Skagway

Beginning in 1897, Skagway and the nearby ghost town Dyea were the starting places for more than 40,000 gold-rush stampeders. It only lasted a few years, but it produced one of the most colourful periods in Alaskan history, that of a lawless frontier town controlled by villainous "Soapy" Smith who was finally removed from power in a gunfight by town hero Frank Reid.

The Red Onion Saloon was Skagway's beloved brothel at the turn of the century.

The Mascot Saloon is the only saloon in Alaska that doesn't serve beer or a drop of whiskey, but it did during the gold rush, and plenty of it. Built in 1898, it was one of 70 saloons during Skagway's heyday as "the roughest place in the world".

In the Gold Rush Cemetery, lie Soapy Smith, Frank Reid, and a number of other local celebrities such as the Unkown Man. At about 3 p.m. on September 15th, 1902, a man walked into Canadian Bank of Commerce. Under his boat he carried several sticks of dynamite and a pistol. When he asked the teller for all her money she fled to the rear of the bank. In an attempt to pull out the pistol and threaten the teller his gun discharged and caused the dynamite to explode. Some stories indicate that the man's head was he only part of his body recovered. We still don't know his name, as there wasn't much left to identify.