- 1908

The city of Juneau rebuilt its city dock and went into the coal business to reduce recent price increases by two private companies. It also sold gasoline and oil in competition with a local hardware store.

Fishwheel on the Taku River, Alaska. May 5, 1908, John N. Cobb Photograph collection PH Coll 418 -2572, Univ. of Washi. Libraries, Special Collections

The first fish wheel was employed on the Taku River to catch salmon for the Taku Harbor cannery. After catching only a few dozen sockeye and several thousand trout, the wheel was removed, the only commercial trial of that gear in southeast Alaska (although they are now used for fishery management purposes).

The first wireless message was sent from Juneau to Seattle in March.

Treadwell continued to experience labor problems when the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) Douglas Island Union No. 1 again went on strike March 20.  In the meantime a competing union, the Alaska Labor Union, had been organized early in the year for English-speaking only miners, primarily white Americans; though smaller in number, it refused to go on strike and its membership continued work. It was also supported by Treadwell management, a move suspected as a ploy by the company to divide the strikers.  Violence ensued on and off over several months, while the WFM union itself was divided by internal strife.  The strike continued on into early 1909, but was ineffectual in shutting down the operations or achieving miners demands.