Digital Bob Archive

The Juneau Ferry & Navigation Company, which over a period of forty years carried thousands of passengers on Gastineau Channel, had its beginnings in the little steamboat Julia which came to the channel from Sitka in 1888. The Julia was too small to be documented by Customs and had been owned for several years by the Sitka Trading Company before Captain James Haley brought her to Juneau for use as a ferry. His name was sometimes reported as Healy and he was confused with the Captain John J. Healy who owned a trading post at Dyea and carried passengers between Juneau and Dyea with the schooner Charley and the steamboat Yukon.

The Julia, was the second steam ferry to operate on the channel; the first was the Marion, an open boat. The Julia had a cabin. Capt. Haley formed a partnership with Capt. Thomas Fisher and they built ferry landings at Juneau, Douglas and Treadwell. Built them and rebuilt them. In those early years Gastineau Channel was often full of icebergs from Taku Glacier. This fact was a great advantage to Juneau a few years later when the shipment of fresh halibut to Seattle became a regular business, but a big iceberg, propelled by wind and tide, could take out a float or knock over a wharf with the greatest of ease. The ice was also a hazard to navigation, especially during the short days of winter. On at least two occasions the Julia's propeller was broken by hitting ice. The Lucy, owned by the Treadwell Mine, took her place on one of those occasions, but the second time it happened the Lucy was off towing logs and an open sailboat was used until repairs could be made.

Early in 1889 the partnership of Haley & Fisher was making three round trips a day with the Julia between Juneau and the two Douglas Island ports, and in April of that year this was increased to four round trips between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. In 1891 one trip each day to the mouth of Sheep Creek was added to the schedule and, in subsequent years, there were more frequent trips to the island as both Douglas and Treadwell continued to grow and cross-channel passenger traffic increased.

There were some changes of ownership, too. In 1890 Captain Fisher sold his interest in the company to Captain Charles E. Tibbits, a native of New York who proved to be a mainstay of the channel ferry business for many years. Then Captain James Blaine, who had been engaged in the herring fishery at Killisnoo, bought an interest in the company, which became Tibbits, Haley and Blaine.

The Julia was becoming far too small for the amount of business offered, and having only one boat was a handicap. Blaine and Tibbits wanted both to expand the business and to incorporate; Haley decided to drop out. The Juneau Ferry & Navigation Company was incorporated at the end of December, 1894, by Tibbits, Blaine and Oliver Fountain, an oldtimer in the country who was operating a sawmill at the mouth of Sheep Creek.