Pilz, George
Primary Name: Pilz, George
Filed as: Pilz, George
Also known as: George Pilz
Occupation / Association: Mining engineer; prospector; Alaska mining promoter
Associated places: Saxony, Germany; Freiberg, Germany; Sitka, Alaska; Silver Bay, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; Chilkoot Pass, Alaska; Dawson, Yukon; Katalla, Alaska; Chitina, Alaska; Forty-Mile region, Alaska; Eagle, Alaska; San Francisco, California; Michigan copper range
Keywords: George Pilz, Alaska mining engineer, Freiberg Mining Academy graduates, Silver Bay lode gold Alaska, Juneau gold discovery promoters, Joe Juneau prospecting party, Richard T Harris prospecting party, Auk Chief Kowee samples, Chilkoot Pass exploration, early Alaska mining development
Biography
George Pilz, one of the first professional mining engineers to work in Alaska, became a leading figure among the miners who entered the territory during the first decades following the United States purchase of Alaska.
Pilz was born in Saxony and educated at the renowned Mining Academy at Freiberg. After working on coal exploration in Germany, he left the country in 1867 to avoid conscription during the Franco-Prussian War.
Initially, Pilz investigated mining prospects in Canada and the United States for a German-owned company. He later left that position to work for the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company at Hancock in Michigan’s copper range. In 1869, he departed Michigan to erect a copper smelter in California.
During the following decade, Pilz worked throughout California, Arizona, and Nevada prospecting, developing mines, and erecting mills and smelters. His reputation for blunt and often cantankerous competence assured him steady employment, though it also kept him moving frequently from project to project.
In 1878, Pilz met Nicholas Haley in San Francisco. Haley, who had previously been stationed with the United States Army in Sitka, possessed rich gold-quartz specimens taken from the Stewart and other lodes near Silver Bay south of Sitka. Pilz initially suspected the samples originated from California’s Grass Valley district, but discussions with army officers and soldiers convinced him that the specimens truly came from Alaska.
Pilz secured financial backing and, in February 1879, traveled to Alaska to construct a mine and mill at Silver Bay. Gold processed by his five-stamp mill became the first lode gold produced in Alaska. The mine closed early in 1880 when the deposit proved too low-grade to sustain operations, though later events would vindicate Pilz’s belief that the region held significant mineral potential.
Seeking additional discoveries throughout Southeast Alaska, Pilz enlisted the assistance of several Tlingit communities, who supplied mineral samples from different areas. Pilz then dispatched experienced prospectors to investigate these reports, including Alaska Mining Hall of Fame inductees Joe Juneau and Richard T. Harris.
One of Pilz’s prospecting parties helped open Chilkoot Pass, which later became the principal gateway to the Klondike gold fields. The route was opened after Navy Captain Lester Beardslee negotiated with the Chilkat Tlingit to allow freighting through the pass.
Among the most promising samples received by Pilz were brought by Alaska Mining Hall of Fame inductee Auk Chief Kowee, who lived on Admiralty Island near the site of the modern city of Juneau. These specimens likely originated from the Gastineau Channel area.
Acting on Pilz’s direction, Harris and Juneau made their discovery in early October 1880 in Silver Bow Basin above present-day Juneau. Their earlier trip had taken them to Gold Creek, where they found promising placer gold and quartz fragments containing gold.
A grubstake agreement arranged by Pilz allowed Harris and Juneau to stake placer claims for themselves while granting Pilz a majority interest in the lode claims on a three-to-one basis.
After confirming the discovery in Silver Bow Basin, Harris and Juneau returned to Sitka, where Pilz joined them. Satisfied that the claims had been properly staked, Pilz approved the work and helped promote the new mining district. News of the discovery sparked a rush to the area in December 1880.
Controversy later arose involving N. A. Fuller, a Sitka merchant who had been connected with Pilz’s operations. Pilz maintained that Fuller acted only on his behalf, but the matter eventually resulted in a lawsuit in Sitka in 1886 in which Fuller obtained judgment against Richard T. Harris.
At the time, Pilz might have aided Harris, but was imprisoned in San Francisco, awaiting trial on a fraud charge he always denied. Despite later disputes between the two men, contemporary correspondence shows Pilz regarded Harris as one of his closest associates during the early Juneau mining period.
Miners from Juneau even sent gold dust to San Francisco to help Pilz post bail. The episode reflected the complicated and often contentious nature of Pilz’s career.
Pilz also likely erected the first prefabricated building in Alaska, constructing a pre-built house in Sitka. On February 7, 1881, he chaired a miners’ meeting that adopted revised mining district rules for the Harris district. He was also involved in organizing and platting the early town that became Juneau, then known as Rockwell or Harrisburg.
In later years, Pilz continued working in mining ventures across North America. He was reported in Dawson in 1906, at Katalla in 1907, working on coal projects, and in Chitina in 1911. He later spent many years in the Forty-Mile region.
George Pilz died in Eagle, Alaska, on September 15, 1926, remembered as a brilliant but often combative pioneer mining engineer who played a key role in the discovery and early development of the Juneau gold district.
Sources
Garside, George
Primary Name: Garside, George
Filed as: garside_george
Also known as: George Garside
Occupation / Association: Mining engineer; surveyor; developer of Silver Bow Basin lodes
Born:
Died:
Parents:
Spouse:
Children:
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Silver Bow Basin, Alaska
Keywords: George Garside, Garside George, Charles W Garside, Perseverance lode developers, Silver Bow Basin mining
Biography
George Garside and his brother, Charles W. Garside, came to Juneau in 1884. They were mining engineers and early surveyors of the Juneau townsite.
George Garside was one of the original developers of the Perseverance, Atla, and Jumbo lodes in the Silver Bow Basin.
Sources
Stone, 1980; DeArmond, 1967
Tags: George Garside, Garside George, Charles W Garside, Silver Bow Basin miners, Juneau mining engineers
Garside, Charles
Primary Name: Garside, Charles W.
Filed as: garside_charles_w
Also known as: Charles Garside
Occupation / Association: Mining engineer; Surveyor
Born:
Died:
Parents:
Spouse:
Children:
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Silver Bow Basin, Alaska
Property / Address: Lots 3 and 4, site of the William Bosch House, Telephone Hill, Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: Charles W Garside, Charles Garside, Garside Charles W, George Garside, Juneau Townsite surveyor, Silver Bow Basin mining engineers, William Bosch House, Telephone Hill residents
Biography
Charles W. Garside and his brother, George Garside, came to Juneau in 1884. Both were mining engineers and among the early surveyors involved in laying out the Juneau Townsite.
George Garside was one of the original developers of the Perseverance, Atla, and Jumbo lodes in the Silver Bow Basin (Stone 1980; DeArmond 1967).
The 1894 plat map of the Juneau Townsite shows Charles Garside owning Lots 3 and 4 at the turn of the century. City tax records indicate that Charles Garside sold the two lots to William Bosch in 1912.
The property later became the site of the William Bosch House, which is now recognized as part of the Telephone Hill Historic Neighborhood.
Sources
Stone 1980; DeArmond 1967
Telephone Hill Historic Site and Structures Survey
Tags: Charles W Garside, Charles Garside, George Garside, mining engineers Juneau, Juneau Townsite surveyors, William Bosch House, Telephone Hill residents
Bosch House
The William Bosch House at 214 Dixon Street sits on the west slope of Telephone Hill. It was constructed between 1913-14 by William Bosch.
The 1894 plat map of the Juneau Townsite shows Charles W. Garside owning Lots 3 and 4 at the turn of the century. Charles and his brother, George Garside, came to Juneau in 1884.
They were mining engineers and early surveyors of the Juneau Townsite. George Garside was one of the original developers of the Perseverance, Atla and Jumbo lodes in the Silver Bow Basin (Stone 1980; DeArmond 1967).
City tax records show that Charles Garside sold the two lots to William Bosch in 1912. Bosch owned the Old Stand Saloon on Front Street, located next to the 20th Century Market in 1983. The estate of William Bosch sold Lots 3 and 4 to Joseph Stocker in the 1950s.
Ownership was transferred to the Nordales in 1967, and to Roy and Verna Carrigan in 1969. (Carrigan 1983; City of Juneau 1965-1983).
Verna Carrigan is the granddaughter of of Edward and Anna Webster, the founders of Juneau-Douglas Telephone Company. She vice-president and chief operator during the 1960s (DeArmond 1967).
This l½-story, rectangular, 28'x34' dwelling is representative of the Decorated Pioneer Farmhouse style. Its identifying characteristics include a steeply pitched gable roof, boxed cornices and detailed ornamentation consisting of scalloped/fish scale siding on the gable ends. The rest of the house is clad with cedar shingles.
A shed dormer is situated on both gable slopes, and the original brick chimney adorns the ridgeline. The windows are double-hung sash, multi-lite, fixed-sash, large picture and casement. A few windows exhibit a diagonal , leaded-glass pattern.
The extended front entry was originally an open porch. It was enclosed in the 1930s with numerous multi-lite windows (Carrigan 1983). The Carrigans reconstructed the extension in the 1970s. Fixed-sash windows replaced the multi-lites. The original single leaf, three-paneled door to the 5'x12' front entry and the inner door to the house were retained. The inner door has beveled glass with fir trim and beveled-glass side panels.
Pre-1984 structural alterations include a shed-roof dormer on the south facade with clapboard siding and two picture windows. A decorative bay window on the south facade's first floor was replaced with a picture window.
Several other fixed-sash windows were installed on the front and rear facades, and a wood deck and concrete walkway were placed along the north and east facades. A small, enclosed rear entry stoop was reconstructed by the Carrigans. The above-grade concrete block basement was completed in the 1970s.
The interior consists of a living room, dining room, kitchen, small sewing room, vestibule and bath. The kitchen and bath, with acoustic-tile ceilings, underwent extensive remodeling pre-1984.
Original features include an ornate sideboard or "pass-through" with leaded-glass windows located between the living and dining rooms. A partial wall divider between the living and dining rooms displays book shelves and leaded glass. An original stairwell leads to a second floor landing.
The second floor has a remodeled bath, and its two bedrooms were enlarged when the south facade dormer was constructed. Adjacent to the north facade sits a wood-framed, ll' x20', one-bay garage with a vertical sliding door. The structure has a medium-pitched gable roof, extended eaves and verges with exposed rafter ends and cedar shingle siding.
Telephone Hill Historic Site and Structures Survey, 1984 found this well-maintained residence to be is one of the most architecturally significant structures in the study area and a contributing member of the Telephone Hill Historic Neighborhood.
A fine example of the Decorated Pioneer Farmhouse style, this building was constructed with a greater concern for detail and embellishments than was the basic Pioneer house. The structure's steeply pitched gable roof, boxed cornices and meticulous trim reflect this distinctive design. Ornamentation consists of scalloped/fish scale siding on gable ends, leaded-glass windows and a beveled-glass front door with beveled-glass side panels. Many interior decorative features were retained, reflecting fine carpentry work and preserving the ambience of the era in which it was constructed.
Although the house has undergone several ,..structural alterations, they are not severe enough to compromise the building's architectural integrity. Unfortunately, a fair number of the original double-hung sash and multi-lite windows were replaced with single-sash types. A shed dormer was added on the south facade; there had always been a dormer on the north facade. The enclosed front entry, recently reconstructed, was originally an open porch. The entry's original outer door, however, was retained, as was the beveled-glass door to the main house.
Gold Discovered, Juneau Founded
https://poajuneau.nationbuilder.com/garside_charleshttps://poajuneau.nationbuilder.com/degroff_edEuro-American presence in southeast Alaska began in·the latter part of the 18th century when explorers visited the area in search of highly prized furs, particularly the sea otter, for trade purposes. The survey for Alaskan resources included the search for precious minerals and the hope of discovering the famed Northwest Passage (State of Alaska 1982).
Countries involved in exploring the northwest coast of North America included Spain, England, Russia, France and Japan. Russian explorers are recorded as the first to encounter Native groups in southeastern Alaska. The first published account of exploration in Gastineau Channel was written by Captain George Vancouver, describing his journeys in 1793 and 1794. Seventy years later, the name Gastineau Channel was included on the 1867 Humphrey manuscript furnished to Western Telegraph Company (Werner 1925).
John Muir, a well-known naturalist, visited Lynn Canal in 1879. Upon his return to Sitka after interacting with Chilkat Tlingits, Muir noted that gold might be found in the area lying between Windham Bay and Sullivan Island in northern Lynn Canal.
Chief Kowee of the Auk Tlingit brought ore samples to George Pilz, a mining engineer residing in Sitka in 1880. These samples confirmed Muir's statements of potential gold reserves in southeast Alaska ( DeArmond 1967).
Read moreWebster, Edward
Edward Webster arrived in Juneau in 1881 and staked placer claims in the Silver Bow Basin with his father, William I. Webster (Stone 1982).
Over the next ten years, the Websters located and developed the Humboldt Mine on Gold Creek. During this period, they established the first stamp mill in the Juneau Gold Belt (Alaska Monthly 1907). Webster also worked as a pile driver contractor, participating in the construction of wharves along the Juneau waterfront (Alaska Monthly 1907).
Frank Bach arrived in Juneau in 1883. He later moved across the Gastineau Channel to Douglas and opened a merchandise business (Alaska Monthly 1907; DeArmond 1967).
In 1893, business partners Edward Webster and Frank Bach constructed a two-telephone system across the channel to improve communication between their residences. The system proved successful, and the Treadwell Gold Mining Company soon connected to the line.
As other residents requested telephone service, Webster and Bach formed the Juneau and Douglas Telephone Company. By the late 1890s, the partnership dissolved and Webster assumed full ownership of the company.
Edward Webster married Anna Faulkner-Scott-Knutson Webster on August 10, 1910, in Juneau. She brought three daughters from previous marriages into the household: twins Mabel Grace Scott and Minerva Beatrice Scott, and Carol “Carrie” Swanhilde Knutson.
The Edward Webster House, located at 135-139 West Second Street, sits on the east ridge of Telephone Hill overlooking downtown Juneau. Photographs of Juneau from the 1880s confirm that the Webster House was among the earliest homes constructed in the area. Robert E. Hurley, the grandson of Edward and Anna Webster, owned the home when the 1984 Telephone Hill Historic Site and Structures Survey was conducted.
The Webster family owned and operated the Juneau and Douglas Telephone Company from 1893 until 1968, providing the first commercial telephone service in Alaska. The telephone company operated from the Webster home from 1915 to 1958 (DeArmond 1967; Hurley & Carrigan 1983).
Edward Webster began construction of his house in 1882, and numerous additions were made during the following seventy years (Hurley & Carrigan 1983). District Recorder records and the 1894 plat map of the Juneau Townsite show Edward Webster and Frank Bach owning Lots 7 and 8 in Block 1.
After Edward Webster’s death in 1918, his wife Anna assumed management of the company and continued operating it until her death in 1957.
Sources
Stone 1982
Alaska Monthly 1907
DeArmond 1967
Hurley & Carrigan 1983
McKinnon Apartments
The MacKinnon Apartments is a historic apartment building at 236 Third Street. The building is a three-story wood-frame structure, finished in stucco with corner quoining and a dentillated cornice.
The MacKinnon Apartments provided modern housing in Alaska's capital and largest city, and is representative of the size and scale of the buildings constructed during the boom that occurred in Juneau during the 1920s.
When it opened in 1925, it was 80 feet (24 m) long and housed six single-bedroom and 12 studio apartments. In 1959, 20 feet (6.1 m) allowed five more studio units to be added. The building is representative of Juneau's boom years in the period between World Wars I and II, 1921 to 1939, which been defined as Juneau's Peak Gold Mining Era.
During that period, the town was the center for the territorial government, for the Alaska-Juneau Gold Mining Company's huge hard rock operations, for salmon and halibut commercial fishermen, and for supplying southeast Alaska.
Following placer gold discoveries in Silver Bow Basin in 1880, prospectors and businessmen established the town of Juneau. Within a decade, companies organized to mine the hard rock gold deposits in the area. Between 1880 and 1944, the three major mining companies in the Juneau area produced $158 million in gold. The Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Company was the largest low grade ore gold producer in the world from 1910 to 1944.
Juneau quickly grew to be the largest community in southeast Alaska. In 1920, with a population of 3,058, it was the largest city in Alaska. The federal government designated Juneau the capital for the District of Alaska in 1900, although the move from Sitka was not made until 1906, and in 1912 designated it the capital for the Territory of Alaska.
After a cold storage plant opened in 1913, Juneau became the home port for a number of fishermen. The timber industry flourished with the building of a sawmill around 1910. Juneau became the regional trading center for communities in southeast Alaska. Steamships arrived and departed regularly.
In the summer months, steamships brought visitors to town. World War I created shortages of skilled labor to work in the mines and materials needed for mine operations. Production slowed. After the war, with new capital and improvements in technology, the Alaska-Juneau Gold Mining Company was profitable and expanding operations. As a result, the town prospered. Juneau business people invested in new, more substantial buildings. One of the new buildings was the three story MacKinnon Apartments.
Lauchlin "Lockie" MacKinnon, an immigrant from Nova Scotia, constructed the apartment building. He came to Alaska in 1886, MacKinnon drifted around mining camps in Alaska and the Yukon, working as a miner and businessman. For a few years in the 1890s he mined at Porcupine north of Haines. In 1893, he crossed the Chilkoot Trail to seek gold in the Fortymile.
Back in Juneau, in 1895 and 1896 he and George Miller, his partner at Porcupine, built and operated the Circle City Hotel on Third Street. The hotel had eighty rooms, a bar and dining room.
He married Martha Maline Lokke, who came to work at the hotel, in April 1896. The family continued to move around the north, spending several years at Atlin, B.C. and in the Fairbanks area, before settling in Juneau around 1911. Back in Juneau, MacKinnon managed the Zynda Hotel, later known as the Juneau Hotel, on Main Street.
In the 1920s, MacKinnon sensed that apartments were replacing boarding houses and hotels, and built the MacKinnon Apartments. He and his wife lived in an apartment in the building until their deaths in the late 1940s.
The MacKinnon Investment Company prospectus appeared August 17, 1925, seeking investors in a three-story frame apartment house to be located at the corner of Third and Franklin Streets.
An article in Stroller's Weekly, a local newspaper, dated October 10, 1925, noted that the new MacKinnon Apartments offered numerous modern conveniences. In particular, the article said the builder wired each apartment for electricity.
After his second term as territorial governor ended in 1933, George Parks lived in the MacKinnon Apartments for three years. The building has been continuously used as an apartment house since construction.
Sons J. Simpson MacKinnon and Donald L. MacKinnon operated the apartment house after their parents' deaths. In 1959, perhaps anticipating the increased need for housing in the new state's capital, they added five studio units to the back of the building. Other than this addition, the building has not been significantly changed since its construction.
The apartment building is located two blocks outside of the Juneau Downtown Historic District, which were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The McKinnon Apartments were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
Juneau Memorial Library
The Juneau Memorial Library, aka the Veterans Memorial Building, located at 114 W. Fourth Street, has a commanding presence, sitting on a hillside at the corner of Fourth and Main streets, across from the Alaska State Capitol and overlooking downtown Juneau.
The building stands on a prominent location in the community, next to Alaska's state capitol, on a hill overlooking downtown Juneau with a residential area behind it.
The Juneau Memorial Library, completed in 1951, was the first major community project initiated by Juneau residents. The Juneau Rotary Club undertook construction of a library building for the town's residents as a memorial to the men and women of the area who fought in World Wars I and II.
A local architectural firm designed the stately reinforced concrete building incorporating Neo-Classical Revival architectural elements.
The building housed the community's library until the mid-1980s. It is now the city's museum, continuing to be a public facility serving the community. The period of significance starts in 1951 when the library opened and ends in 1959 to encompass the statehood event.
Following the discovery of gold on Gold Creek in Silver Bow Basin in 1880, the town of Juneau was established. It became a center for large scale hard-rock mining. The city incorporated in 1900 and became Alaska's capital in 1906. It was Alaska's largest community from 1920 to 1950.
In 1897, the Juneau Public Library Association, comprised mainly of local ministers, organized and provided a library collection that was housed in the federal courthouse. In 1898, the building burned and the library with it. A library was not reestablished.
In 1906, a party of American Library Association visitors met with Juneau's mayor and left a collection of books. The mayor told the group he would try to get the City Council to pass an ordinance to establish a free library. Apparently, the Carnegie Library Foundation Association made an offer of a building to the city after the visit.
Juneau did not have a public library again, however, until 1914 when the Juneau Draper Club, a civic group, founded one. The club bought books, rented a small building, and hired a librarian. They opened a reading room in August 1914 and a circulation department in December 1914.
A Juneau Library Association organized in April 1915, and at the end of the year reported 141 monthly subscribers and 55 yearly subscribers to the association. In a letter to the librarian at the Seattle Public Library, dated May 18, 1915, the Association's president wrote that "Our library is small, consisting of about fifteen hundred books, and at present the position pays $75 per month. It is a free circulating library with a reading room. We prefer a lady, one not too young, and a Protestant, If you know of any person or persons who would like this position, will you please have them apply as soon as possible?"
On the first anniversary the library cited impressive statistics. They had 1,180 borrowers, 350 of whom were children. During December 1915 there had been 700 people visiting the reading room. The Draper Club paid $150 to operate the library, and in 1915, the president, Ben D. Stewart, said the group could not continue to support it. Stewart, however, also was the city's mayor. He persuaded the City Council to pledge $1,800 a year for library support.
The City of Juneau took over the library on August 16, 1918, and housed it in two rooms on the top floor of Juneau City Hall. The Juneau librarian wrote an article, "Libraries in Alaska," that appeared in the American Library Association's journal in 1918. The librarian mentioned that Juneau "has not been able to accept the generous offer of a $20,000 building" made the year before by the Carnegie Library Foundation. By the end of World War II the two rooms were badly overcrowded.
The Juneau City Hall was razed in 1950 for construction of the Alaska Office Building, and the library moved temporarily to the Teen Age Club on South Seward Street.
Rev. Herbert Hillerman, Juneau Rotary Club president, announced at the August 28, 1945, meeting shortly after World War II ended that building a library as a memorial and tribute to area veterans of the World Wars would be the Club's top priority.
The next year, under the leadership of B. Frank Heintzleman, Ben D. Stewart, and James C. Ryan, the Rotary Club purchased the Olds family property at the corner of West Fourth and Main streets and hired architects Ross and Malcolm to design a building to be the community library.
The federal Public Works Administration advanced funds to pay for architectural services. The architects completed the drawings in 1946 and the Juneau Memorial Library Board of the Rotary Club sold the land that year for $2,500.00 to the city.
In 1949 a new Alaska Public Works program allowed the architects to increase the size of the building and add the basement to the plans. The Rotary Club then called upon members of the community for donations to construct the building. "Want to buy a ticket?" was heard throughout town. Service clubs, fraternal organizations, church groups and members of the community sold tickets to bazaars, hosted home cooked food sales, dinners, card parties, dances, white elephant sales, minstrel shows and even peddled chances to win an automobile. The Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood performed tribal dances and the Filipino Community held a special dance and costume exhibition.
Residents raised $82,000 and the federal Public Works Administration provided another $71,000 for construction. Ann Coleman, longtime and beloved community librarian, broke ground for the building on September 10, 1950.
At the dedication ceremony November 11, 1951, Heintzleman said, "this project represents I think the finest example in this territory of community spirit and enterprise working for a cultural project to benefit 'old and young, rich and poor'".
The construction of the library was the first major community effort to "obtain a facility of major size by the direct method of public contributions," making it an example of community planning and development in Juneau. Heintzleman insisted the library serve some twenty smaller communities in the Juneau area as well.
Many local residents view the building as a landmark in the community and have fond memories of it. In 1951, Mike Blackwell was eleven and remembers being paid twenty-five cents an hour to work for Miss Lomen, the librarian, after school each day for two hours and on Saturday afternoons.
The first floor housed fiction and non-fiction and had a high shelf with books children were not allowed to check out. Blackwell remembers that one could examine the loan record in the books, and he often looked at who had checked out a particular book. He also recalls that the new building was spacious and "for a long time there was a lot more room than books."
The library was designed to house 18,000 volumes. The children's section in the basement was called the Ann Coleman Room.
Today, the building is home to the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. According to former librarians Donna Pierce and Barbara Berg, because of the strong emotional attachment to the building the City Museum was the only suitable tenant.
At the May 16, 1989, assembly meeting, local Veterans of Foreign Wars and Donna Olds Barton suggested the building be rededicated as the Veterans Memorial Building. The rededication ceremony was held July 1, 1989, as part of the opening of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum in the building. The building is now dedicated to "all the men and women of the Juneau Area who served in our country's Foreign Wars."
On the library property is the Alaska Statehood Site, significant as the official site of the statehood ceremony and first raising of the 49 star flag on July 4, 1959.
Non-voting territorial delegate James Wickersham introduced the first bill for Alaska statehood in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916. Low population, geographical separation from the other states, and how Alaskans would pay the expenses of statehood delayed statehood for more than forty years.
Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the proclamation admitting Alaska as the 49tb state of the union on January 3, 1959. By executive order the new 49 star national flag did not become the official ensign until July 4th of the year.
An estimated three thousand people stood at attention as the first 49-star flag was raised in front of the Juneau Memorial Library by a military honor guard on July 4, 1959.
Author, lecturer, world traveler and New Yorker, Lowell Thomas was master of ceremonies. At 3:00 p.m. Governor Bill Egan spoke to the crowd while the flag was being raised. One of the territorial governors, Waino E. Hendrickson, was present. The site, marked with a commemorative plaque between the flagpoles, was dedicated at the ceremony.
Two large weather balloons carrying flags of Alaska and the nation were released in the hopes they would carry the news of Alaska statehood to the rest of the world. A parade went past the front of the library after the ceremony.
The July 6, 1959, edition of the Juneau newspaper reported "Special guests from across the nation observed the 49th star flag raising ceremonies from stands at one wing of the State Office Building. The State signs were carried by members of a delegation of Westinghouse appliance dealers who flew to Juneau for the ceremonies." The flagpoles at the site fly a 49 star flag and an Alaska flag and the plaque can be read by people passing on the sidewalk.
Only two other sites in Alaska associated with Alaska statehood have been documented and designated historic places. Constitution Hall on the University of Alaska campus at Fairbanks was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 3, 2005, for its association with the 1955-1956 Constitutional Convention.
The American Flag Raising Site at Sitka, designated a National Historic Landmark on October 15, 1966, is another site of an official statehood ceremony, but it is better known as the site of the ceremonial transfer of Alaska from Russian to U.S. administration in 1867.
Two totem poles, Harnessing the Atom by Amos Wallace installed in 1970 and Four Story-Pole by John Wallace installed in 1994, are on the property and counted as non-contributing objects to its placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
Carter, Charles W.
Primary Name: Carter, Charles W.
Filed as: carter_charles_w
Also known as: Charles W. Carter
Occupation / Association: President, Juneau Men’s Igloo (1935–1936); Juneau Volunteer Fire Department member; mail carrier
Born: 1870, Ontario, Canada
Died:
Parents:
Spouse: Alphonsine Carter
Children:
Associated places: Ontario, Canada; Calgary, Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Skagway, Alaska; Atlin, British Columbia; Juneau, Alaska; Silver Bow Basin, Alaska; St. Michaels, Alaska; Katmai, Alaska
Keywords: Charles W Carter, Carter Charles W, Juneau Men’s Igloo President, Klondike stampeders, Alaska mail carriers
Biography
Charles W. Carter served as President of the Juneau Men’s Igloo in 1935 and 1936.
Carter was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1870. He left home at the age of seventeen and worked in Calgary, Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia; Portland, Oregon; and San Francisco, California.
When news of the Klondike gold strike reached San Francisco, Carter headed for Seattle. He took passage on one of the ships bound north and landed on the beach at Skagway in August 1897.
He first worked backpacking supplies and later with a pack train over the Skagway and Dyea trails, particularly the White Pass Trail. When the railroad was completed to Lake Bennett, and packers were no longer needed, he tried his luck prospecting for gold in the Atlin area.
He moved south to Juneau in 1899, where he worked as a hotel clerk, bartender, undertaker, and deliveryman, and also performed assessment work on mining claims in the Silver Bow Basin.
Carter was a member of the Juneau Volunteer Fire Department from 1899 until 1916.
In 1901, he accepted a contract to deliver United States mail between St. Michaels and Katmai. Carter left Juneau by steamship in September 1901 for Seattle, where he boarded the S.S. Roanoke on September 30 on the last northbound trip of the year.
The ship arrived on October 15 at St. Michaels, where Carter purchased a dog team and supplies. It was necessary to wait until December for favorable conditions to begin the 1,100-mile journey to deliver and collect the mail. During this time, he learned the art of driving and caring for a dog team.
He later married Alphonsine Carter.
Sources
Survey and Inventory of Douglas Historic Cemeteries
Tags: Charles W Carter, Carter Charles W, Juneau Men’s Igloo, Klondike Gold Rush participants, Juneau Volunteer Fire Department
Davis, John Montgomery
Primary Name: Davis, John Montgomery
Filed as: davis_john_montgomery
Also known as: John M. Davis
Occupation / Association: Mining company bookkeeper; Assistant Superintendent; City Clerk; Magistrate; Wharfinger; Charter Member, Juneau Men's Igloo
Born: August 29, 1856, Liverpool, England
Died: February 19, 1933, Juneau, Alaska
Parents:
Spouse: Frances Caroline Brooks (m. 1892)
Children:
Associated places: Liverpool, England; Pennsylvania; Florida; Massachusetts; Juneau, Alaska; Silver Bow Basin, Alaska
Keywords: John Montgomery Davis, John M Davis, Davis John Montgomery, Nowell Gold Mining Company, Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Juneau, Juneau municipal wharfinger
Biography
John Montgomery Davis was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.
Davis was born in Liverpool, England, on August 29, 1856. After arriving in the United States in 1882, he lived in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Massachusetts.
He later came to Alaska and joined Thomas Nowell at the Nowell Gold Mining Company in the Silver Bow Basin near Juneau. At first, he worked as a bookkeeper at the mines and later became assistant superintendent.
In 1892, he married Frances Caroline Brooks, an artist. The couple built the Davis House on Sixth Street and assisted in the construction of portions of Seward and Sixth Streets near their home.
Davis helped found the present-day Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and was an active member of the congregation, serving as the Cathedral's secretary from 1908 to 1912.
He also served the community as city clerk and magistrate. For fifteen years, he was employed as the wharfinger of the Municipal Wharf until his illness and death on February 19, 1933.
Sources
Alaska Gold Rush Pioneers of Juneau–Douglas Area, 1880–1921, p. 36
Tags: John Montgomery Davis, John M Davis, Juneau Men's Igloo charter member, Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral founders, Juneau city clerks, Juneau wharfingers