The most unique contribution to Skagway atmosphere probably came from “Old Man Davis”. He considered bathing an unnatural activity, incompatible with good health. Residents knew to be up wind when they encountered Davis.
Harriet Pullen brought her three sons to Skagway with the miners—sold them pies. When the miners left, she opened a small hotel, and the Pullen House became a Skagway institution. Guests crowded her dining room captivated by her stories of the gold rush days. Her three sons went off to college and one of them, Danny Pullen, graduated from West Point with the general who would command US forces in Alaska in 1942—Simon Buckner.
Joseph and Theresa Rapuzzi had migrated from Italy to Seattle, and Joseph joined the rush to the Klondike. He didn’t strike it rich, but he thought Skagway a fine home for his family. Son Charlie drove WP&YR trains over the pass. Daughter Della was secretary to the General Manager of the railroad. Son George worked for the road as a machinist. And Son Louis became Federal Deputy Marshall for Skagway and the surrounding area in 1930.
Rapuzzi, the Alcan Soldier the North Country Couldn’t Surprise
Renowned bush pilot, Verne Bookwalter, lived in Skagway, and in the 1930’s he convinced the town to clear an airfield along the Skagway River. They hoped to attract more pilots—and more tourists. The most unique place in town, a large swath of green grass, attracted the children of Skagway who found it a terrific playground.
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.
Dahl’s wife Vera and her friend ‘Dusty’ Hannan alleviated their boredom by regularly taking the train to Carcross for marathon bridge sessions. 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.
These stories crack me up hahaha…!!!
What a compliment. That’s exactly what I intended.