GCHS History and Mission

History

Founded in 1956 and headquartered in Juneau, Alaska, the Gastineau Channel Historical Society (GCHS) is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote the history of the Gastineau Channel area,. operate the Last Chance Mining Museum, and care for the Sentinel Island Lighthouse. The GCHS also seeks to promote the preservation of historic buildings, monuments, markers, and other historic edifices in the Gastineau Channel area. The GCHS produces newsletters, publications, and programs, as well as organizes activities and host of other events associated with the history of the Gastineau Channel area.

The original corporation lapsed in the late 1970s. In 1984 a group of individuals reorganized the Society and reinstated its non-profit corporation status.

 

Mission

The mission of the Gastineau Channel Historical Society is the discovery, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge about the history of the Gastineau Channel area of Southeast Alaska.
The area of historical interest includes traditional lands known as ‘Lingit Ani.

Board of Directors and Program Managers

Directors are elected by the members at the Society’s annual meeting.

  • Gary Gillette President, Sentinel Island Lighthouse Manager
  • Rich Mattson Vice President, Website Manager, Researcher
  • Kristie Swanson Secretary, Membership Manager
  • Malin Babcock Co-Treasurer
  • Kathryn Cohen Co-Treasurer
  • Paula Johnson Director, Researcher
  • Laury Scandling Director, Newsletter Editor
  • Renee Hughes Last Chance Mining Museum Operations Manager

ANNUAL BOARD MEETINGS

The 2025 GCHS Annual Meeting was held Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Valley Library. Life on the Slime Line, a history of the Juneau Cold Storage, was presented by “citizen historian*” and lifetime resident Kimberly Metcalfe who worked four years at the JCS. Metcalfe wrote the fascinating centerpiece of this fall’s newsletter (now available). As she says, the seafood processing plant stunk, but to her it “smelled like money.”
*Metcalfe is the editor of In Sisterhood: The History of Camp 2 of the Alaska Native Sisterhood

The 2024 GCHS Annual Meeting was held Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Douglas Library. The History of the Douglas Indian Village was presented by board member Laury Scandling, with first hand accounts of the village burning in 1962 given by Jackie Schopert and Robert Paulo. The thriving village and its eventual dispossession by a city-ordered burning in 1962 was documented in the 2023 Fall/Winter edition.

The 2023 Annual Meeting was held via Zoom on Sunday, November 5 and featured a special presentation  “25 Years of Preservation: Sentinel Island Lighthouse” by President Gary Gillette.  Recounting the history of the station and a brief overview of Alaskan lighthouse operations, Gillette focused on the society’s acquisition, renovation, and future plans of the facility.  When finished, a link for the talk will be posted on our website.

GCHS 2022 Annual Meeting keynote presentation:  “Re-evaluating the “Four Story Pole”
Dr. Emily Moore, Associate Professor of Art History at Colorado State University and Associate Curator of the Gregory Allicar Museum at CSU, presented a fascinating account of the historic “Four Story Pole” (located in front of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum), in which she revealed a forgotten, little-known interpretation of the pole’s true story, created by master carver John Wallace between 1939-1942. She is also the author of Proud Raven, Panting Wolf: Carving Alaska’s New Deal Totem Poles, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018; available at Mendenhall Public Library.)  A two part summary of her talk can be found in the Gastineau Heritage News Fall/Winter 2022 and the Spring/Summer 2023 issues. Her talk was also presented at SeaAlaska Heritage Institute on July 12, 2022.

Gastineau Channel Historical Society’s presentation at the 2021 Alaska Historical Society’s annual meeting
Two of our members combined with a community team of Treadwell historians to present Treadwell, the impermanent town that left a permanent impact on Alaska’s development at the October Alaska Historical Society conference!  Our original presentation at the Alaska Historical Society conference is now available to view on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mixWZGTwII&t=14s , as the second presentation in that session (about 21:52 minutes into the session).  Our presentation team is also available to give this program for interested organizations    For more information on the program or about our society, contact us at juneauhistory@gmail.org.