Joe Juneau (prospector) Joe Juneau (prospector) Joseph Juneau (1836–1899) was a miner and prospector from Canada who was born in the Quebec town of Saint-Paul-l'Ermite (later renamed Le Gardeur and now incorporated into the city of Repentigny) to François Xavier Juneau dit Latulippe and Marguerite Thiffault Juneau. He is best known for co-founding, with Richard Harris, the city of Juneau, Alaska, United States. The first major gold discovery in Juneau or Douglas Island (across from Juneau) was circa 1880. It has been the political capital of Alaska since 1900. Juneau's Native American guide in southeastern Alaska was Chief Kowee, who is credited with
Juneau, Alaska ships between the months of May and September. The city is named after a gold prospector from Quebec, Joe Juneau, though the place was for a time called "Rockwell" and then "Harrisburg" (after Juneau's co-prospector, Richard Harris). The Tlingit name of the town is ("Base of the Flounder’s River," ‘flounder,’ ‘base,’ ‘river’), and Auke Bay just north of Juneau proper is called ("Little lake," ‘lake,’ ‘diminutive’) in Tlingit. The Taku River, just south of Juneau, was named after the cold wind, which occasionally blows down from the mountains. Juneau is unusual among U.S. capitals (except Honolulu, Hawaii) in that there