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The White Pass & Yukon Route Railway has operated out of Skagway for over 124 years. It regularly travels between Skagway and the Yukon, a scenic trip that is one of Skagway’s top attractions.

But one day in mid-October was special. That day an all-female crew drove a train full of tourists up the mountain, creating history.

On Oct. 15, approximately 600 chilly sightseers climbed aboard the White Pass train for a brief international ride through the Yukon.

Both the brakeman and the conductor who helped them aboard were female. Also on duty was Lindsay Breen, White Pass’ first woman engineer.

“I was the second female brakeman, second female conductor,” Breen said before departing from Skagway’s Ore Dock. “I was the only one who stayed long enough to get trained as an engineer.”

Breen has worked for White Pass for 12 years. She fell into her profession almost accidentally.

“I am one of those people that came up for one summer, way back in 2001,” she said.  “And here I am, 23 years later, married, kid, all the things. I just fell in love with Skagway and this community. Never thought that this is where I would end up. It wasn’t like a dream of mine – I didn’t play with train cars as a little kid or anything like that.”

Breen started as a train agent, then a dock representative, then she transferred to coach cleaning. Eventually she worked her way up to brakeman, conductor, then engineer.

A White Pass train is run by three crew members. The engineer operates the train. The conductor is in charge of the entire train, helps load and unload passengers and decides when to leave. A brakeman is the assistant to the conductor.

Breen described trains as “big, loud and obnoxious.” She said that blowing the piercing train whistle isn’t just for fun.

“I really sometimes don’t enjoy doing it, especially when you’re yard crew at 5 a.m. and bringing trains down and everyone’s still in bed,” she said. “But they’re actually part of our rules book. And so it is a federal requirement of what your whistle means. So, when we’re going across crossings, that’s when you hear what we call long and short. So, long, long, short. Long is coming through a crossing. Two shorts is you’re going ahead. Three is backing up.”

Breen’s days can sometimes be very long – 12-hour shifts with three trips up the mountain. But she said she loves it.

“I didn’t realize how much I would actually like the engineering job,” Breen said. “It’s a really cool job to have. And I just strive to make it as good as I can every day. Every run.”

Breen is incredibly proud of the two women on her team, and all the women she works with.

“It felt, can I say bad ass? That’s kind of how it felt,” she said. “It was really neat that it was finally happening. It took long enough.”

Eliza Myers was the conductor. In her early 20s, she already knows that she wants to be an engineer after an experience that happened in 2022.

“One of the trainmen, who’s actually a friend now, had me come up into the cab of the locomotive,” she said. “I sat in the seat, and I was like, ‘whoa. This is really cool.’ And they took a photo of me. And I was looking back at that photo the other day, because one day I will become an engineer. And I think that just really sparked my interest. That just being in it, and seeing the whole operation. Because I didn’t really think about it beforehand. I wasn’t like a little kid watching Thomas the Engine.”

Myers started out at White Pass at the ticket office and as a dock representative. She became a brakeman in 2023. There is no non-gendered term for the position. Myers said that’s okay with her.

As conductor, she is responsible for the safety and timeliness of the train, which sometimes means politely redirecting intoxicated train ticket holders back to their ship.

Myers said she loves the formal aspect and exactness of train etiquette. For example, the suit uniform and the protocol of radio communication.

“When you are talking to someone and they tell you something, you can say ‘roger,’” she said. “You don’t really say ‘copy that,’ because copy that technically means that you have specifically written it down and copied what they said.”

Myers said that she sometimes gets sexist comments from visitors, but has received only support from her employers.

“So, I’ve never felt from my co-workers or from management specifically that like, ‘Oh, I’m a girl, like, I can’t do this job.’ Or you can’t be hired because you’re a woman. I never felt that way with this company, which I really appreciated. It feels very empowering to be accepted,” Myers said.

White Pass currently employs five female train crew out of a total of 29. Two of those are engineers.

David Ottoson has owned Rainbow Foods, a natural grocery store in Juneau, for 44 years. Most of his 30 employees already earn more than $15 an hour, but a handful of highschoolers make $14. They all earn paid time off.

He said his wages are competitive with other grocery stores, and thinks it’s part of the reason he’s able to retain employees.

“$15 an hour isn’t that much,” he said. “During the pandemic, it was harder to find people, so we had to increase what we were willing to pay to get people to come to work.”

If passed, Ballot Measure One would raise the minimum wage from $11.73 to $13 in 2025, $14 in 2026 and $15 in 2027. Annual cost of living adjustments would begin in 2028.

Employers with more than 15 employees would be required to allow staff to accrue up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year, and up to 40 hours if there’s less than 15 employees. It would also prohibit employers from making their employees attend meetings about religious or political issues, but some employers would be exempt.

Ottoson said he supports the measure because Alaskans shouldn’t have to choose between being sick and their paycheck.

“The value it has for keeping people who are at work from getting sick, from having germs spread from their fellow workers, I think, probably outweighs any cost that’s involved,” Ottoson said.

Ottoson is among over 120 small businesses owners that have joined a coalition in support of the measure, called Better Jobs for Alaska.

Supporters say the measure would boost consumer spending, improve retention, and that paid sick days are good for businesses. Opponents say the measure’s language is too vague and would have detrimental impacts to small businesses.

The Chamber of Commerce in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and the Alaska Chamber are among a group of business organizations and businesses that came together to oppose the voter initiative, called Protect Our Small Businesses & Jobs.

Alaska Chamber President and CEO Kati Capozzi said the measure’s language leaves too much room for interpretation.

“I’ve read this thing 150 times,” she said. “Every day, I’ll have a member call me and they’ll be like, ‘Well, what about this? How would it apply in this way?’ And I’m unable to answer it. It’s just not tight language.”

Nearly 70% of Alaskans voted to raise the minimum wage a decade ago but unlike that measure, this one includes sick leave.

If it passes, it would allow employees to use sick leave to care for a family member, but Capozzi said the definition of family member is one example of what she believes is overly broad language. It includes immediate family members, legal guardians, and any other individual whose “close association is the equivalent of a family relationship.”

“Is that neighbor Bob? Is it my dog?” Capozzi questioned.

Alaska has the lowest minimum wage of West Coast states by almost $2, according to the Department of Labor. Capozzi said 92% of Alaskans already make more than $15.

Alaska is one of seven states that require employers to pay tipped employees the full minimum wage, and Capozzi said that wasn’t taken into consideration when writing the measure. She said many tipped workers make significantly more than their hourly wage.

She said the measure would raise operational costs for business owners and would force businesses to charge more, cut positions, or even close.

James Strong owns Sweet Caribou, an eatery in Anchorage. If the measure passes, he said he’ll have to raise prices and cut part-time positions. He estimates the measure would cost him up to $12,000 each month in operating costs.

“What I have to do is I’ll have to do combined full time jobs. So [who it] really impacts [are] college kids that [are] looking to work four or five hours a day,” he said.

Most of Strong’s employees start at minimum wage and make tips, but some staff earn higher wages and don’t earn tips.

The measure allows employees to use paid sick leave for three days before an employer can require “reasonable documentation,” which the measure exemplifies as a signed document from a healthcare professional indicating that paid sick leave is or was necessary.

Strong worries it will make employees less reliable.

“People are gonna find more reasons to call in sick,” said Stong. “You’re going to have people that are going to be less reliable.”

Employers aren’t required to provide additional sick leave if they already have a paid time off policy that’s sufficient for hourly requirements.

But up in Fairbanks, Carey Fristoe, the co-owner of Black Spruce Brewing Company, sees it differently.

Fristoe thinks the measure could give hospitality businesses, like his, a competitive hiring advantage. The brewery opened six years ago, and he said most of his seven employees have worked there for several years.

His employees all make more than $15, except a single front-of-house employee who makes minimum wage plus tips. He thinks paying a higher wage would save him the time and cost of training new employees.

“Having people on board that are trained up, [and] in there for the long haul makes such a huge difference for us,” Fristoe said.

Fristoe also said employees shouldn’t have to worry about their paycheck when sick. His business is centered on food and beverage, and he said allowing employees to take time off when they’re sick keeps their customers, and other employees healthy.

Five months ago, King Cove Mayor Warren Wilson wrote an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News. The headline was stark: Fighting For Our Lives in King Cove.

Peter Pan Seafood Co., the owner of a plant that had served as the economic engine of the Southwest Alaska town of about 800 for more than a century, had just announced it would cease operations.

The Peter Pan plant, which had run year-round for the past five decades, had already been closed all winter. That it would stay closed — indefinitely — was a shock. Wilson wrote that he worried King Cove was on the edge of becoming a ghost town.

“As King Cove’s mayor,” he wrote at the time, “it hurts my heart to say that it has taken only a few short months for me to no longer recognize my world. Events have conspired to threaten our very existence.”

The seafood industry around the world has been devastated by low fish prices, high interest rates, oversupply in some markets and poor fish returns in others. In Alaska, according to a recent report from NOAA Fisheries, profits fell by half between 2021 and 2023.

Few Alaska communities have felt the pain of the seafood industry crisis more than King Cove. With the plant’s owner out of business, residents are left to wonder if their community has a future.

Driving in his distinctive yellow Ford pickup on a tour of town this summer, Wilson said even his earlier grim assessment might have been a bit too rosy.

“If I had to write that story again now, there would be a little more gloom and doom in it,” he said. “But we’re still fighting for our lives, for sure.”

Aside from the occasional passing car and boat, much of King Cove is quiet. The bar just outside the plant’s chain-link fence is closed.

The shuttered Peter Pan plant is sprawling. It dominates the gently sloping waterfront, rivaled only by the boat harbors just down the road. Fishermen used to unload salmon, crab, pollock, cod, halibut and more on the four piers that jut into King Cove’s namesake waterbody. Steel-roofed bunkhouses once housed hundreds of staff who processed the catch.

Today, blue steel containers emblazoned with the logo of Samson Tug and Barge Company block the plant’s main entrance. Little activity can be seen from outside.

This weekend, all of the action is up the road. Cross-country running teams from Sand Point and False Pass are in town for a regional meet. There’s an all-community volleyball game at the King Cove School.

“Peter Pan was the heart of our community for many, many years,” Agdaagux Tribe of King Cove President Etta Kuzakin said during a break in the action.

King Cove has always been something akin to a company town. It didn’t exist until 1911, when Unangax̂ people relocated from nearby villages to fish for and work at the new Pacific American Fisheries plant. People in King Cove talk about fishing for Peter Pan for decades, or their whole lives. And with the plant idled, Kuzakin says life just feels different.

“A great example is driving down the road at 7 a.m. to go to work, and it’s peaceful,” she said. “There’s no humming, there’s no boats in the bay, there’s nothing.”

“I’m born and raised here. I’m 47 years old, and I’ve never not heard those noises before,” Kuzakin said. “The silence is deafening.”

The hum is gone, but King Cove’s fishermen are still fishing. Many have no other choice. They’re fighting low fish prices and rising costs and doing everything they can to stay afloat. Many are sailing hours out of their way to deliver their catch to plants that offered to buy fish from some King Cove fishermen left in the lurch after Peter Pan folded.

But it’s not easy. And some are thinking about leaving.

In King Cove’s Harbor House, a blue-and-white corrugated metal building near the community’s boat yards and harbors, fishermen sat on overstuffed recliners and couches watching college football, drinking coffee from Styrofoam cups. A gale-force storm was about to roll in, so it was more crowded than usual.

If the plant doesn’t reopen, “[I’m] not staying here,” said Ken Mack, a fisherman who recently purchased land in a nearby community.

Mack has been fishing out of King Cove for decades. With no fish plant to support the primarily small-boat fleet, he said, fishermen are forced to sail hours out of their way to supply their boats and deliver their catch.

“Right now we’re running six hours to False Pass to get fuel and bait, and we’re running nine hours to Sand Point to get rid of the crab, or halibut, or whatever you catch,” he said. “You have to cut off that expense. [The] only way you cut that expense up is [to] move someplace.”

That’s not to mention the unpaid bills that fishermen say they were left with when Peter Pan unexpectedly closed its doors. Ken Mack says he’s still owed money from tendering. Many have filed liens, some in the six figures, for unpaid debts.

But even so, some of the fishermen are optimistic.

“You have to be,” said Ben Ley, who runs three boats out of King Cove. Otherwise, he said, “I don’t know how you’re doing the next tow, or set, or anything.”

At the same time, he said, there’s only so long fishermen and the businesses they support can hang on.

“I’m worried that by the time it does get good again — which I am optimistic about — the damage is going to be done,” he said. “There’s going to be some businesses here that don’t make it.”

There are other practical considerations, too — until the city put in a gas station shortly before the plant closed, Peter Pan was the only place to buy gas and diesel. And this summer, it still wasn’t clear whether there’d be enough fuel oil to heat residents’ homes for the winter. It all used to come from Peter Pan.

The plant closure is also taking a toll on the city’s finances.

Some 70% of the city’s general fund revenues come from fish taxes and sales taxes connected to the fishing industry, and King Cove has put millions of dollars in public money towards supporting the plant’s needs — water, power and garbage system upgrades aimed squarely at meeting the needs of the Peter Pan plant.

Mayor Warren Wilson said that so far, the city itself has been able to hang on with savings it squirreled away during years when the fishing was good. Grants have come from the state and federal governments to prop up projects in the meantime. The city hasn’t had to make serious cutbacks in services. But that can’t go on forever, Wilson said.

“If it’s not up running next year,” he said, “the cuts will be happening.”

Whether the plant will ever reopen is an open question. Peter Pan, partially owned by a state-backed investment fund, is being sold off for parts in a Seattle court. Rodger May, one of the investors who bought Peter Pan from a Japanese conglomerate recently won an auction to purchase the plant, along with a wide swath of other former Peter Pan assets.

But the community is still waiting for an announcement about the plant’s future.

Amid a growing backlash to the factory-sized data centers that power the global internet, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has started pitching his state as a new home for the industry — citing Alaska’s cool temperatures and abundant land and water.

In the past few weeks, Dunleavy has formally invited more than a dozen tech businesses to build “data farms” in Alaska, including affiliates of Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon. He also personally accompanied executives from a major data firm, Las Vegas-based Switch, on driving tours of potential sites in the Fairbanks and Anchorage areas.

In an interview, Dunleavy described Alaska as having an abundance of the natural resources that data firms are increasingly under fire for consuming in the Lower 48.

He also said that demand for electricity from new data centers would strengthen the economic case to build a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline to urban Alaska from the North Slope oil fields — a project long sought by the state that’s so far been thwarted by insufficient demand.

“We just need an anchor tenant or so, and that’s it,” Dunleavy said.

Companies have eyed Alaska as a site for data centers for more than two decades, dating back to 2001, when a firm called Netricity was studying a project on the North Slope.

Dunleavy’s new push comes as the industry — and its sharply increasing use of power and water — faces growing skepticism across the rest of the country, where some 5,000 facilities have been built.

Forecasts say the growth of artificial intelligence will supercharge demand. One executive has warned that without more efficient operations, data facilities supporting AI could use up to 25% of power in the U.S. by 2030 — more than six times what they use now.

Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick recently said that the industry produces few jobs relative to the “incredible demands” it places on the power grid. “Texans will ultimately pay the price,” he added.

Residents in Northern Virginia are suing to block one complex, saying data centers are driving up the price of land. Atlanta’’s city government last month banned the facilities in certain areas, citing the potential for them to crowd out housing and pedestrian access.

Dunleavy said Alaska doesn’t face the resource scarcity driving some of the opposition, and that its cold temperatures would reduce the need for cooling.

“We have more available fresh water than just about every other state,” he said. “We have copious amounts of land.”

What the state doesn’t currently have, he added, is extra power.

Alaska’s urban electric utilities currently face an impending shortage of the natural gas they use to generate most of their power — but they also don’t collectively consume enough fuel to attract investors in the proposed gas line.

Data centers would boost consumption, Dunleavy said. They could also tap into Alaska’s significant potential to generate electricity from renewable sources like wind and water, Dunleavy added, as tech businesses are increasingly trying to power their data hubs with green energy.

Microsoft, for example, has pledged to be carbon negative by 2030; it’s working with another company to revive the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania to power its AI and cloud computing centers.

Dunleavy is an enthusiastic user of artificial intelligence technology — he’s been known to pull out his phone during meetings to interrogate ChatGPT, the chatbot developed by OpenAI.

His bid to boost the data industry in Alaska prompted mixed reactions among those tracking the Alaska energy and technology industries.

A representative of the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit that advocates for equitable, affordable, and reliable energy in the state, said the group “welcomes industry in Alaska that does not cause harm.”

But she also suggested that data centers in Alaska would not be enough to make the proposed gas pipeline pencil out.

“Courting new industry to legitimize economically unjustifiable energy projects is a misuse of public time and money that distracts from viable energy solutions,” Natalie Kiley-Bergen, the group’s energy lead, said in an email.

Another energy expert, Antony Scott, said he thinks the most logical concept for industry is to build data centers adjacent to the North Slope oil fields. There, they could tap into abundant natural gas without the need for a pipeline to urban Alaska that would run hundreds of miles and cost billions of dollars.

Carbon emitted from the power plants running North Slope data centers could potentially be deposited back into depleted pockets of the oil fields. That could in turn capture federal tax incentives, said Scott, who spent more than a decade working for the state trying to secure gas contracts to support construction of the pipeline.

“It’s the only sensible location. I actually think it’s a pretty good idea,” said Scott, now an analyst with Renewable Energy Alaska Project, another advocacy group. “Not a lot of downside if someone else will put up the money for the new generators needed to run the server farms and the new carbon capture technology — which is not a small lift.”

Dunleavy said he’d like to see data centers developed in both urban Alaska and on the North Slope, with the urban locations supporting jobs and potentially adding students to the state’s shrinking school system. “What we’re hearing is that depending on the outfit, it will vary,” he said.

One obstacle in both areas is ensuring reliable connections to the rest of the world, said Ethan Berkowitz, a former Anchorage mayor. He’s now working with a company, Far North Fiber, that hopes to build a subsea cable linking Europe to Japan while passing along the Alaska coast.

But otherwise, the concept makes sense for Alaska’s economy, he added.

“This would put us on the cutting edge again,” he said.

Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@gmail.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link.

Goldbelt Incorporated and Royal Caribbean Group announced a partnership on Wednesday to develop a new cruise ship port on the backside of Douglas Island. 

 Juneau city officials, including Mayor Beth Weldon, said they felt blindsided by the news. 

“Royal Caribbean’s announcement of a dock on the backside of Douglas Island is a slap in the face — we are very unhappy with both Royal Caribbean and Goldbelt,” she said. “They didn’t give us the courtesy of talking to us first. We know nothing of their plans.”

The Alaska Native corporation’s president and CEO McHugh Pierre said Wednesday the companies are optimistic about having the project completed during the 2027 cruise season. 

“This is the very beginning,” he said. “There’s a lot of communication that needs to happen now and a lot of feedback, and we don’t have plans, but what’s really important is that we wanted to start the conversation.”

As the beneficiary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Goldbelt owns about 1,800 acres of land along the north coastline of Douglas, roughly between False Outer Point and Point Hilda on the island’s west side. 

“This is our traditional land. We’re here to stay, and we’re excited for the long-term prospects of opening up this area for our use and for the community’s use,” he said. 

Pierre said the location of the port could be anywhere along that coastline. The hope is for the port to be electrified and accommodate two cruise ships at a time. 

Along with the port, the companies hope to develop employee housing, floatplane and whale watching docks, helicopter pads and recreate a Lingít village for passengers to visit, among other business opportunities. 

They also hope to shuttle tourists on boats from Douglas to Mendenhall Glacier. In a joint press release, the companies say that will help reduce downtown bus traffic and congestion and that the project is aimed at “enhancing the local and visitor experience.”

Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the city will begin figuring out next steps immediately, like how the project fits with the city’s current agreements with cruise lines and what hurdles the project must go through to get city approval to break ground. This year major cruise lines entered into an agreement with the city to observe a five-ship daily limit. Barr said he does not know for certain if the limit would apply to the project area.

“There are still a lot of unknowns, and the public can expect that we are going to work on their behalf to responsibly manage the visitor industry in a way that works for the whole community and not just one section of it,” Barr said. 

Pierre said he is looking forward to working with the city to move the project forward. 

“Goldbelt is trying to communicate with people at the appropriate time,” he said. “We don’t have any plans yet, so I don’t know why they’re upset, but that’s on them. It’s not on me.”

The project has been in the works for the past three months, according to Pierre. But rumors of Goldbelt’s plan to develop the west and north sides of Douglas have been circulating for decades.

Goldbelt already owns popular tourist attractions like the Goldbelt Tram downtown and has invested millions of dollars into a gondola project at Eaglecrest Ski Area. The gondola project is still underway, but Eaglecrest officials say once complete, it will help boost summer visitation at the ski area. 

Pierre was also one of the loudest voices to speak out against a ballot proposition in this fall’s municipal election that asked voters whether or not Juneau should ban all large cruise ships on Saturdays starting next year. 

The proposition ultimately failed, according to the final results of the elections which were released on Tuesday — just a day before the announcement of the North Douglas project. Pierre said the election did not factor into the timing of the announcement. 

However, Karla Hart, the community member behind the initiative and a longtime activist against tourism growth in Juneau, disagreed. She said she was disappointed with the news of the planned development. 

“I think it’s indication that Goldbelt and Royal Caribbean are entirely tone-deaf on what’s going on — it just is entirely tone-deaf,” she said. 

The plan also comes as Huna Totem Corp., an Alaska Native village corporation based in Hoonah, attempts to build a new cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau along the Gastineau Channel. Huna Totem also proposed a waterfront development plan at the site called Aak’w Landing. 

Both the dock and waterfront development plan still have a long way to go before breaking ground. The Assembly needs to approve a lease of the city-owned tidelands before Huna Totem can build it. 

Pierre said he doesn’t have a clear timeline for when more information will be released about the North Douglas development. But, the companies hope to finish financial estimates and concept designs by next spring. 

“The fact is that we’re announcing this to make sure that people know that it’s happening and it’s not happening in secret,” he said. “That we can talk about it and that it’s an opportunity for everybody to share potential needs. And I think we’re on the right track to do that.”

Skagway’s historic Red Onion Saloon is changing hands.

Oct. 10 was the final night of the season under the current owner. Patrons shared wild stories and reminisced about the old days.

Long-time Skagway resident Scott Logan recounted people bringing dogs in to have dress up contests. Donkeys, horses and chickens would visit, too.

It was the closing night for Red Onion’s 44th year, and Jan Wrentmore’s last season as the owner. She reopened the gold rush brothel as a pizza restaurant and bar more than four decades ago.

The saloon has always been a place to find love. Lara Labesky got two marriages out of it. Coincidentally, both men were named Denny.

“This is the first place I came the very first night that I arrived in Skagway,” Labesky said. “It’s been important in my life, because I met both my husbands here. And I don’t know that the story’s over yet.”

The Red Onion is famous for its entertainment.

While mud wrestling is no longer allowed, this season’s events included adult prom, a Mr. Skagway pageant and live mural painting nights by a local artist.

Bar manager Deb Potter remembers how cruise ship crew would pop in and play instruments that were left out. Beach night used to include actual sand on the floor until the janitor got too tired of the clean up.

Red Onion started Skagway’s first drag show about 20 years ago, before drag was widely accepted. The funds raised went to a specific community member in need.

“It started off as not necessarily queer focused, but just you know, community members who wanted to perform,” Potter said. “Straight men who were willing to perform in drag for the benefit of their community. And it was always just the best night of the year. And it continues to be the best night of the year, even though there’s all these other drag show events that are quite a bit more professional.”

Going back further, Potter pointed out that when Wrentmore opened the Red Onion in 1980, there weren’t many female business owners, and none who owned a bar.

“And she took a lot of flak for it,” Potter said. “And she just created this amazing place that is so dear, not only to people who are here in Skagway, but to tens of millions. I’m so proud of Jan for doing this. And I also really look forward to seeing what Tracy, who is also another independent businesswoman, what she’s going to be able to do with it.”

Tracy LaBarge is the new owner who lives in Juneau. She also owns Tracy’s King Crab Shack. But once upon a time, she frequented the Red Onion and worked Skagway’s popcorn wagon as a second job. She first came to Skagway in 1992. She says owning the Red Onion is a dream come true.

As the new proprietor, LaBarge addressed some major concerns held by many Skagwegians, such as whether she believes in the Red Onion ghost, Lydia,

“Heck yeah, and I’m hoping to meet her,” LaBarge said.

She also said she hopes the bed pans lining the wall will stay.

The festivities went late into the night, with both the old and new owners present. As a party favor, many left the saloon with an uncut red onion.