Skagway, Tuesday 7.31.12

Skagway is at the end of the Lynn Canal (or fjord). Although it was intermittently raining, we did a lot of looking and shopping. I did a little gold mining of my own... at the Miner's Gem store.

Our first stop was the old cemetery to see Soapy Smith's grave.

In the 1890s, discovery of gold in streams flowing into the Klondike River in northwest Canada sparked one of the last of the great gold rushes. Jefferson “Soapy” Smith
was a native Georgian who went west and made his bad name in Denver and Creede, Colorado, before heading north at the start.

For a time, Skagway tolerated, and even lionized Soapy Smith. Then one of his gang robbed a returning miner of his sack of gold nuggets. The miner threatened to return to the mines, and tell everyone to avoid Skagway for their own safety. Now that the Smith gang was threatening the prosperity of the town, opinion turned against the crooks, and town leaders demanded that Smith return the sack of gold.

Soapy Smith tried to break up a meeting of the honest citizens of Skagway, but the town surveyor, who was standing guard outside the meeting, refused to back down. Both Smith and the surveyor died in the resulting gunfight. The remainder of the gang were rounded up and evicted from the town.

Check out the above video of the Lynn Canal...

Had to go to the Sarah Palin store...and the Bank of Alaska...

This is how they clear the rails of snow...

Lunch was some fantastic crab...and we learned to use scissors  thanks to a local who took pity on us.

Judy was not posing for her  totem...but she did look cute next to it.

We were so exhausted by the end of the day.  I fell asleep writing a postcard!!!  Bags ouot early for our trip to Whitehorse in the morning.