YUKON, # 270, JOSEPH JUNEAU
Joseph Juneau was born in Saint-Paul l’Ermite, Quebec and emigrated to Wisconsin in the United States while he was still a child. He is the nephew of Solomon Juneau, a pioneer who founded the City of Milwaukee in the United States.
Joseph Juneau followed the various gold rushes. After having tried out in the California gold fields then in the Cassiar region of British Columbia, he found gold with his partner, Dick Harris in the Alaska Peninsula. Their discovery, the first of this importance in Alaska, was on October 3rd, 1880 in a creek situated near the site of the actual city of Juneau today. They named the small river, Gold Creek.
The two men measured out their claim then on October 18, they established a 160 acre- (65 hectares) site for the future city which Harris named Harrisburg. Juneau and Harris then went to Sitka (Alaska) to spread the good news. In a very little time, the land and the claims around Gold Creek were bursting with activity.
On December 14th, 1881 decided to end the confusion which reigned around the name of the city; they voted for the name, Juneau.It was noted that Juneau was always ready to offer a drink to the miners and to pay for it; that is the way that he won the sympathy of these men. But glory and wealth did not last long for this discoverer. He spent all his money in a very little while. Towards 1894, he left for the gold fields of Circle City, Alaska, then those of the Klondike. In 1899, Juneau had a small restaurant in Dawson City hoping to make enough money to finance a group of prospectors. Joseph Juneau died of pneumonia in the spring of 1899. He was about 64 years old and according to the registers describing his burial, he was “in the poorest of states; in extreme poverty.” The capital of Alaska still carries the name of this prospector!
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