- 1897

Preparing for the trail; prospectors outfitting in Juneau, Alaska, 1898. Alaska State Library,  Winter and Pond Photo Collection, 1893-1943. P21-01.

Juneau merchants competed to attract business to outfit stampeders rushing to the Klondike gold fields. Local mines and businesses lose personnel who are also joining the gold rush.

In January, the entire camp was shocked by the shooting death of a deputy U. S. Marshal and the wounding of two other members of a posse during a gun battle on Admiralty Island. Earlier “Slim” Birch was in the federal  jail awaiting transfer to Sitka for trial when he was freed by masked men who surprised the jail guard.  They escaped by boat and were later found holed up in a cabin on the island.  When approached by a posse they opened fire to kill deputy William C. Watts and wounded another deputy and jail guard, who later recovered.  Birch was later captured at Funter Bay without further shooting and was then tried for murder.

Bicycling was becoming popular in Juneau as the planked streets were nice to ride upon. Sisters of St. Ann opened up a new school and hospital in Douglas. The federal district court was moved from Sitka to Juneau.

Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Company incorporated early in the year and included some of the first discovery claims (This was the official beginning of the company which grew to become the largest low-grade gold mine in the world at the peak of its production in the mid-1930s.)

For some time the Treadwell Company had issued green cardboard checks, worth $2 each in trade at its store but also used in general circulation on both sides of the channel. Local merchants were startled to learn in March that some of the checks have been counterfeited and the counterfeits circulated locally. The bogus checks are a little lighter green than the genuine ones and the signature of Superintendent Duncan was poorly reproduced.

Juneau’s first “sightseeing vehicle,” a 14-seat wagonette brought up in March, would be used to show visitors points of interest in the vicinity, including the mines along Basin Road.”

A post office was established September 16 at the mining camp of Sumdum, on Endicott Arm. A Tlingit Indian village near there had a population of 150 people in 1868.