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One of Skagway’s most prominent buildings, the Jeff. Smiths Parlor Museum is forever connected to the notorious outlaw Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith. Although Smith led his nefarious band of con men from its cramped rooms, he only occupied the building for three short months before his death in a gunfight. What happened to the building after Smith’s demise is an unexpected story with a surprising array of owners, uses, and relocations. In 1935, Skagway promoter Martin Itjen converted the Jeff. Smiths Parlor into a home-spun museum with gold-rush era artifacts, folk art, strange taxidermy, and even animatronic manikins. Read more… (National Park Service)
