Juneau gold belt earliest gold prospectors in the belt area. In 1880, he revealed to prospectors Joe Juneau and Richard Harris the presence of gold in Silver Bow Basin's Gold Creek, after which Juneau was founded in the same year. The Juneau gold rush of 1880 resulted in some of the largest gold mines in the world, including the Treadwell complex of lode mines on Douglas Island and the Alaska-Juneau lode mine, in Juneau itself. The steep, wet, timber-covered, seaside mountain setting provided water power, transportation, and lumber such that, "extraordinarily low costs of operation make available low grade ore that under conditions
Joe Juneau (prospector) ore back to Sitka. The settlement founded by Juneau and Harris was originally called Harrisburg or Harrisburgh, and then Rockwell. Miners often used both names in their records. There was also a proposal to name the town Pilzburg in honor of Pilz. The town received its current name at a miners' meeting on December 14, 1881, at which the name Juneau received 47 of the 72 votes cast, while Harrisburg received 21 votes and Rockwell only four. Joe Juneau reportedly bought drinks for fellow miners to persuade them to name the city in his honor. Joe Juneau traveled to Dawson