The first non-native residents were homesteaders, Captain William Moore and his son who lived in peace and quiet for many years. Then the news of the Klondike, Gold Rush reached Seattle. In July 1897,the first boatloads of prospectors headed for the Klondike, landed at Skagway and Dyea. Skagway, the gate to the Klondike, was soon over-run by hoards of gold seekers. These prospectors, faced the daunting task of hauling a years supplies, 2,000 pounds, over the White Pass and the trek down the 133-mile Chilkoot Trail, often in winter conditions. Many, men and beasts of burden, died.
In 1987 the North West Mounted Police reported Skagway had evolved "from a concourse of tents to a fair-sized town, with well-laid-out streets and a population of about 20,000." Less than a year later they reported,"Skagway is little better then hell on earth." It had become a wild, lawless frontier town, run by profiteers and gamblers and had a large population of con men, speculators and prostitutes. Skagway had stores, banks restaurants, hotels, dance halls and saloons. It was a Mecca for the lonely gold panners. Many of the prostitutes also struck it rich!
The most notorious and infamous con man of this era was Jefferson " Soapy" Smith. Soapy arrived in Skagway from Seattle in July of 1897 and immediately took advantage of the chaos. He had already pulled scams in other mining towns in the States and was lured to Skagway by the rush for gold.He and his gang robbed miners with impunity.
One of his scams ultimately gave Smith his nickname: "Soapy."
What was in short supply in a boomtown like Skagway? The answer is soap. But Soapy's product was soap with a difference. This difference raised the price substantially. He would wrap a $100 bill around a bar of soap, re-wrapping it with his own label, and placing it in a box with numerous other bars of soap, all bearing the name of his product. He would then go to one of the saloons where his partner would buy one the bars of soap from Smith. When he found the money, he would be surprised and loudly delighted, to find a one hundred dollar bill under the wrapping! Of course this over priced soap sold very well. No more large bills were found. Another scam was to convince lonely miners to telegraph messages home to their loved ones. What they didn't know was the telegraph wire ended in the ocean. Soapy would supply an answer to the telegraph message and charge for the bogus outgoing and incoming messages.
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