Aunt Phil's Trunk
In the late 1890s, Mollie Walsh ran a tent "grub house" on the White Pass Trail, and was affectionately known as 'wonder girl'. A memorial for her still stands in Skagway.
Mollie Walsh made a name for herself among the prospectors who flooded north during the Klondike Gold Rush. Her "grub tent" was a welcome sight to many miners who climbed the White Pass Trail in the late 1890s. One man carried such affection for her that he created a memorial that still stands today in the little town of Skagway.
Born Mary Walsh in 1869 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Irish lass and her laundry worker friend Maggie Allen packed their bags and headed north on board the Bristol in August 1897. Although their destination was Dawson, the pair ended up broke in Skagway, instead.
Mollie, who had worked as a laundress from age 15, found lodging at the Bay View Hotel on 4th Avenue. Evidence suggests the redheaded girl then built a small cabin in the woods and became a waitress at a restaurant in Skagway, as well as perhaps at the hotel.
Walsh stayed in Skagway only a few months, however. As she watched the number of gold seekers arriving by ship, and then heading toward the Klondike, she saw an opportunity to help them and herself by opening a grub tent.
Also, with people like the notorious criminal Jefferson "Soapy" Smith and his gang swarming the streets looking for easy prey, Skagway was becoming dangerous. One first-hand observer noted:
"I have stumbled upon a few tough corners of the globe during my wanderings beyond the outposts of civilization, but I think the most outrageously lawless quarter I ever struck was Skagway," wrote Superintendent Samuel Benfield Steele, who was tasked with establishing a North West Mounted Police border post on top of the Chilkoot Pass.
Walsh and two Klondikers left town on Sunday, February 20, 1898, and headed up the White Pass Trail toward Lake Bennett. She set up a tent restaurant about 10 miles from the summit and two miles from the N.W. Mounted Police post at Log Cabin.
"She operated a very primitive eating place with only a small sheet-iron stove and a narrow lunch counter in front of it," a stampeder later said. "The eats weren't anything special, but the girl's hearty enthusiasm, quick wit, and a dusting of freckles made her a favorite with all who stopped there."
One of the many men who beat a path to her tent was a respectable packer named Jack Newman, who had met Mollie earlier in Skagway. He fell hard for her.
But her heart went to another-she married Mike Bartlett later that year. Sources say the couple ended up in Nome. Mollie gave birth to a son in August 1900 on the Yukon River, returning from Nome without her husband. The couple's troubled marriage ended in violence in Seattle in 1902, however, when a drunken Bartlett followed his wife into an alley and shot her dead.
Walsh's story might have been lost for the ages were it not for the love that never died inside packer Jack Newman's heart. Newman commissioned a statue to be placed in Skagway that would memorialize her. The bust, created by artist James A. Wehn in 1930, stands in a park named for Walsh and reads:
"Alone, without help, this courageous girl ran a grub tent near Log Cabin during the Gold Rush of 1897-1898. She fed and lodged the wildest gold-crazed men. Generations shall surely know this inspiring spirit. Murdered Oct. 27, 1902."
This column features tidbits found while researching Alaska's colorful past for Aunt Phil's Trunk, a five-book Alaska history series written by Laurel Downing Bill and her late aunt, Phyllis Downing Carlson. The books are available at bookstores and gift shops throughout Alaska, as well as online at http://www.auntphilstrunk.com.
