- 1885

First Court House in Juneau. Alaska State Library, Wickersham State Historic Sites Photo Collection, Winter & Brown, P277-018-088.

Juneau’s first school in Log Cabin Church, 1885. Alaska State Library, ASL Place File Photos, ASL-Juneau-Schools-01, P01-2208.

In Juneau a rented building served as the first courthouse and occasional church services and other civic events were held there too. The Juneau Public School System began as a one teacher, one-room school in a log cabin starting May 25, although missionaries had already held schools for Native children.

The Treadwell 120-stamp mill reached full production, producing over $280,000 that year.  The company also located a sawmill for its operations north of the property in the future townsite of Douglas (now the site of the Juneau Montessori School).

The U.S. Land Office granted a townsite north of the Treadwell property, a survey was made, and lots were ready to be sold for the new town of “Edwardsville”, named for H.H. “Dad” Edwards, one of the first White settlers there in 1881.  By the next year, the town was generally referred to as “Douglas City,” which stuck, although later shortened to just plain Douglas (in reference its location on Douglas Island).

New gold discoveries in Berners Bay were creating excitement. A huge landslide in the Gold Creek basin killed 5 men, the worst disaster in local history to date.