"margaret's Juneau Page" a Juneau Travel Page by margaretvn

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The Gastineau Channel region was a fishing ground for the Tlingit Indians in the late 1800’s at a time when prospectors were hunting for gold in Southeast Alsaka.

A mining engineer called George Pilz offered a reward to any Indian who could take him to gold-bearing ore. It was Chief Kowee who showed him ore from the Gastineau Channel. Two men Harris and Juneau investigated the lode. They reached the Channel in 1880 and sampled the gravels but did not follow the gold to its source. They were sent back later and they climbed Snow Slide Gulch at the head of Gold Creek and looked down on the mother lode of Quartz Gulch and Silver Bow Basin. On October 18th they staked a 160 acre town site on the beach and were soon joined by boatloads of prospectors. Within a few years Juneau was the centre of large-scale hardrock mining. At the peak time there were 2 great mills on the mainland side of the channel and on Douglas Island the Treadwell Gold Mining Company. In 1917 a cave-in flooded 3 of the 4 mines and this as good as closed the Treadwell era. In Juneau the last of the mills was closed by the war in 1944. The government moved from Sitka to Juneau in 1906 making Juneau Alaska’s capital.

We only made a short stop in Juneau during a cruise in the Inside Passage. We want to go back one day.