During the Alaska Gold Rush, communities were erupting from the earth and then ‘going ghost’ so fast there was no time to elect mayors or get United States Marshals assigned to the boomtown. There was not much ‘law’ but plenty of ‘order.’ If you violated the standards of a boomtown, a miners’ council was created from those who there at the moment. There were no jails so if you committed a minor offense, you were ordered out of town. This was known as ‘getting a blue ticket.’ For more serious crimes, there were whippings.
[From THE HUMAN FACE OF THE ALASKA GOLD RUSH.]