Ghosts and Goodtime Girls 1 (Wednesday)

For the Ghosts and Goodtime Girls walking tour, Madame Ophelia, took us through the back allies of downtown Skagway to point out some of the old buildings and tell us stories about the professional women of Skagway, the town, the buildings, and also a few ghosts who supposedly haunt various places. She was an excellent story teller and was very friendly. All along the route, she would play the role of streetwalker, calling out to her "customers," and the locals we saw would play along.  

We learned what the women charged (between a $1 a trick for women who had no "crib" to work in up to $5 for 15 minutes with those from classier bordellos). We also learned about the origin of the term "red light district." 

We saw old buildings that had been bordellos. Some old buildings were very tiny like the one I'm standing in front of here. There were several very small "cribs" in this house, where the Goodtime girls plied their trade. They might use a big window like this one to entice men to come in.