Juneau History

Native Peoples of the Juneau Area

For thousands of years before European settlement in Alaska, the Gastineau Channel was a favorite fishing ground for the native Tlingit Indians. This tribe, which was then known as the Auke and Taku tribes, enjoyed rich artistic traditions that included carving, weaving, orating, singing and dancing.

The Tlingit culture is multifaceted and complex, a characteristic of Northwest Pacific Coast peoples with access to easily exploited rich resources. In Tlingit culture a heavy emphasis is placed upon family and kinship, and on a rich tradition of oratory. Wealth and economic power are important indicators of status, but so is generosity and proper behavior, all signs of "good breeding" and ties to aristocracy. Art and spirituality are incorporated in nearly all areas of Tlingit culture, with even everyday objects such as spoons and storage boxes decorated and imbued with spiritual power and historical beliefs of the Tlingits.

Tlingit society is divided into two kinship groups, the Raven and the Eagle. These in turn are divided into numerous clans that are subdivided into lineages or house groups. These groups have heraldic crests, that are displayed on totem poles, canoes, feast dishes, house posts, weavings, jewelry and other art forms.

The Purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire

The first European contact with Alaska occurred in 1741, when Vitus Bering led an expedition for the Russian Navy aboard the St. Peter. After his crew returned to Russia bearing sea otter pelts judged to be the finest fur in the world, small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of Siberia towards the Aleutian islands.

The first permanent European settlement was established in 1784, and the Russian-American Company carried out an expanded colonization program during the early to mid-1800s. The city of New Archangel on Kodiak Island was Alaska's first capital, but beginning in 1808, Sitka was named the capital of the Russian territory. The Russians never fully colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable.

In the late 1850s, Russia was in a difficult financial position and feared losing Russian Alaska without compensation in some future conflict, especially to the British, whom they had fought a decade earlier in the Crimean War. While Alaska attracted little interest at the time, the population of nearby British Columbia began to increase rapidly in the late 1850s.

The Russians feared that in any future conflict with Britain, their hard-to-defend region might become a prime target, and would be easily captured. This Great Powers calculus led Tsar Alexander II to sell the territory. Perhaps in hopes of starting a bidding war, both the British and the Americans were approached. The British, however, expressed little interest in buying Alaska. The Russians then turned their attention to the United States.

Two years after the end of the Civil War, Secretary of State William H. Seward began negotiations with the Russians, and came to an agreement to purchase the Alaskan territory on March 30, 1867 for $7.2 million. While most public opinion was in favor of the purchase, several newspapers editorialized against the extravagant sums paid for the territory. They derided it as "Seward's Folly," "Seward's Icebox," and Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden."

The United States Senate ratified the treaty on April 9, 1867, by a vote of 37-2. However, the appropriation of money needed to purchase Alaska was delayed by more than a year due to opposition in the House of Representatives. The House finally approved the appropriation in July 1868, by a vote of 113-48.

William H. Seward

The Founding of the City of Juneau

German immigrant and mining engineer George Pilz played a pivotal role in the founding of the city of Juneau. Born in 1845 and educated at the prestigious mining academy of Freiberg, he left Germany in 1867 to avoid conscription for the Franco-Prussian War. He made his way to the Michigan copper ranges, and by 1869 he arrived in California. He was an able engineer, but a difficult man to work with, and as a result he frequently moved from position to position.

In 1878 Pilz met with former colleagues who spoke about the potential for gold finds in Alaska. Pilz found capital for the project and in February of 1879 moved to Sitka to start construction of a mine and mill at Silver Bay. However, the gold found in the area was not of commercial quantities, and the mine and mill were closed down.

In 1880, Pilz offered a reward to any local Tlingit chief who could lead him to gold-bearing ore. Chief Kowee arrived with samples of ore from Cold Creek (which today flows through the city of Juneau), and Kowee led the experienced prospectors Joe Juneau and Richard Harris to investigate. After trading much of their grubstake (rations) for alcohol, the prospectors returned to Sitka with news that the deposits found were of little interest.

At the urging of Chief Kowee, Pilz sent the trio back to the Juneau area, and this time Chief Kowee led Juneau and Harris to Snow Slide Gulch, which is the head of Cold Creek in the Silver Bow Basin. Here they found nuggets "as large as peas and beans," in the word of Harris.

In October 18, 1880, Juneau and Harris established a 160-acre town site where a mining camp grew. Within a year, the camp became a small town, which was the first town to be founded after the purchase of Alaska.

Originally known as Harrisburg, the name of the town was later changed to Rockwell. In 1881, the miners once again decided to change the name of the town, this time to Juneau, in honor of Joe Juneau.

Joe Juneau

Juneau in the 20th Century

As whaling declined in the late 19th century due to the discovery of oil, and as the fur trade ebbed, Sitka was replaced by Juneau as the capital of the Alaskan territory in 1906.

In the early part of the 20th century, Juneau grew from a boomtown to a center for large-scale hard-rock mining when the loose gold in the stream beds ran out. Two large mills were established on the mainland side of the Gastineau Channel south of the city, while the Treadwell Gold Mining Company established operations on Douglas Island. Gold production in the Juneau area began to decline by 1915, as mining accidents flooded the mines.

During the inter-war years, Juneau was the largest city in the territory, having surpassed Fairbanks in the 1920 census. During World War II, the US government invested $3 billion in Alaskan infrastructure, and brought in 300,000 troops and support personnel to prosecute the war effort.

As Alaska's population grew substantially after the war, rivalries between the territory's larger cities became more intense. In 1954, Alaskans passed a measure to move the capital north. One provision of this measure required that the new capital be at lease 30 miles from either Anchorage or Fairbanks to prevent either city from having undue influence. In the event, Juneau remained the capital. Other attempts to move the capital were proposed in the 1970s, in 1894 and in 1996, but all measures failed to pass.

Alaska was granted statehood in 1959, and Juneau grew along with the increase in state government. During and after the construction of the Trans Alaskan Pipeline in the 1970s, Juneau experienced another spurt in growth in state government jobs, due to the influx of new oil revenues. However, oil-fueled growth ebbed in the 1980s.

Today's Juneau

In the 21st century, the city and bureau of Juneau enjoys a population of over 31,000 people, the second largest city in the state. Juneau is also the second largest city (by square miles) in the country--larger in area than the state of Delaware. While half of the working population works for either the Federal, State or City government, tourism is the largest private sector employer, followed by commercial fishing and mining activities.

Cruise ship tourism has been a spur to the local economy. In 1990, the city hosted 230,000 passengers; in 2009, the city hosted just under 1 million cruise ship passengers.