Government arrived while the stamps were still falling. In 1906 the capital of the District of Alaska moved from Sitka — the old Russian capital — to booming Juneau; the Governor's Mansion rose in 1912, the first territorial legislature met here in 1913, and the marble-columned Capitol opened in 1931. When statehood came on January 3, 1959, Juneau became a state capital — still without a road to anywhere, a distinction it keeps on purpose and by geography alike.
North of town, the ice does the advertising. Mendenhall Glacier flows thirteen miles down from the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Icefield to a lake dotted with bergs, with Nugget Falls thundering beside it — close enough to walk to from a visitor center that was, in 1962, the first the U.S. Forest Service ever built. The glacier is retreating, and the blue ice caves that form and collapse along its edge have become their own pilgrimage. South of town, Tracy Arm's fjord walls and tidewater glaciers make the day-boat run; overhead, flightseeing planes trace the icefield itself.
Why People Visit Juneau Alaska
Juneau is the capital of Alaska as a civic destination and a wilderness port in one — the only U.S. state capital with no road access, the 1931 Capitol, a walk-to glacier, whales in the channel, and gold-rush ruins on the mountainside. People come by ship and plane for the ice and the whales, and find a small stubborn capital that likes being hard to reach.
