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