Digital Bob Archive

The first stamp mill in the Gold Creek Valley was erected by William I. Webster and his son, Edward, in 1882 which was only the second year mining was carried on there. The five-stamp mill stood at the head of Ebner Falls and it would be interesting to know by what route the heavy machinery was moved to the site. The U.S. Geological Survey reported some years later that the component parts of the Webster mill had been packed in by horses, but there are some indications that mules rather than horses may have been the beasts of burden.

Mules had been used for packing supplies from the Stikine River to Dease Lake during the boom days of the Cassiar. That boom had ended by the time Juneau's minor gold rush started and the mules were surplus. One owner wanted to bring his mules to Juneau around 1882 and was fussing with the deputy Collector of Customs at Wrangell as to whether he was required to pay duty on them. The owner argued, not wholly accurately, that the mule is strictly an American creature and has citizenship rights that are paramount to the tariff laws. Just how the dispute was resolved is unknown, but mules did come to Juneau. They are said to be superior to horses as pack animals on steep and slippery ground and local trails no doubt qualified for those adjectives.

Still another pack animal was introduced to the area a few years later. In the spring of 1887 a string of burros was brought in to carry ore from Silver Bow Basin to the wharf. Juneau's weekly newspaper, The Alaska Free Press, commented: \"The animals are receiving much attention from the Indians who have done much of the packing to and from the Basin.\" Because Juneau did not have the benefit of a newspaper until 1887, little is known about the Johnson Mill & Mining Company which acquired a group of lode claims known as the Takou Union Consolidated in 1884. These claims had been located by Joe Juneau, Dick Harris and others on December 8, 1880, and so were among the earliest claims staked in the Gold Creek Valley. Over the years they were mined by half a dozen different operators, with varied success, until they became the core of the successful Ebner Mine.

The Johnson company pioneered road building in the Juneau area and hewed a roadway around the edge of Mount Maria, across a part of Last Chance Basin and along the slope of Mount Juneau to the head of Ebner Falls. Today it is known as Basin Road and its course has not been greatly changed.

The company brought in a horse or perhaps a team of horses and a wagon, but it was not the premier wheeled vehicle in Juneau. An early photograph of the downtown area shows a keg of beer being delivered by wheelbarrow.

Unfortunately, what the Johnson company hauled to its claims over its new road and with its wagon was a patented ore grinding apparatus that turned out to be a total failure. After futile attempts to make the equipment deliver gold in paying quantities the company went broke and disappeared from the scene, but its road was long known as the Johnson Road.