Long before European settlement in the Americas, the Gastineau Channel was a favorite fishing ground for local Tlingit Indians, known then as the Auke and Taku tribes, who had inhabited the surrounding area for thousands of years. The native cultures are rich with artistic traditions including carving, weaving, orating, singing and dancing, and Juneau has become a major social center for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of Southeast Alaska.

In 1880, Sitka mining engineer George Pilz offered a reward to any local chief who could lead him to gold-bearing ore. Chief Kowee arrived with some ore and several prospectors were sent to investigate. On their first trip, to Gold Creek, they found little deposits of interest. However, at Chief Kowee’s urging Pilz sent Joe Juneau and Richard Harris back to the Gastineau Channel, directing them to Snow Slide Gulch (the head of Gold Creek) where they found nuggets “as large as peas and beans,” in Harris’ words.

On October 18, 1880, the two men marked a 160-acre (0.6 km²) town site where soon a mining camp appeared. Within a year, the camp became a small town, the first to be founded after Alaska’s purchase by the United States. The town was originally called Harrisburg, after Richard Harris; some time later, its name was changed to Rockwell. In 1881, the miners met and renamed the town Juneau, after Joe Juneau. In 1906, after the diminution of the whaling and fur trade, Sitka, the original capital of Alaska, declined in importance and the seat of government was moved to Juneau.

Originally fishing grounds for local Tlingit Indians, the Gastineau Channel area became a focus of attention in the late 1800 ’s when a Tlingit named Kowee of the Auk Tlingit Tribe provided gold ore samples in response to a reward offered by George Pilz, a Sitka engineer. Pilz grubstaked prospectors Richard Harris and Joseph Juneau in August 1880. They found plenty of color in Gold Creek, but did not follow the gold to its source. At Kowee’s urging, Pilz sent the pair back again. Harris and Juneau climbed Snow Slide Gulch at the head of Gold Creek and looked down into the mother lode of Quartz Gulch and Silver Bow Basin.

On October 18, they staked a 160 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. On Douglas Island, the ground reverberated with 960 stamps of the world-renowned Treadwell Gold Mining Company.

Treadwell production peaked in 1915. 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 1921. A-J was halted by the war in 1944. Juneau was established as Alaska’s capital in 1906 when the government was transferred from Sitka. Today, federal, state and local government employs one out of every two Juneau workers. Tourism is the largest private employer and continues to grow. Commercial fishing and mining continue to play a role in Juneau’s economy.

In 1954, Alaskans passed a measure to move the capital north. Robert Atwood, then publisher of the Anchorage Daily News and an Anchorage ‘booster,’ was an early leader in capital move efforts–efforts which many in Juneau and Fairbanks resisted. One provision required the new capital to be at least 30 miles from Anchorage and Fairbanks, to prevent either city from having undue influence. In the end Juneau remained the capital. In the 1970s, voters passed a plan to move the capital to Willow, a town 70 miles north of Anchorage. But pro-Juneau people there and in Fairbanks got voter to also approve a measure (the FRANK Initiative) requiring voter approval of all bondable construction costs before building could begin. Alaskans later voted against spending the estimated $900 million. A 1984 “ultimate” capital-move vote also failed, as did a 1996 vote.

Alaskans thus several times voted on moving their capital, but Juneau remains the capital. Once Alaska was granted statehood in 1959, Juneau grew with the growth of state government. Growth accelerated remarkably after the construction of the Alaska Pipeline in 1977, state budget flush with oil revenues; Juneau expanded for a time due to growth in state government jobs, but that growth slowed considerably in the 1980s. The state demographer expects the borough to grow very slowly over the next twenty years. Cruise ship tourism rocketed upward from about 230,000 passengers in 1990 to nearly 1,000,000 in 2006 as cruise lines built more and larger ships”even ‘mega-ships’, sailing to Juneau seven days a week instead of six, over a longer season, but this primarily summer industry provides few year-round jobs.

Juneau is larger in area than the state of Delaware and was, for many years, the country’s largest city. Juneau continues to be the only U.S. state capital located on an international border: it is bordered on the east by Canada. Written history of the Juneau area began with the arrival of Russian, European and American explorers, adventurers, gold-seekers, trappers and traders, but things really started to get interesting in 1880 when Chief Kowee of the Auk tribe showed Joseph Juneau and Richard Harris where to find gold.

The 160 acre site that they established marked the first time in Alaska history when a town was founded because of a gold strike. Fortunately Juneau became strong enough to resist turning into a ghost town, the fate of so many gold boom sites. Juneau was named as the capital of the Territory of Alaska in 1906 and the State of Alaska in 1959. The gold-bearing ore miners were able to just pick out of local streams was quickly exhausted, but hard rock mining was established in both Juneau and neighboring Douglas at the Treadwell, A-J and Alaska-Gastineau mines. The hard rock era lasted until World War II and fueled a thriving local community.

In the roughly 80 years between the founding of Juneau and statehood, Juneau underwent major development first as a ‘gold town,’ then as a government center. Today, Juneau acts as a regional hub for Southeast Alaskan communities from Metlakatla in the south to Yakutat in the north. The Juneau-Douglas City Museum is a great place to learn more about the history of Juneau, as is the Juneau History Page on the City and Borough of Juneau’s homepage. The Sealaska Heritage Foundation is an excellent resource for those interested in the history of Southeast Alaskan Native cultures.