History Members first
From Gold Rush to Capital City, part 1: the creek where it began
In 1880, guided by the Auk Tlingit leader Kowee, two prospectors found gold in the creek that runs through what is now downtown Juneau.
Long before there was a town, the land along Gastineau Channel was home to the Auk and Taku Tlingit, who fished, hunted and traded along these shores for generations. Their villages, fish camps and trails were here long before any map of Alaska carried an English name.
The channel’s waters were rich with salmon and herring, its beaches with shellfish, and the forested slopes with deer, goats and berries. Trade routes ran up the inlets and over the mountain passes to the interior, and the people who lived here knew every creek and cove.