Today Juneau is the capital you have to earn — no highway delivers you; you fly the panhandle or sail the channel, and arrive in a town where the legislature and the glacier share a zip code. Its story runs from Dzántik'i Héeni through Kowee's tip, the Treadwell thunder, and the 1906 move to the roadless capital of the forty-ninth state. Wear a little of the capital that keeps its own company.
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.
Why People Visit Juneau Alaska
- Walk to the ice at Mendenhall Glacier — visitor center, Nugget Falls trail, and berg-dotted Mendenhall Lake, with guided treks and the ever-shifting ice caves for the ambitious.
- Ride the Mount Roberts Tramway from the cruise docks to the alpine, then hike higher.
- Cruise Tracy Arm Fjord's tidewater glaciers, or go whale watching on Stephens Passage and Auke Bay — summer humpbacks are close to a guarantee.
- Tour the Alaska State Capitol, pass the 1912 Governor's Mansion, and visit the Alaska State Museum and the 1894 St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church.
- Hike Perseverance Trail up Gold Creek past the mining ruins, or cross to Douglas Island for the Treadwell remains and Eaglecrest.
- See the salmon run at Macaulay Salmon Hatchery, find quiet at the Shrine of St. Thérèse, and end at the Red Dog Saloon.
- Fly the Juneau Icefield — flightseeing over 1,500 square miles of ice.
