The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the
Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been
the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-Alaska
Territory was moved from Sitka. The municipality unified in 1970 when the
city of Juneau merged with the city of Douglas and the surrounding borough
to form the current home rule municipality.
The area of Juneau is larger than that of Rhode Island and Delaware
individually and almost as large as the two states combined. Downtown Juneau
is nestled at the base of Mount Juneau and across the channel from Douglas
Island. As of the 2000 census, the City and Borough had a population of 30
711. The U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 population estimate for the City and
Borough was 30,988.
Juneau is named after gold prospector Joe Juneau, though the place was for a
time called Rockwell and then Harrisburg (after Juneau's co-prospector,
Richard Harris — several books credit the Tlingit Chief Kowee with showing
these prospectors where the gold was). The Tlingit name of the town is
Dzántik'i Héeni "river where the flounders gather", and Auke Bay just north
of Juneau proper is called Aak'w "little lake" in Tlingit. The Taku River,
just south of Juneau, was named after the cold t'aakh wind, which
occasionally blows down from the mountains.
Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging 16 feet (4.9 m),
below steep mountains about 3,500 to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) high. Atop these
mountains is the Juneau Icefield, a large ice mass from which about 30
glaciers flow; two of these, the Mendenhall Glacier and the Lemon Creek
Glacier, are visible from the local road system; the Mendenhall glacier has
been generally retreating; its front face is declining both in width and
height.
The current Alaska State Capitol is an office building in downtown Juneau,
originally built as the Federal and Territorial Building in 1931. Originally
housing federal government offices, the federal courthouse, and a post
office, it became the home of the Alaska Legislature and the offices for the
governor of Alaska and lieutenant governor of Alaska. Through the years,
there has been discussion on relocating the seat of state government and
building a new capitol, without significant development.
History
Long before European settlement in the Americas, the Gastineau Channel was a
favorite fishing ground for local Tlingit Indians, known then as the Auke
and Taku tribes, who had inhabited the surrounding area for thousands of
years. The native cultures are rich with artistic traditions including
carving, weaving, orating, singing and dancing, and Juneau has become a
major social center for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of Southeast
Alaska.
In 1880, Sitka mining engineer George Pilz offered a reward to any local
chief who could lead him to gold-bearing ore. Chief Kowee arrived with some
ore and several prospectors were sent to investigate. On their first trip,
to Gold Creek, they found deposits of little interest. However, at Chief
Kowee's urging Pilz sent Joe Juneau and Richard Harris back to the Gastineau
Channel, directing them to Snow Slide Gulch (the head of Gold Creek) where
they found nuggets "as large as peas and beans," in Harris' words.
On October 18, 1880, the two men marked a 160-acre (0.65 km2) town site
where soon a mining camp appeared. Within a year, the camp became a small
town, the first to be founded after Alaska's purchase by the United States.
The town was originally called Harrisburg, after Richard Harris; some time
later, its name was changed to Rockwell, after Lt. Com. Charles Rockwell. In
1881, the miners met and renamed the town Juneau, after Joe Juneau. In 1906,
after the diminution of the whaling and fur trade, Sitka, the original
capital of Alaska, declined in importance and the seat of government was
moved to Juneau. Juneau was the largest city in Alaska during the inter-war
years, passing Fairbanks in the 1920 census and displaced by Anchorage in
1950.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area
of 3,255.0 square miles (8,430 km2), making it the second-largest
municipality in the United States by area (the largest is Sitka, Alaska). 2
716.7 square miles (7,036 km2) of it is land and 538.3 square miles (1,394
km2) of it (16.54%) is water.
Central (downtown) Juneau is located at 58°18′07″N 134°25
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