Digital Bob Archive

JUNE 13, 1886-A mass meeting was held last evening to consider the matter of further equipment for the Juneau fire organization. W. M. Bennett, president, was in the chair. John G. Heid is the secretary and W. F. Reed the treasurer. Reed reported that 72 fire buckets have been purchased, numbered and appropriately distributed. The buckets are made of leather and designed especially for fire fighting purposes. A fund has been started to procure a bell and an engine. A cistern already exists for use in case of fire.

David O. Mills, mining expert and millionaire, and J. D. Fry, president of the Alaska Mill & Mining Company, are visiting the mine on Douglas Island.

JULY 3, 1886-A special term of the U. S. District Court, the first ever in Juneau, commenced June 14 and continued until the arrival of the Ancon. This made things quite lively in town but the placer work in the Basin languished during the term, owing to the fact that so many of the miners were parties, witnesses or jurymen in the causes at issue. Judge Dawson has a severe cold which suspended operations for nearly two days but otherwise the time was busily employed in court work. The session was in the Stitt Building, south of Franklin Street on the waterfront. A portion of this building, which also houses our post office, has been rented by the government for court purposes, including the office of the U. S. Commissioner and of the deputy U. S. Marshal.

About 60 men are employed in the placer diggings in the Basin this season more than double the number who worked there last year. Some new ground has been opened up, including some on the west side of Gold Creek, along the steep mountainside. Claims on that side are yielding well.

A brisk business is being carried on between Juneau and the head of Lynn Canal. The sloops Magnolia and Charley are kept busy carrying supplies to the traders at the salt water end of the trail to the Yukon. In addition, the Indians from that section are bringing in large quantities of furs in their canoes.

George W. Garside, mining engineer and surveyor, has been kept busy surveying lode mining claims whose owners are applying for patents, but has taken time to make an appraisal of buildings in Juneau. The gross value is $117,000. The figure does not include a value for the land, the title to which is still in the United States.