History & Culture
The state museum and Capitol, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian art downtown, and the gold mines that built the capital, from ruins on Douglas Island to a mill up Basin Road.
Juneau-Douglas City Museum
A small museum of Juneau and Douglas history across from the Capitol, in the building where Alaska first flew the 49-star flag in 1959.
Last Chance Mining Museum
The preserved compressor building of the Alaska-Juneau gold mine, about 2 miles up Basin Road in the Gold Creek valley.
Treadwell Mine Historic Trail
Forest paths through the ruins of the Treadwell gold mines on Douglas Island, next to Sandy Beach and the site of the 1917 cave-in.
Walking map: the docks and downtown Juneau
The cruise berths line the waterfront along South Franklin Street. Downtown rises steeply behind them: the shops, saloons and the Walter Soboleff Building are on the flat blocks near the water, and the Capitol and St. Nicholas Church are uphill.
Map: USGS elevation; streets and buildings © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Featured history articles
The best reading online about Juneau's past, from public radio, the city, tribal organizations and local historians. Each opens on the original site.
History of Juneau
The city's own overview runs from Tlingit fishing camps on Gastineau Channel to Chief Kowee's ore samples and the 1880 strike by Joe Juneau and Richard Harris. It also covers the town's string of names (Harrisburgh, Rockwell, Juneau City), the Treadwell and A-J mines, and the 1906 capital move.
Read on juneau.org ↗Unlikely mine district now Alaska capital
A short history of the gold find, explaining how Auk Tlingit leader Kowee pushed Sitka engineer George Pilz to send two discouraged prospectors back to Gastineau Channel. It follows Juneau and Harris to Silver Bow Basin and the 160-acre townsite they marked out in October 1880.
Read on miningnewsnorth.com ↗1917 Treadwell Mine cave-in remembered a century later
Written for the centennial, this piece explains how seawater found a fault and weakened rock pillars under Douglas Island until an extreme tide on April 21, 1917 brought the workings down. About 350 men got out in time, but the collapse ended work for nearly a thousand miners.
Read on ktoo.org ↗How the Treadwell Mine collapsed 100 years ago
The chair of the Treadwell preservation society describes the four Treadwell mines, once the biggest gold operation in the world, and the night in 1917 when Gastineau Channel poured into three of them. A new concrete bulkhead saved the Ready Bullion mine and about 150 jobs.
Read on juneauempire.com ↗Why is the state capital Juneau and not Anchorage?
This Curious Juneau episode traces the capital from Sitka to booming gold-town Juneau, ordered in 1900 and carried out in 1906. It also covers the long run of failed votes and bills to move it closer to Anchorage.
Read on ktoo.org ↗Language matters: The alleged disappearance of Áak'w Kwáan, T'aaku Kwáan
A State Library researcher challenges the past-tense way local signs describe the Tlingit peoples of the Juneau area, as if they had simply left. The piece argues that the Áak'w and T'aaku people are still here, and it recalls the 1962 burning of the Douglas Indian Village.
Read on alaskapublic.org ↗City and Borough of Juneau apologizes for 1962 burning of Douglas Indian Village
In October 2024 the city formally apologized to the Douglas Indian Association for burning the village that stood where Savikko Park and Douglas Harbor are now. Tribal leaders welcomed the apology but called it a first step toward fuller recognition.
Read on alaskapublic.org ↗Tlingit Villages (Áak'w Kwáan & T'aaku Kwáan)
The tribe's own page lists the ancestral village sites around Juneau and Douglas, including the downtown Juneau Indian Village, the Douglas village at today's Sandy Beach, and Auke Village. Read it alongside the downtown totem trail to see whose land the port sits on.
Read on diataku.com ↗Juneau's deadliest landslide tore through downtown like a 'mighty grinder.' Now it's a fading memory.
After days of heavy rain, part of Mount Roberts slid onto South Franklin Street on November 22, 1936. It buried boarding houses and killed 15 people. The story revisits Juneau's worst natural disaster, steps from where cruise passengers now walk.
Read on alaskapublic.org ↗AK: Did Wyatt Earp really lose his pistol in Juneau?
A reporter checks the Red Dog Saloon's famous claim that marshals took Wyatt Earp's revolver as he passed through Juneau in 1900. Archives, museum records and newspaper dates don't support it, though the owner happily keeps the legend.
Read on alaskapublic.org ↗Summaries are ours. Each article opens on the original site.
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