenant went to him, yelling: “there is a man here with an instrument and for men; every man has a gun and every gun has a wheel on it.”

     A call to arms was made, the surveyors halted and the captain confronted them.

     “We came to survey for the man who employed us.”

     “Go back and tell the man who employed you to come up here himself,” was the reply.

     The surveyors departed, but the man who did the jumping had lost no claims up Deer Lodge way.

     Up on the Quaking Asp, which takes in a part of Bachelor City, rival contestants have been watching each other with the keenest of eyes, and declarations of war passed between the lines many times a day. A contractor jumped the claims. The original owners—Denver men—engaged new men and put them to work. The jumper, with half the settlers of the town at his back, warn them to quit. They did so. The owners put them to work again, under promise of a guard, and, despite frequent warnings, notices, threats and gunplays, have kept at work.

     Just now it is a question for dispute among those who would come into the towns and the mining men who assert the desirability of such a move, what the extent of Creede’s mineral resources well ultimately proved to be. The doubter has come in now and then and said that the camp was to settle down to a heavy production from only a few mines of great richness. This proposition the men up mines dispute.

     Mr. N. C. Creede, who found the veins now shipping, says that he believes there are more big mines here, and that they will be found this year. He said:

     “I hope to show up more mines in the camp this year, and do not believe the resources have been nearly exhausted. I cannot help thinking there are more mines here than those now shipping.

     “Mammoth is a good mountain. The ‘Mammoth’ vein is unquestionably a continuation of the ‘Holy Moses.’ I expect to see a rich strike made there this summer, one such as the camp is looking for. It may not equal the ‘Amethyst,’ for I firmly believe that to be one of the richest mines in the State, but one almost as good. It may be in the ‘Mammoth,’ it may be in the Eclat,’ but it is there and will be found.”

     Mr. Creede asserts that the “Mammoth” vein is the continuation of the Holy Moses,” and four strong companies are now at work sinking there. When the holes go deeper, there is no question but that the big reserve fund of the camp will be largely in the boom.

     Parallel veins to the big ones on Campbell, Bachelor and Mammoth are being worked in a way that means business, and the mining men of Creede have quit standing by the holes, speculating on what may be below. They are taking off their coats and going after it.

     Down in the lime, there is the real puzzle of the camp. Men who know contacts see the stuff between the porphyry and the lime, scratch their heads and say, “if it ain’t there, it ought to be,” then go look at the “Amethyst” and “Last Chance,” and come back and say that everything in the camp is a contact.

     Thousands of ten-foot holes are being sunk, and hope is high in that locality.

     Probably another boom of such magnitude will not occur in the West for years, and if it should, and be hedged about with all law and police regulations which authority can give, it is great odds against it settling down with such a good record for good conduct as Creede has so far and will in all likelihood continue to make. From time to time, war in the camp has seemed eminent, but the troubles have been smoothed over, and now, with a partial police regulation and a full authority near at hand, the prospects for peace are improving. Deputy Sheriffs from the various counties claiming the camp, Marshals appointed by the citizens and commissioned specially by the State authorities, act as a check on would-be law breakers.

     Prominent among the mining men who have flocked from all over the West was “Old Bill Comer,” who found the great “Lamartine” mine, and says he will find another at Creede.

     So the great boom—great in its every feature—grows and spreads, and will continue to do so as long, as one miner put it, “as the precious minerals lie in the heart of Mother Nature, and the governments of the earth will coin them.”

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     Mr. R. MacMechen, in writing upon the geological formation of Creede, says: “the chief peculiarity of the section is the enormous preponderance of trachyte without any exemplifications of a sedimentary formation. Yet the existence of the latter is easily traced. Just as a lower limit of Jimtown we discover the presence of the carboniferous, and along the Rio Grande and upon other side of that stream, below Jimtown, can be followed an island of sedentary formation, some eight miles in length by two and a half in width, encompassed by an ocean of highly eruptive material of a much later period. The first good idea of the geological nature of this section is obtained, shortly after leaving Wagon Wheel Gap, in ascending the Rio Grande towards Jimtown. Along the stream a horizontal stratum of limestone is observed to the east. This is the lower carboniferous or, in mining parlance, blue limestone. At frequent intervals, the stratification is exposed by erosion, and at these points is noted an overlying volcanic trap– rock, showing the indigenous overflow. North of the Rio Grande, following Willow Creek for about one and one–half miles, the northern limit of the carboniferous, it is discovered in a highly mineralized state, broken and seamed with dykes of eruptive rock. The eruptive flow again appears south of the carboniferous island, thus practically enclosing the sedentary formation.”

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      There are earlier articles in the March 1892 and "preceding numbers of The Great Divide but I have yet to find them. It should be noted that the business district of Creede burnt down on June 5, 1892, the month of the next issue of this magazine. It will be interesting to see if they have anything more.

Creede, Colorado: A search under "Creede" for this blog. Note that the articles are not in any particular order so the best one may be the last one. 

Creede: pages 11, 63, 73, 75, 77, 79, 82-84, 87-89, 90, 94, 199, 131, 137, 183, 197-242.

There is more than a morsel of truth in the saying, "He who hates vice hates mankind."

—W. MacNeile Dixon

DECEMBER 18

1787: New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1796: The Monitor of Baltimore, Maryland is published as the first Sunday newspaper.

1856: Lieutenant James Witherell of Company C, 2nd Cavalry, and two officers from the 8th Infantry, battle with a party of Apache Indians while scouting by the Rio Grande from Ft. Clark, Texas.

1862: The first orthopedic hospital, the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled, is organized in New York City.

1865: Slavery is abolished in the United States with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1894: Soapy Smith and John Bowers are arrested in Denver on complaint from Thomas Moody. Soapy pays a $300 bond to get them out of jail.

1898: A new automobile speed record is set at 39 mph.

1899: President McKinley commutes the sentence of Soap Gang member “Slim Jim” Foster in the robbery of John D. Stewart in Skagway, Alaska, after one year due to his having contracted consumption.

1903: The Panama Canal Zone is acquired 'in perpetuity' by the U.S. for an annual rent.

1912: The discovery of the Piltdown man in East Sussex is announced. It will be proved a hoax in 1953. Bad man Soapy Smith had a petrified man found in 1892. It was not proven to be a hoax until 2012, when it was determined that the corpse was intentionally mummified. 

Soapy Smith arrested Oct. 15, 1889.

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eff R. Smith for assault with intent to kill, 
as soon as he arrived in the city last night.

     Mid 1889 marks Jeff’s first sequence of violent behavior and his first reported use of a knife and a gun. All within a month and a half, there had been fist-fighting, man caning, destruction of property with a knife, threatening a man with a knife, and a fierce shootout. The causes of these events are not hard to account for. The Logan Park affair that had gone so badly awry; the Rocky Mountain News declaration of war on Jeff and his businesses, including unrelenting public insult of Jeff and his circle; legal peril (and cost); and an explosive, sudden, and nearly successful plot against his life. Any of these events could have released the safety catch on Jeff’s behavior. In matters large and small, violence seems to have become much closer at hand.

—Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel

     The above newspaper clipping from the October 16, 1889 edition of the Denver Daily News opened a new mystery in the Soapy Smith annuals. Seven days later Soapy was held by the grand jury to answer for assault with intent to kill. 

He was present yesterday in the criminal division of the district court and gave a bond of $1,000, John Kinneavy becoming his bondsman. —Rocky Mt. News, 10/17/1889

     In Alias Soapy Smith, this was question, "another bond for $1,000?" It was originally believed to have been a carry over from Soapy's July attack on newspaperman John Arkins, but this may not be the case.

     On July 30, 1889 Soapy attacked John Arkins, owner and managing editor of the Rocky Mountain News for mentioning his wife and children in with an article attacking Soapy's criminal empire. The trial continued into August but never seemed to come to an official end, at least one published in the newspapers. The News had declared war on the bunco men and then the saloons and gambling. They were successful in pushing a temporary reform movement in Denver which closed up many saloons and gambling houses, including Soapy's Tivoli Club.

     On August 28, 1889 the News reported an altercation in one of the gaming houses in which Soapy slashed a faro layout with a dirk, and then held it to the throat of the dealer.

     Two days later, on August 30, Soapy, his brother Bascomb, John "Shoot-Your-Eye-Out Jack" Vermillion, John Fatty Gray" Morris, and possibly “Auctioneer Roberts” as well as J. W. Allen, are involved in a shootout at the Pocatello, Idaho train depot.
     On October 15, 1889, forty-six days after the Pocatello gunfight, Jeff comes back in Denver and is immediately arrested.Originally it was thought that the arrest had to do with the beating of John Arkins, but it is likely that this new arrest and charge is for the knife at the dealers throat incident just before leaving Denver. So how did it end? That's the mystery at this time. The case seems to have simply vanished.

"Never play cards, or shoot pool, with a guy nicknamed after a city."

—Unknown

NOVEMBER 21

1620: The Mayflower, with 102 passengers, arrives at Provincetown, Massachusetts from Plymouth, England.

1789: North Carolina is the 12th state to ratify the Constitution.

1860: Tom Horn is born in Memphis, Missouri. During his life he worked as a Cavalry scout, Pinkerton detective, range detective, and an outlaw. In 1888 he won a championship steer roping contest. In Wyoming he is tried and hung for the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell, a crime that some believe he did not commit. While awaiting execution, Horn made the rope used to hang him, one day before his 43rd birthday.

1867: Carry Amelia Moore's (Carry Nation) wedding in Missouri is delayed due to her drunken groom, Dr. Charles Gloyd, a severe alcoholic. The couple has a daughter, Charlien, who suffers from mental difficulties. Their marriage ends in 1869. Carry believed that her husband's alcohol consumption has caused her child's problems. Charlien is eventually committed to the Texas State Lunatic Asylum (the same asylum Soapy Smith’s father was institutionalized in). Carry meets and weds Dr. David A. Nation in 1877. In 1889 Carry begins her radical temperance life, starting a local branch or of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

1871: M. F. Galethe patents the cigar lighter.

1871: The corpses of two stagecoach robbers, named Taylor and Burns, are brought to Cimarron, New Mexico Territory, after being killed by Bounty hunters on October 31, 1871 near Fort Union.

1877: Thomas A. Edison announces the invention of the phonograph.

1880: Outlaw Billy the Kid, and four of his gang, steal eight horses from the Grzelachowski ranch in New Mexico Territory.

1883: Chet Van Meter, accused of beating his family and threatening others, is shot and killed by Deputy U.S. Marshal Cash Hollister and Ben Wheeler in Caldwell, Kansas. Upon seeing the approaching lawmen, Meter fired his revolver at them. They returned fire, killing Meter with five wounds to the chest.

1884: Denver, Colorado Police Chief William Smith shuts down every gambling house in the city. The reform lasted one month.

1887: The first Montana Central train arrives in Helena, Montana, in a snowstorm.

1891: Bat Masterson marries Denver Palace Theater song and dance performer Emma Walters. It is in the Palace Theater that bad man Soapy Smith and Ed Chase met their wives as well. Ed Chase operated the Palace, which was described as “a death-trap to young men, a foul den of vice and corruption.” In 1887, Chase partnered with bad man Soapy Smith in opening the Tivoli Club, a saloon and gaming house.

1900: Wild Bunch outlaws Robert Leroy “Butch Cassidy” Parker, Harry “The Sundance Kid” Longabaugh, Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan, Ben “The Tall Texan” Kilpatrick, and Will Carver sit for the famous "Fort Worth Five" photo, in Fort Worth, Texas.

Soapy Smith and the Brackett Wagon Road, Skagway, Alaska, 1898

"The Light of Other Days"
A gang of thimble riggers working a dupe
"Thimble rigging" is the shell and pea game, with thimbles
(Credit: friend Tom Frank)

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uthor Cathy Spude shared a gem from her husband's files.

Cathy writes,

Reading a little farther, I found another article that named Soapy. It is date-lined September 3, and published September 14 [1897]. It is also in the New York World, probably written by Scovel. He worked with a committee of Skagway citizens who were trying to improve the Skagway Trail before Brackett obtained the rights and took over the improvements and construction. This article lists the names of all the businesses and individuals who donated the $1,173 they had raised to date to pay workers on the trail. I list the donors below, alphabetized:

Businesses
Alaska Southern Wharf Company
Battery and Parks
Blockett and White
Dalby and Grant
Fleming and Hornsby
Jackson and Hotchkiss
Klondike Saloon
Klondike Trading Company
The Lighter Company
Manley and Hill
McClellan, A. D. and Co.
Miller and Brogan
Presnall and Sawyer
Richit and Miller
Schmidt, C. and Co.
Sherry and Co.
Skaguay Wharf Company
Troy Laundry
Yukon Bakery

Individuals
Bakers, Jack
Bauer, H. A.
Bennett, C. M.
Brault, T. E.
Brooks, William
Burkhardt, Joseph
Cameron, H. J.
Carcarred, J. J.
Church, Mrs. Anna
Clayson, F. H.
Coselett, J. J.
Davis, William
Dawey, C. E.
Day, J. S.
Deneret, Harry
Dennison, C. H.
Dowling, John
Dunham, F. W.
Edison, John
Forrest, Frank
Graham, James
Henderson, A.
Higgins, Harry
Hoefer, H. R.
Johnson, T. K.
Kelly, Charles
Kirby, John
Klinkowstein, M.
Knight, G. A.
Kossuth, Mrs.
Laure, G. W.
Lengfader, Charles
Littlefield, Dr.
Long, C. B.
Lynch, L. S.
Martin, E. B.
McKenzie, John
McNulty, Ed
Morris, E. W.
Murphy, J. F.
Nugget Saloon
Palmer, James
Pinkham, R. A.
Rays, Charles
Reid, F. W.
Rice, George L.
Runnals, Dr. H. B.
Sedley, H.
Smith, Jeff
Smith, W. B.
Stanley, John
Wadleigh, F. H.
Walker, D. W.
Wise, F. A.

Both Bob and I apologize for not having the page number for this article. He says he was in a time crunch when he was reading these, like decades ago, and was looking for different material. He was good enough to get dates, and has all of the New York World articles in one folder, but not always page numbers. Few publishers require page numbers in their citations these days. ...

Cathy

Thank you Cathy Spude.
 

__________

ALIAS SOAPY SMITH
BOOK SALE

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Link to purchase
__________

"When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit."

— Ayn Rand

MAY 14

1787: Delegates gather in Philadelphia to begin drawing up the Constitution.

1796: The first smallpox vaccination is given by Edward Jenner.

1804: William Clark sets off the "Corps of Discovery" expedition from Camp Dubois. A few days later, in St. Louis, Missouri, Meriwether Lewis joins the group.

1853: Gail Borden applies for a patent for condensed milk.

1862: The chronograph is patented by Adolphe Nicole.

1864: Five men are hung in Virginia City, Montana Territory.

1870: It is reported that thirty people are killed by Indians between Kit Carson and Lake Station, Colorado Territory.

1874: Tiburcio Vasquez is wounded by George Beers and surrenders, after his hideout near Los Angeles, California is discovered.

1874: McGill University and Harvard meet at Cambridge, Massachusetts for the first college football game to charge an admission.

1878: The name Vaseline is registered by Robert A. Chesebrough.

1878: Regulators led by Billy the Kid steal 27 horses from a ranch on the Pecos River, near Lincoln, New Mexico Territory.

1897: "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Phillip Sousa is performed in public for the first time at a ceremony unveiling a statue of George Washington.

1897: Guglielmo Marconi makes the first communication by wireless telegraph.

1898: Bad man Soapy Smith opens a saloon named Jeff Smith’s Parlor in Skagway, Alaska.

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.

The innards of "Dangerous Dan" McGrew: Parlor restoration part 12

Preparing to X-ray "Dangerous Dan McGrew" 
Dahl Memorial Clinic (Skagway, Alaska)
(L to R) Med. Asst., Sarah Phillips, Interns N. Peters and K. Bonanno, Med. Asst., Melissa Horman
photo courtesy of Sarah Phillips

knew from visiting inside Jeff Smith's Parlor back in 1977, how the animatronic figure of Soapy Smith functioned. Using auto parts, gears, and chains tucked neatly beneath the floor, Martin Itjen made the effigy of Soapy come to life when visitors opened the front door to enter. The internal workings made Soapy's head turn towards the front door and his eyes, made of light bulbs, would light up. At the same moment his right arm (holding a mug of beer) would raise, in a welcoming toast to the visitors to his saloon. I did not, however, know how "Dangerous Sam" operated. Several books have given descriptions of the little play that is performed each time the door is opened, which includes Soapy shooting Sam. From what I have learned thus far I do not believe there was a shootout of any sort. I am beginning to believe that the shootout scenario came to be in the fertile imagination of someone who probably never imagined that the animatronic figures would ever be operating for the public again. It surprises me that no one from the old days in Skagway can or has given a full play-by-play account.

The Soapy automaton was carefully removed from the Parlor and made a trip to the State Museum in Juneau for a temporary exhibit. It now resides in storage in Skagway awaiting completion of the Parlor restoration, so that it may once again welcome visitors. I hope they can set up the mechanism so that modern visitors can see them perform. "Dangerous Dan" remained pretty much a complete mystery to me, until recently.
 

Jeff Smith's Parlor Museum
(1930s-1940s)

Animatronic figures of Soapy Smith and Dangerous Dan McGrew
photo courtesy of the KGRNHP

(Click image to enlarge)

I was browsing through Facebook one day when I came across the photograph at the top, with the following comment by Sarah Phillips.

Melissa Horman and I got to x-ray this guy for the Parks Service last week. He came out of Soapy Smith's Parlor on 2nd Ave. Martin Itjen made him a long time ago and the NPs are fixing him up to put him back into the parlor when it's done getting renovated. Shandra L. Nelsen and Julie Ann; you jealous? We got to x-ray history.

Another angle of "Dangerous Dan" and his crew
photo courtesy of the KGRNHP

I contacted Sarah to find out what I could about the X-ray project and she sent back the following.

Hey Jeff,

The National Parks people brought over some of the mannequins that Martin Itjen made and had put into your Parlor.

We X-rayed them at the clinic so the curators could see what was inside and figure out how they worked since it appeared they had moving parts. It was a big deal and I was really excited to be a part of it. We figured out the guy we were working on (Dangerous Dan McGrew) had tapping feet and it looks like he nods his head as well. Fun little discoveries thanks to the X-ray.

They took several pictures of the process and we gave them a disc with the X-ray images we took. It wasn't perfect but we took enough that they may be able to figure it out once all the images are printed and layed out like a puzzle.

They also invited us to go over to their shops and see the other fun things that were in your parlor that they are restoring and will put back into the building once restorations are complete.

I am taunting Shandra a bit because I know how much she loved your parlor and history in Skagway.

Sarah, I must admit, I very envious too! Oh how I would love to have been there for the X-ray and for the coming visit to the storage building where they are keeping and working on all the items that were once housed in the Parlor.

X-ray of "Dangerous Dan's" head
photo courtesy of KGRNHP

Sarah was also kind enough to send me the news release put out by the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park which furnished me with the following information.

• The animatronic figures were made by Martin Itjen in the 1930s.
• They were certain that "Dangerous Dan" moved but not in what capacity. The X-ray showed that he moves his head, taps his foot, and his eyes light up.
• There were three animatronic figures, the third being "Lady Lou." Nothing about X-raying her was mentioned.
• The re-opening of Jeff Smith's Parlor is scheduled for 2016. 

Jeff Smith's Parlor restoration

February 4, 2009 (Part 1)
February 19, 2009 (Part 2)  
March 31, 2010 (Part 3)  
August 7, 2010 (Part 4) 
February 11, 2011 (Part 5) 
April 5, 2011 (Part 6)
May 8, 2011 (Part 7)
May 17, 2011 (Part 8)
November 20, 2011 (Part 9)
March 30, 2012 (Part 10)

JUNE 20

1782: The U.S. Congress approves the Great Seal of the United States. 

1793: Eli Whitney applies for his cotton gin patent. The cotton gin initiated the American mass-production concept. 

1863: West Virginia becomes the 35th state to join the Union. 

1863: The National Bank of Philadelphia, PA, becomes the first bank to receive a charter from the U.S. Congress. 

1867: Major Frank North leads a company of Pawnee Indian scouts against the Sioux in Black Hills, Dakota Territory. 

1876: George A. Custer and the 7th Cavalry begin the march towards the Little Bighorn River, Montana Territory after scouts inform Custer that 2,000 to 4,000 warriors are camped on the Little Bighorn. 

1876: General Crooks command is joined by Crow and Snake Indians at Goose Creek, Montana Territory as they begin marching, to find Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Crow scouts report a large Sioux village on the Tongue River. 

1887: Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show performs for Queen Victoria in London, England. 

1889: Soapy Smith’s Tivoli Club receives its first newspaper report of a swindled victim since its opening in 1888. 

1898: The U.S. Navy seizes the island of Guam in route to the Philippines to fight the Spanish.