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YellowStreetCar Guide
The tour guide is dressed in period costume, and they all enlighten us with facts from the period. It was a hard life. Day9– Skagway and Set Sail.
In the morning, after breakfast, we hopped on a street car, and took a tour of Skagway. The tour guide graduated from University of Houston, in psychology, with a Masters, and is living up here year around. She enjoys people, and while I can’t remember what she said she did during the winter, it isn’t outdoors. Most of the natives that stay here during the winter, spend time supporting the high school teams on their travels, tournaments, and watch their games.
We saw a snow blower that cleared railroad tracks, went up to an overlook and saw Skagway from above, and got a glimpse of our ship, and another in port. We saw what looked like a road below, but found out it was an airstrip that is used when shipments and mail are delayed several days by land. Mail, medicine, and anything you order, is not always delivered on time. Amazon Prime for example, isn’t always “prime” due to weather delays.
We stopped by the cemetery where they have tried to document those buried here. There are a lot of unknowns, and there are several famous graves. One was for Jefferson R.
Smith, aka “Soapy” Smith. He and his thugs ran Skagway, and people feared them. They killed someone and stole their little bag of gold. That was worse than horse stealing, and the local law enforcement guy, Frank Reid decided he needed to be held accountable, aka killed. Soapy was worried, got liquored up, and went to address Frank. Frank told him to stop coming forward, and then pulled the trigger, but his gun didn’t fire. Soapy raised his long gun, and they both shot each other. Soapy died immediately, but Frank died a few days later from his wounds. They made Frank a monument in the cemetery, because he was hailed as a hero, but Soapy had a plain grave, and after they noticed he was “in” the cemetery, they moved the boundary to put him “outside” the cemetery. Frank was not such a role model and was a thief and such, but was thought of better than the thugs. After Soapy was killed, his buddies ran like scalded dogs and left the territory.
We boarded our ship, and went to our room. From our room, we had a view of the mountain wall next to the railroad. Huge
signs, painted on the rocks, some 30 years old, advertising a boat captain, boats, or services. It reminded me of the wall at HEB where locals can advertise their services for landscaping, etc. I didn’t see any currently dated signs, and I have no clue how they got the signs painted. They are far above the ground, and no lift can reach them, especially 30 years ago. Hanging suspended from the trees above is the only way I can think they could manage that.
We walked around, learned what things were where, so that the next 4 days would not be a “treasure” hunt.
We set sail around 9:30PM, after the other two ships left port, while we were eating.
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