There's lots of stories about legendary bandits and the sheriffs that brought them to justice in the lower 48, but I don't know of any in Alaska. It would seem the Alaskan gold rush would garner many criminals too lazy to pan or dig, and maybe they were too lazy to make the trip. What was different?

It was too easy to get rich selling supplies to the prospectors. And too cold to try to live away from settlements.

Probably a lot of frontier justice happened. Parasites threatened everyone's survival.

The RCMP inspected everyone and their belongings before they let you onto the trail going to the Yukon. This probably stopped many problems before they started...

Same problem they have today - an outsider doing something different sticks out like a sore thumb in a small community

During my 5 years in Alaska, several times I took the last flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage or Anchorage to Seattle and almost every time there was prisoners in ankle and hand cuffs being transported by law enforcement (BTW, they board prisoners before military or first class). I was friendly with the retired head of Alaska Troopers and he is the one who pointed out sticking out like a sore thumb in a small community is a bad hiding place for a criminal.

One of my favorite magazines is True West and they had a great article on the Alaska Gold Rush in the fall of Sept 2022.


https://www.truewestmagazine.c...e/alaskas-wild-west/


History.Com has a great write on the death of Alaska's most notorious con man and grifter, Mr Soapy Smith.

Con man “Soapy” Smith killed in Skagway, Alaska
https://www.history.com/this-d...ed-in-skagway-alaska

Alaska is still the old west in many ways.

Much of what is thought to be known about the “wild” west in the lower 48 is because of fictionalized accounts dating back to novels and other tales written at the time. The stories were full of exaggerations and outright fabrications to increase their appeal to the readership. I believe those written accounts or at least the type of tales they told were the basis for the radio programs, movies, and finally the TV shows that depicted the west in the same exaggerated and fanciful ways.

That’s not to say that every exciting or sensational story was invented by writers. The gunfight at (near, actually) the Okay Corral really did happen, but I suspect that whatever happened in Alaska was less well known. For modern day thrillers set in the state, I really enjoy the Arless Cutter books by Marc Cameron.

Research Soapy Smith who met his end during the gold rush in Skagway, Alaska.

We had Wyatt Earp for a short time.

I've only read a few stories about Alaska in the pre 1900 years.
Those stories were about individuals.


And by all three of their tales, The big difference
Between AK and outlaws in the lower states is
That.
One had to be five times more resourceful in the north .
To deal with the weather,

And southern bad guys and bandits were too effen lazy.

There was no taking a week off to laze around and get stupid drunk.

That and.
The law in AK was , for awhile, kill anyone you wanted, no one is going to miss them, all their kin was 800 miles away.

Most bad guys got away with something once or twice,
But very very few lived for a third chance at thieving and such.

quote:

Old west type bandits in Alaska

They had them in the Yukon.



This show's stories were tropes 6 and 7 (Outlaw Story, Marshal Story) of the Seven Western Plots, but in Canada.

When we were in Ketchikan, our guide told us of a robbey that happened a couple of years ago. Seems a guy got off the boat, robbed the bank, stole a car and drove off.Nobody chased him. Eventually he drove back and was arrested. There are no road once you get out of the city. He had nowhere to run.