Skagway Museums Part 2

The Mascot Saloon Museum

Imagine traveling back in time to the Gold Rush and trying to explain this to the patrons of the Mascot Saloon.

Many people travel to Skagway from all over the world to witness its unspoiled frontier beauty, magnificent vistas, and countless varieties of wildlife. However, some people step of off their cruise ship and look for the nearest bar. Who can blame them? Some of the wildest wildlife in Alaska is often sitting on a bar stool. To commemorate Skagway’s proud history of sitting at the bar, the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park created the Mascot Saloon Museum.

Skagway’s proud drinking history’s darkest days

The Mascot Saloon Museum features fake people sitting at a real bar drinking fake booze. This display commemorates one of Skagway’s more horrible tragedies, which is an event that most locals would like to forget ever happened.

It was back in 1916. World War I was over, and Skagway was enjoying a new era of peace and prosperity. As voting day approached, a referendum appeared on the Alaskan ballot to ban alcohol throughout the state. This made a lot of Alaskans laugh because they really liked drinking.

When voting day rolled around, almost everyone was in the bar getting schnockered. As a result, the only people that showed up to vote were the know-it-all teetotalers. The following day, police raided the Mascot Saloon, picked everyone up off of the floor, and kicked them out on the street. The doors were chained and locked, and the entire town of Skagway wept bitterly for months.

It wasn’t until 1933 that Alaska prohibition ended, presumably because the Great Depression knocked some sense into everyone. Those 17 years were the darkest in Skagway’s history, and for a time people forgot what it was like to belly up the bar and drown your sorrows in a vodka gimlet. The Mascot Saloon Museum stands as a shrine to the pledge that no Skagwegian will ever again be forced to tackle their day without help from a sloe gin fizz.

The National Park gets it

In a town where there is literally nowhere for people to live, and real estate at an all-time prime, the National Park Service understands that an entire building dedicated to doing Cuervo shots is what truly matters. The Mascot Saloon Museum is like a diorama of days gone by when Skagway locals would stand at the bar ordering drinks while the bartender polished the glasses. You can see real Skagway locals doing the exact same thing about a block away in any direction, but those bars are not museums.

Perhaps someday there will be museums commemorating the mundane things we enjoy today. Future humans will experience unimaginable thrills at the Standing In Line At McDonalds Museum. They will stare in awe at the Museum of Watching People Watching Movies In A Theater Museum. And the most popular museum of all will be the Museum of Tourists Watching Tourists In A Museum For Tourists.

Thank you, National Park Service. To show my appreciation, I would like to buy you a drink. I’ll see you at the Mascot Saloon Museum later tonight.

Closed for the season!? Damnit!