- 1889

Basin road up to Perseverance mine.  Alask State Library, ASL Place File Photos, ASL-Juneau-Vicinity-Perseverance-20a

A 10-stamp mill began operation in Silver Bow Basin for the Eastern Alaska Mining & Milling Company, the predecessor of the later world-class Alaska Gastineau Mine at Perseverance.

A road completed to the area was then the longest road (4 miles) in Alaska. The first horse and buggy arrived in Juneau to provide transportation to the Perseverance site. The first telephone line in Alaska was installed to connect the Perseverance mine with its office in Juneau.

Since the first discovery of gold in Silver Bow Basin in 1880, it was estimated that $3 million worth of the metal has been taken out of the placers and lodes along Gold Creek. John Treadwell sold his interest in the Treadwell mine for $1.4 million to a group of international investors which formed the Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Co. Two other mining promotion failures, however, give Alaska mining a black eye to potential investors, the Alaska Union Mining Company and the Bear’s Nest Mine, both on Douglas Island.

Quaker missionaries from Oregon established a school in Douglas for Native children and the Treadwell company opened a school near the Mexican Mine for employees’ children.

Local newspaper editorial bemoaned record rainfall as having given “a false impression of our average weather” to the large number of summer tourists.