From Mining Camp to Alaska's Capital; Why Juneau is Juneau

Harris & Juneau on a cigar box lid

Between posting the first part of this two parter about the naming of Juneau I thought I would re-read some of the State of Alaska material on our pals, Juneau and Harris.  Hey, maybe I was too hard on these guys.  What looks like the official state history of Gold Mining in Alaska has a great article that makes these gentlemen look like distinguished mining engineers who spent their spare time doing good works for their fellow man when they were not reading the classics.  I guess my version is the unsanitized one.  Official history likes to paint the big names of the past as heroes and not ne’er do wells.

Whatever the official version is, I say Harris and Juneau were just what you would expect in a rough and tough, booze and bimbos, spit in your eye town.

Alaskan Hard Rock Miners

Harris and Juneau went back to what was now called Gold Creek and continued to mine for gold.  Pilz paid his prospectors for most of the rights to the 160 acre mining camp they staked out at the mouth of Gold Creek.  Juneau and Harris hung around the camp and helped establish the first new town in Alaska since the US Congress paid Russia $7.2  million in 1867 for Alaska in the world’s best real estate deal.

Forming the town and managing it were very informal.  No one really cared what the mining camp was called and it had a series of names.  First people called it Harrisburg after Richard Harris.  Then George Pilz got his oar in the water and the camp became Pilzburg.  New on the scene was Lieutenant Commander Charles Rockwell who was either the Executive Officer or Commanding Officer of the USS Jamestown, a US Navy ship. Jamestown was sent to Alaska to show the US flag and act as a stabilizing force in the Wild West atmosphere of the New Frontier.  By the way, LCDR Rockwell must have been a fine fellow because he later became a Rear Admiral.

Rockwell’s position as the civil  authority was honored by changing the name of the town and for a while it was called Rockwell.  I guess Joe Juneau must have felt left out because in 1881 he told all of the miners that he was sponsoring a meeting at one of the town’s gin mills where everyone was going to settle on a name for the town for once and for all.  And by the way, the drinks were on him.

Panning for Gold around Juneau

There were maybe 75 miners and other citizens at the affair and, of course, since Joe Juneau was paying for the booze they didn’t exactly jump right in to the voting thing.  Elections are a thirsty business as any Chicago Alderman or New York City Councilman can attest.

Red Dog Saloon Juneau; our Boys would have loved it

After an appropriately lengthy time to consider the matter the electors decided that the town was to be called Juneau City instead of Harrisburg, which was proposed for a comeback.  The City part got dropped over time and what became first the Territorial Capital and later the State Capital was just plain Juneau, America’s biggest city.

Virtue triumphs once again.

Juneau circa 1895

ALASKA TALES: WHY JUNEAU WAS NAMED JUNEAU

Juneau, looking out Gastineau Channel

Quick.  What is the biggest city in the United States?  Nope to whatever you guessed; it is Juneau Alaska which is bigger than Rhode Island or Delaware.  In fact it is almost as large as both Delaware and Rhode Island.

Actually, you probably guessed correctly since this post is about Juneau but some folks cannot see even the most obvious clue.

What I really want to talk about is why Juneau was even settled and why it is named Juneau.  After all, this city was earlier named Harrisburg, Pilzburg and Rockwell before it was named Juneau.  Rockwell was an Navy Lieutenant Commander who came on the scene after the city was already a going concern.  The other fellows were part of the reason Juneau is where it is.

George Pilz (sometimes spelled Pelz)  was a hustler in Sitka, which in 1880 was a big deal in the new Alaska Territory.  Today polite people call Pilz an entrepreneur  but he was a tough customer who held court in Sitka’s bar & bordello precinct.  He had a standing offer to pay big bucks, $1000 if you can believe some stories, to any local Native Chief who could lead him or his employees to a big find of gold ore.

Joe Juneau, Chief Kowee, Richard Harris

Chief Kowee, an Auke Indian, showed up with some ore and Pilz sent a team out with Kowee to prove out the find.  The first guys didn’t strike gold, they struck out.  Chief Kowee was persistent and convinced Pilz that it was at least worth another try to find the source of the gold ore.  Pilz hired Joe Juneau and Richard Harris, a pair of Good Ol Boys from the local bar scene and outfitted them with tools and rations sufficient to grubstake them for a lengthy search.

Joe and Richard were not what you would call eager beavers and swapped their rations for some hooch, local booze made by the Tlingit Indians of the Hoochinoo tribe.  Hooch.  I am sure you have heard of that.  Hooch was also called Squirrel Whiskey both because it made you nutty and it also made you want to climb a tree.  Juneau and Harris camped out on the beach with their hooch and forgot about the hard work of prospecting.

Chief Kowee remained focused on the reward and ratted out Juneau and Harris to Pilz.  Pilz was not known for his sense of humor. He counseled his hung over miners that their health might suffer if they did not get back in their canoe with the Chief and find that gold.

Alaskan Gold Nuggets

The reluctant miners paddled up a creek to a place called Silver Bow Basin where they found some gold nuggets as big as peas and beans according to a reported comment by Harris. There was also lots of quartz rock with visible streaks of gold.  They hammered away at the rock until they filled their canoe with around 1000 pounds of gold bearing ore and took off.  For Canada, not Sitka.  The whole story about the city of Juneau might have ended there if some of Pilz’ men hadn’t run into the pair and took them and the ore back to Sitka.


More on the founding of Juneau and how it was named after Joe Juneau in my next post