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| GOLD! |
How can a 1:6 scale Soapy Smith figure collection NOT have plenty of gold around? I purchased everything but the "gold nuggets," which I painted.
When Soapy died his estate in Skagway was worth just less than $200. How does the premier confidence man of the Klondike gold rush end up broke? There are plenty of accusations of theft. His widow told her grandchildren that Soapy was worth $40,000,000.00 when he died. Perhaps she could have been exaggerating, but it is likely he was worth more, a lot more.
In reading Alias Soapy Smith, we know that Soapy worked nearly every day, including Christmas and New Years. We know that in 1897 he and three of his men made $30,000.00 in the first month Skagway was up and running. Soapy died July 8, 1898, due to the robbery of John Stewart's gold, worth close to $3,000.00. In the year that Soapy worked Skagway he surely obtained an enormous amount of gold. One problem had to have been safe-keeping all that gold. There were only two Skagway banks at the time of his death. I find it very hard to believe that there was enough room in those safes, and the safes of the businesses in town, that had them, to contain all of Soapy's loot, let alone, the gold and proceeds from regular bank customers, business and private. According to the widow, Soapy shipped a lot of his gold to be kept with friends in Seattle and San Francisco. Upon his death, those "trusted friends," simply kept the gold for themselves.
When Soapy died his estate in Skagway was worth just less than $200. How does the premier confidence man of the Klondike gold rush end up broke? There are plenty of accusations of theft. His widow told her grandchildren that Soapy was worth $40,000,000.00 when he died. Perhaps she could have been exaggerating, but it is likely he was worth more, a lot more.
In reading Alias Soapy Smith, we know that Soapy worked nearly every day, including Christmas and New Years. We know that in 1897 he and three of his men made $30,000.00 in the first month Skagway was up and running. Soapy died July 8, 1898, due to the robbery of John Stewart's gold, worth close to $3,000.00. In the year that Soapy worked Skagway he surely obtained an enormous amount of gold. One problem had to have been safe-keeping all that gold. There were only two Skagway banks at the time of his death. I find it very hard to believe that there was enough room in those safes, and the safes of the businesses in town, that had them, to contain all of Soapy's loot, let alone, the gold and proceeds from regular bank customers, business and private. According to the widow, Soapy shipped a lot of his gold to be kept with friends in Seattle and San Francisco. Upon his death, those "trusted friends," simply kept the gold for themselves.
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