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