- 1894

Telephone service connected Juneau and Douglas. The electric company built a hydroelectric power generation plant by the Gold Creek delta in the spring, producing its first power September 20. The charge was $1.50 a month for each 16-candlepower light bulb, with service until 10 p.m. If all night service was wanted the charge was $2.

Dr. William Hammond who had been practicing medicine in Juneau, left on a steamer in February and was reported to be a bigamist. Three of his wives had gotten together and were waiting for him on the dock in Seattle (no report of what subsequently prevailed.)

February was also a month for a couple of spectacular snow slides. February 9 there was an immense snow slide half a mile up Basin Road filling the valley and breaking off trees and telephone and electric light poles and pushing 400 feet up the opposite side of the valley. There was a whirlwind of blowing snow over Juneau for some time.  A week later another immense snow slide  occurred south of town. The water in the channel was thrown into the air and churned into foam and floating snow made a bridge clear across the channel until the tide swept it away.

A school house was built along Calhoun Avenue for Alaska Native students, which served until 1912 when the new Governor’s Mansion was built on the site.

In August Pinkerton detectives arrested thieves who had stolen gold precipitates from the Treadwell chlorination works, worth $10 – $12,000.  By mid-August about $8,600 of the values had been recovered.The Douglas sawmill, owned by the Treadwell company, burned to the ground August 13.  The company planned to rebuilt it immediately.

A territorial convention held in Juneau in November elected T. S. Nowell as an unofficial delegate to Congress. Among the measures he was to seek from Congress were: a fully accredited delegate, an amended code of laws more suited to the needs of Alaska, a high license and local option system for liquor control, the right of Alaskans to homestead land, and better mail service to the Yukon.

The Alaska Search Light newspaper was established in Juneau December 17. The Juneau Ferry & Navigation Company incorporated in December with 4 steamers to carry passengers between Juneau, Douglas, Treadwell, and Sheep Creek.

LONE FISHERMAN off for Sheep Creek, August 1st, 1907. Alaska State Library, ASL Place File Photos, ASL-Juneau-Ferries-03 P01-1085.