Town of Skagway. Skagway, Southeast Alaska. 1913.
Email communication from Karl Gurcke, NPS, on June 16, 2020, "According to the information, this picture was taken in 1913. The date seems reasonable. One of the ways we can date photographs of Skagway is the presence or absence of certain buildings. In this case, for example, the three-story Dewey Hotel (light colored building with a tower on the extreme left-hand side of the image) is present on the southwest corner of 2nd Avenue and Broadway. It was moved to that location in 1908 and disappears sometime before 1938. Across the avenue on the northwest corner of 2nd Avenue and Broadway will be the Red Onion Saloon, which was moved to that location in 1914. It is still standing. So a 1913 date is consistent with what I seen in the image. But when in 1913 did Mr. Moffit take the picture? Skagway has snow on its mountain peaks year round, except in the middle of the summer most of the snow has melted off except for a few small hanging glaciers. Looking outside today, I can see that all of the snow has melted off the AB mountain except for a little bit at the very top. Since there still is some snow on the AB mountain in the photograph, I'd suggest a date of April to May. Perhaps better list it as Spring 1913. The large mountain off to the left is called AB Mountain. It was named after the local fraternal founded in 1899 and called the Arctic Brotherhood. Camp Number 1 was in Skagway and the AB Hall still stands. There were eventually some 32 camps in British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska. The organization's motto was "No Boundary Line Here." When the carpenters were building the AB Hall in Skagway in 1899, they looked up to AB Mountain and could see the letters "A" and "B" outlined in snow on the mountain's front facing flank. If you look closely and have a bit of imagination, you can still see the joined letters "AB" on the side of the mountain in the Moffit photo. If it was earlier in the year, with more snow, the letters would be more prominent.
The photographer (Moffit) is standing on the approach to the Moore Wharf pointing his camera in a northwest direction. I orientate myself according to the street grid which is not quite orientated to true north. During the Klondike gold rush (1897-1898) four wharfs were built in Skagway to handle the volume of people and freight heading through Skagway into the interior. The population of Skagway reached a peak during the gold rush period of 8,000 to 10,000 (winter of 1897-1898). By the time of the 1900 census, it was down to 3,000, by 1910, it was 850 and by 1920, it was around 500. Three of the four wharfs were abandoned after the gold rush and allowed to deteriorate. By 1913, only Moore's Wharf was operating. It was named after the founder of Skagway, Captain William Moore. He also owned it for a time before he sold it. He died in 1909, the year my father was born. So this approach takes people and wagons over the tidal flats seen on either side of the wharf. It is low tide. You can see a small canoe on the right resting on the ground. In a few hours, this will be flooded. The organization is no longer functioning."