“Chief Shakes lived here,” says the photo caption erroneously. Shakes was not actually a specific individual but a title, one that had been held by seven different Tlingit Indians. What is known as Chief Shakes’ tribal house, the entrance to which is shown on the front cover of this menu, was actually built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1940. While it was built by genuine Tlingit Indian craftsmen, it was designed by a Forest Service architect named Linn Forrest.

Click image to download a 726-KB PDF of this menu.

Whoever collected these menus didn’t have one for July 3, probably because the ship was docked in Skagway for that entire day and most if not all passengers ate at a restaurant in town. The ship was scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am and didn’t depart until 11:00 pm, giving passengers plenty of time to take a short White Pass train trip, see some dancing girls at the Days of ’98 show, or shop in some of the tourist traps, which weren’t as bad as they are now. There are some very nice art studios even today, but too much of the town has been taken over by cheap jewelry stores.

Instead of July 3, this menu is dated July 4, 1971, so naturally has an American flag on page 2. The flag is accompanied by Sourdough’s Lament, a Robert Service poem that doesn’t have much to do with American patriotism. On July 4, the ship was scheduled to arrive in Wrangell, where many of the totem poles depicted on Canadian National advertising were located, at 8:00 pm, departing at 11:00 pm.