- 1896

As this gold camp ended its 16th year, a survey of local business houses showed the following: 30 saloons, 2 variety theaters, 2 breweries, 3 newspapers and printing plants, 6 lodging houses,  10 attorneys, 9 general merchandise stores, 2 steam laundries, 8 miscellaneous merchandise stores, 1 cigar factories, 3 draying and freighting services, 4 tailors, 3 dentists, 3 physicians,  5 milliners and dressmakers, 5 hotels, 8 restaurants, 5 bakeries, 3 drug stores, 3 jewelers, 3 hardware stores, and 3 butcher shops.

Baseball game on 1st Juneau field by lower Gold Creek. Alaska State Library, J. Simpson MacKinnon Photo Collection, ca. 1880-1945. P14-II-208.

First baseball game was reported to have been held on John Calhoun’s cow pasture near the mouth of Gold Creek.

The Mexican mine added 60 stamps for a 120 stamp mill. Early in the year a government school was established at Treadwell when the Sisters of St. Ann opened a school in the Bear’s Nest boarding house in Douglas, near the Treadwell mine. It was expected that most pupils would be from Treadwell as they would be able to avoid the long walk to the Douglas public school. The old boarding house was owned by the Treadwell Company.

Steamship rate war reduced tickets Juneau – San Francisco to $5. Local fishermen began shipping halibut packed in glacier ice south to Puget Sound ports.

The electric company added a steam plant to its Gold Creek hydro plant to overcome winter water shortages. A big avalanche swept away the mill and several other buildings at the Perseverance mine in Silver Bow Basin. One person was lost.