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The
Founding of Juneau, Alaska
by
Nancy Warren Ferrell
"For
the most part, the vast spruce covered
mountains and protected waterways along
Gastineau Channel in Southeastern Alaska
laid untouched to the mid 1800s. Before
that, Tlingit Indian tribes fished the
rich salmon routes for centuries. And a
few well-known explorers had come before:
Men such as George Vancouver and John
Muir.
But
it was rumors of gold that lured
prospectors to the Gastineau Channel in
the 1870s. Sandwiched in quartz within
these coastal mountains, ran a 100-mile
belt of gold from Windham Bay to Berners
Bay. 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 in
Southeastern. Pilz offered substantial
rewards to the local Indians("100
pair of Hudson's Bay blankets, and work
for the tribe . . . ") 3for any
promising gold-bearing ore. 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 1880.
The
two prospectors, with an Indian guide
showing the way, located gold in Silver
Bow Basin, on a stream they simply called
Gold Creek. "We followed the gulch
down from the summit of the mountain into
the basin," Harris later said,
"and it was a beautiful sight to see
the large pieces of quartz, spangled over
with gold." This find was the first
major Alaskan gold discovery.
A
day after the discovery--October 4, 1880--the
miners wrote a "Code of Local Laws,"
and staked the mining discovery. Since it
was likely Joe Juneau could not read or
write English, Harris acted as recorder
for the new town. On October 18--Alaska
Day--the men blocked out a 160-acre
townsite on the beach. The new mining
district Harris named after himself --Harrisburgh.9
When
the discovery became news, the U.S. Navy
sent a steam launch to the Gastineau
Channel area with the first small party
of stampeders. The Navy detachment was
sent to keep order in the mining camp,11
and was under command of Lt. Com. Charles
Rockwell. A month later, Christmas of
1880, 30 miners populated the area. The
men feasted on clam soup, "Stikeen"
pot pie, and stuffed porcupine that first
Christmas dinner.
One
of the first town meetings was held in
February 1881. 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.Thus, "Rockwell"
became the new name. However, by the end
of 1881, Joe Juneau was complaining that
nothing in the district had been named
for him. Because he lobbied enough
support from the miners, they changed the
name of the town to Juneau, as it remains
today.
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 1881
alone, an estimated 450 Indians and 150
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, 1880. French
Canadian Pierre Erussard staked a rich
ledge of quartz in May of 1881 on Douglas.
From that discovery, and others, grew th
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. . . "a
place where the spirit can still soar" 
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