A Gold Rush memory to the summer tourists and outsiders who heard its name, Skagway was home and community to the people who made their lives there.
Verne Bookwalter, a renowned bush pilot, lived in Skagway. And in the 1930’s, the town decided to clear an airfield along the river, hoping to attract more pilots—and more tourists. They cleared the field of stumps, rocks and abandoned buildings then plowed and seeded it with grass. Despite Mayor Mulvihill warnings, the children of Skagway thought it a great playground.
Harriett Pullen’s Pullen House became a Skagway institution. Guests crowded her dining room captivated by her stories of the gold rush days. The “Days of 98 Variety Show” became an annual tradition. Performers danced with garters on their thighs, poured drinks and ended the evening by reenacting the shooting of Dan McGrew.
In 1926 the railroad hired Dr. Peter Dahl and, with his wife Vera, he moved to Skagway. Dr. Dahl was the only physician for miles and “because of the town’s relative isolation, he was compelled to deal with emergencies that no general practitioner in an urban setting would have to assume”.
Dahl’s memoirs describe one such emergency. Two Indians, a father and son, had been picking blueberries on the turf of a mother Grizzly. Badly mauled they came down from Carcross on the train and Dr. Dahl treated them at White Pass Hospital. (103)
Despite the distance and the rugged mountains between them, more than medical necessity linked the tiny communities of Skagway, Alaska and Carcross, Yukon. In all but total isolation, they had only each other. Dahl’s wife Vera and her friend ‘Dusty’ Hannan alleviated their boredom by travelled regularly to Carcross for marathon bridge sessions.
Dusty Hannan whose nickname came from her habit of saying, as she lowered her hand, “Well, that’s not so dusty”, was one of many unique characters who helped make the little town of Skagway memorable. Carcross, even smaller and more isolated than Skagway, didn’t offer modern facilities. Dusty couldn’t, and didn’t want, to master the use of a coffee can or the frigid outdoors, so when she and Vera rode the train to Carcross, she carried her chamber pot.
“Old Man Davis” who claimed to have fought in the Civil War, made his own, unique contribution to the atmosphere in Skagway. He never bathed because he considered bathing an unnatural activity, incompatible with good health. Winds blew frequently in Skagway and residents knew to be up wind when they encountered Davis.