The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-10-21
A KLONDIKE TOWN.
THE GROWTH OF SKAGGUAY UN-
EQijALEO IN WESTERN HISTORY.

boom towns will compare with the
mushroom growth of Skagguay. Ben
Moore, the man who located the town
site, left for the sound ON Aug. 10, at
which date there were his own log cab
in, the store and the bunkhouse of the
Alaska and Northwest Trading COM
pany and q number of tents When he
returned, there were whole streets of
wooden dwellings, which the owners
had themselves located and had paid a
registry fee to United States Commits
sioner Smith of SIS.
Skagguay is on tide fat, with tide
running over 20 feet, and therefore has
stretch of half mile below tide water
mark. All the passengers by big steam
ers are taken off in rowboats, with a
pull Of from one to two miles, accord
ing to the state Of the tide, when they
are carried on the backs of the boatmen
to comparatively dry land
Merchants in tents leave their goods
hanging outside all night Pilgrims
leave their camps on the trail, with all
their belongings scattered about, yet but
few cases Of pilfering have been heard
of and only one theft of money.
There does not appear to have been
any pilfering of goods left on the beach
from the steamers. In short time
there will be no chance for this The
two long piers are holly competing for
the honor Of being first completed and
soon both will be in operation. That of
the Skagguay Wharf company is already
piled to its ocean end q length of over
1900 feet, in a curving line from the
northern to the southern side of the
bay, thus blocking off all further COM
petition in this line This will be
its promoters being J. P. Jorgensen,
hardware merchant; E. Valentine, jew
eler, and E. D. Sylvester, editor Of The
Searchlight, all of Juneau. The other
pier will be known as the Seattle dock,
as it is largely backed by capital from
that sound city. This starts from the
street south of Broadway and runs
straight to the completed dock under
the cliff Both will have warehouses,
to which goods will be taken direct
from the ship, and there await the
proper claimants.
Captain Mckinney, the chairman of
the vigilance committee, estimates that
there are now 100 buildings of wood
and that there would have been many
more but for the scarcity Of lumber
There is q sawmill hard at work now,
| Io,. Sc in
and nearly every one having the pur-
pose to winter here is putting up hab-
itation of wood. Many are erecting
larger and more substantial buildings
than their needs require as a specula-
ton, hoping to sell at large profit
when the rush is renewed next spring
and when they once moro pack up for
the Klondike
A curious phase Of the situation
among those who have decided to win
ter here is that nearly every one of them
believes he has just the natural gifts
necessary to make successful NOR
chant They are all putting their great
stakes into goods, which they hope to
turn into money again with large
profit, by the spring, and then sell out
an established business when the wealth
er permits them to leave for the gold
fields Thus is the new city building
up. There are 13 saloons, majority of
their proprietors having plans for get
ting to the Klondike as soon as posi-
BILE, and there are between 800 and 400
merchants of whom the same thing may
be said.
Not only on Broadway, but along the
intersecting streets and among the big
timbers ON each side of the trail, are
these merchants tents and stores, little
and big, and all sorts and conditions of
men are interested in them.
The infant city is we'll laid out, and
not only on Broadway, but on most Of
the side streets on either side up to
where the trail turns off to the left into
the timber, there are new stores and
residences Among the timber also there
are many merchants, in tents or rough
shacks. In the early history of the city
that is, few weeks ago-boiled
shirts were publicly derided, as were
also shaven chins Now there are four
barber shops and two or three signs
reading ''Troy Laundry "
Now, what are the prospects of Skag,
guay's permanency? The men who are
building the wharfs and the three
story hotel and other buildings evident
ly believe in its future growth and pros
perity, yet there is nothing to give it
the slightest hope of permanency except
as an entrance to the gold regions That
they do not at the present time possess
any such entrance that is at ali what
highway for the expected crowds in the
spring should be is conceded
But the intention now is to build
wagon road along the Skagguay river
to the foot Of the mountain. This will
cost great deal of money, but it will
in all probability be carried out, for
every one who has made an investment
here understands the situation. 1t is es-
timated that from 100, 900 to $50, 900
gold seekers will flock to Alaska next
spring and that they will begin to come
in in February. Skagguay must be able
to announce long before then a better
trail than the present one or the trade
| will pass her nv and the town boom