Skagway
was probably our favorite stop on land, with its rich gold rush history and its historic
relationship with my hometown, Seattle. The Arctic Brotherhood building is a
real eyecatcher
- the walls are covered with a network of driftwood, axe handles,
broomsticks and whatever.
The fraternity is defunct, and the building houses the
tourist information center.
The
sister branch of the Gold Rush National Historical Park in Seattle's Pioneer Square
is
in Skagway, and the free walking tour offered by the Rangers there is the best deal
in town.
We
hiked out of town a ways to the Gold Rush cemetary. I'm a sucker for old graveyards,
and this
is a great one. Lots of markers for women and children, which is a little
different than the stereotype of
the frontier population, I think.
Two
of the more interesting graves are those of Jeff "Soapy" Smith, the 'outlaw
king' of Skagway,
and Frank Reid, the local hero who took out Smith in a gunfight
and died later of the wounds he got
in the fight himself. They buried Soapy behind
bars and erected the biggest monument in the graveyard to Reid.
In
the hills above the graveyard there's a waterfall named for Frank Reid. Someone was
kind
enough snap a picture of Sally and me together at the base of Reid Falls.
No
matter how far we stray from home, Starbucks seems to be nearby!
I wonder what
the old Sourdoughs would have paid for a tall, skinny decaf with extra foam?
