Oasis of the Alaskan desert

CLASSIC: Back during the Goldrush the Red Onion Saloon was an oasis of booze, tucker, vaudeville music and spirited dancing ladies in red satin and lace on Broadway.

REFRESH: Skagway, Alaska does not look much different from 1898 with 100 of its old buildings still in place.

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The Red Onion Saloon in Skagway, already a designated Historic Building, shares a new honour: it's on Broadway, which has been declared one of "Ten Great Streets of 2009" by the Anerican Planning Association.

Quite an honour for what was formerly Alaska's most notorious bordello!

That was back in the days of the 1898 Klondike gold rush, when Skagway's population soared to as many as 10,000, swollen by prospectors from California attracted by stories of riches to be gleaned from a tributary of the Klondike river across the Yukon border.

After trekking over newly-laid trails through the mountains, the would-be gold-diggers stopped in Skagway to rest, buy supplies and plan their next route to the Klondike several hundred kilometres on.

The Red Onion was an oasis of booze, tucker, vaudeville music and spirited dancing ladies in red satin and lace on Broadway, catering to the rough, tough clientele along with rows of other lively bars, basically-furnished hotels and trading goods stores.

Prospectors could satisfy their thirst for beer and red-eye in the ground-floor bar, but upstairs (as described in the official history of the Red Onion) they could quench their thirsts for pleasures of a different kind.

Installed there were 10 small cubicles, called cribs, each about three metres by three metres with a hole in the floor connected via a copper tube to a cash register in the bar below.

To keep track of which girls were busy, the bartender had 10 dolls lined up on one of the bars, one for each of the girls on duty - who included Big Dessie, Popcorn Lil, the Oregon Mare, Pea Hull Annie, Kitty Faith, the Belle of Skagway and Klondike Kate.

When a girl was joined upstairs by a customer, the bartender laid her doll on its back.

The session completed, she would send her money down the tube and the bartender returned her doll to its upright position - a signal to other waiting men that she was ready for more business.

The bartender safeguarded the girl's earnings, usually $US5 sometimes in gold - while the girls would hide any tips (sometimes gold nuggets) beneath loose floorboards to be taken home secretly later.

Even today, a trip to the bordello still costs $US5, but the action there has long since ceased, and what visitors pay for is a guided tour (with no extras available!)

Modern Skagway does not look much different from 1898 with 100 of its old buildings still in place, all part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Park.

Some of the buildings on the Broadway boardwalk have been restored and given new facades - the Red Onion itself was moved to its present location in 1914.

The old hotels and stores selling supplies to prospectors have been turned into museums, galleries, jewellery shops and gift shops for the nearly one million tourists who come here every summer, mostly off cruise ships.

The Trail of '98 museum is packed with memorabilia of the Gold Rush and of the infamous con man Jefferson "Soapy" Smith who ruled as Skagway's virtual dictator until he was killed on July 8 1898.

Soapy, a master of bribery and corruption, had used his own private militia to control the town, its US Deputy Marshal and its newspaper, also robbing prospectors and others in crooked gambling games.

He was shot dead by Frank Reid, leader of an angry mob of crime-sickened townspeople - four days after sharing a podium with territorial Governor John Brady Skagway's first July 4 independence Day ceremonies.

Smith and Reid fired at each other simultaneously, Reid suffering wounds from which he died several days later, hailed as the town's martyred hero.

Skagway tourism lives off its colourful and often violent past - America's wild west of the late 19th century had nothing on its wild north.

With 1000 new prospectors a week arriving in the city, its streets were a bedlam of fighting, shooting, drunkenness and prostitution.

The Gold Rush boom did not last long in Skagway; fewer and fewer gold-diggers arrived, others moved on, including most of the bordello girls who transferred to premises closer to the Klondike goldfields.

In 1899, seven downtown buildings were destroyed by fire during May alone. In 1900 a census showed the population down to 3117.

Nevertheless, a railway was completed between the town and Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon territory, and in June 1990 Skagway became the first incorporated city in Alaska, a sign of its new respectability.

New buildings included the iconic Arctic Brotherhood Hall and a new college; Soapy Smith's old saloon was turned into Skagway's first museum.

But crime did not disappear all together.

In September 1902, for example, an unidentified man attempted to rob the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce but blew himself up by accident, along with some cash and gold dust.

Skagway today is home to fewer than 1000 residents during the harsh winters, but the population doubles from April for the six-month tourist season.

Non-cruising visitors have a choice of modern hotels, and notable attractions include a "musical" based on the Soapy Smith scandals, various versions of which have been performed there for well over 60 years.

The hour-long show plays up to 20 times a week during the peak tourism season at the Eagles Hall on Broadway.

On July 8 there is an added event at the hall: the Soapy Smith Wake, begun after the death in 1971 of his daughter-in-law and held every year since on the anniversary of Soapy's demise.

IF YOU GO

Travel agents have details of the many shipping lines which operate cruises to Alaska from Vancouver BC and US West Coast ports, with Skagway shore excursions.

Skagway tourism and accommodation details visit the Skagway Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Red Onion saloon (like most Skagway attractions) is open from April to October; bordello tours cost $US5.

Details at redonion1898.com.

* The writer visited Skagway while on a Holland America Line cruise.