Digital Bob Archive

29 April 1980

FEBRUARY 15, 1888-Our local mining industry has received a blow in the apparent failure of the Johnson Mill & Mining Company, which had showed great promise. J. A. Johnson, head of the firm, did a real service to the mine owners of the Gold Creek Valley by building a road from town to the first falls of the creek, but the Stiles crushing plant and other machinery he installed to extract the gold just did not do the job that was expected of it. The gold recovery is said barely to have paid the expenses of operation. J. D. Sagemiller and Charles Wells, two of the men who sold their lode claims to Johnson, have not been paid for them and will repossess the claims, as will, no doubt, other owners who deeded their claims to the Johnson company. Sagemiller is now in Seattle attempting to interest other investors who will put in a proper mill.

The electric lights at Treadwell loom up wonderfully from across the bay these nights. When will Juneau have its own light plant?

MARCH 1, 1888-Captain James Haley has purchased the steam launch Julia from the Sitka Trading Company and brought her to Juneau. She will be used as a ferry across the channel and also for trips to the head of Lynn Canal when business warrants. The Julia is nearly covered by a cabin which will make her more comfortable for ferry customers than the open Marion, especially during Taku winds.

Many miners have already left for the Yukon, planning to reach their claims of the Fortymile River by mid-April so as to be ready to start work when the ice goes out of the river. Others are going to Yakutat to try their luck in the black sand deposits on Khantaak Island which have proved very rich for a few Sitka men. Several schooners will sail for Yakutat Bay soon.

APRIL 1, 1888-A number of Indians from Metlakatla, the new settlement on Annette Island, have recently moved to New Boston or Union City on Douglas Island, where the Alaska Union Mining Company has its plant and hopes to develop a mine. Pat McGlinchy, one of the camp?s earliest settlers, now has a store there and is known as the ?Mayor of Irish Flat.?

A few miners have worked most of the winter around the mouth of Gold Creek and have found some rich pockets of gold bearing gravels.

J. S. Shillabar, proprietor of the Juneau Laundry on Main Street, is building a bath house and expects to have it open for the public in the near future.