The gold itself was mostly low-grade and locked in rock, which made Juneau a hard-rock town of stamp mills and tunnels rather than gold pans. Across the channel on Douglas Island, the Treadwell complex grew into one of the largest gold-mining operations on Earth — hundreds of stamps thundering day and night, company swimming pool and all — until April 1917, when the workings under the channel collapsed and the sea poured in. The Alaska-Juneau mine on the mainland carried on until 1944, and its ruins still climb the mountainside above town.
The water works just as hard. Humpback whales feed the length of Stephens Passage and Auke Bay — summer whale watching here is close to a guarantee — the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery walks visitors through the run, and bald eagles crowd the channel like gulls. Downtown, the Mount Roberts Tramway climbs from the cruise docks to the alpine, Perseverance Trail follows the old mining road up Gold Creek, the Red Dog Saloon pours under sawdust and swinging doors, and Eaglecrest — the city's own ski area on Douglas Island — turns the capital into a ski town every winter.
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.
