When was juneau established




















River gravel below the peaks sparkled with yellow particles washed down from the mountain lodes. A German-born mining engineer, George Pilz, then working in the headquarters of the Territory—Sitka—grubstaked prospectors to search for gold and silver 2 in Southeastern.

When Chief Cowee of the Auk Tlingits brought in rich ore samples, Pilz sent out a party of miners to follow-up on the hopeful location. The party consisted of Joe Juneau and Richard Harris. They left Sitka in the summer of The two prospectors, with an Indian guide showing the way, located gold in Silver Bow Basin, on a stream they simply called Gold Creek. Since it was likely Joe Juneau could not read or write English, 8 Harris acted as recorder for the new town.

On October 18—Alaska Day—the men blocked out a acre townsite on the beach. The new mining district Harris named after himself —Harrisburgh. When the discovery became news, the U. Navy sent a steam launch to the Gastineau Channel area with the first small party of stampeders.

Charles Rockwell. A month later, Christmas of , 30 miners populated the area. One of the first town meetings was held in February It was then decided that since there were so many cities in America called Harrisburgh, the town name would be changed to honor the Navy commander. However, by the end of , Joe Juneau was complaining that nothing in the district had been named for him. During that first year, the area grew.

A number of general stores sprang up, China Joe started a bakery, a blacksmith shop and a drug store went into operation, plus several saloon doors swung open. Indians from surrounding tribes were attracted to the mining district, too.

By May alone, an estimated Indians and whites populated the town. Juneau grew steadily as the years went by. When many of the gold streams played out for the individual prospectors after a few seasons, mining and milling companies took over.

Not long after the Juneau discovery, gold was found across the channel on Douglas Island in December 17, From that discovery, and others, grew the famous Treadwell mines of the future. They found plenty of color in Gold Creek, but did not follow the gold to its source. On October 18, they staked a acre town site on the beach where, the following month, they were joined by the first boatloads of prospectors bound for the new strike on Gastineau Channel.

The stampede was on. The discovery was the first that resulted in the founding of an Alaskan town. Juneau grew from a boomtown to a center for large-scale hard-rock mining when the loose gold in the stream beds ran out.

On the mainland side of the Channel, two great mills were created: the Alaska-Juneau at the south end of Juneau and the Alaska-Gastineau at Thane, farther south. Treadwell production peaked in Two years later, a cave-in flooded three of the four mines, effectively ending the Treadwell era. In Juneau, the Alaska-Gastineau folded from high costs in During the prime 60 years of gold mining in the area Juneau was home to three of the world's largest gold mines: The Alaska Juneau, and the Alaska Gastineau mine, on the Juneau side of the Channel and the Treadwell mine on the Douglas island side.

The Treadwell mine was flooded in and finally closed in Joe Juneau continued his hunt for gold, heading for the Klondike in He died in Dawson in and his body was returned to Juneau to rest in the Evergreen Cemetery. Richard Harris lost most of his holdings and went to work for various Juneau mining companies.

He died in a sanitarium in Oregon in His body was also returned to Juneau and rests nearby that of Joe Juneau. Chief Kowee received little or no credit for his part in the Juneau gold rush. He died in his home in Juneau's Indian Village in



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