Juneau mining district which involves dumping overburden into stream beds in adjacent valleys. Juneau mining district The Juneau mining district is a gold mining area in the U.S. state of Alaska. In 1880 a local inhabitant, Chief Kowee, revealed to prospectors Joe Juneau and Richard Harris the presence of gold in what is now named Gold Creek in Silver Bow Basin. The city of Juneau was founded there that year. The strike sparked the Juneau gold rush which resulted in the development of many placer and lode mines including the largest, in their time, gold mines in the world: the Treadwell complex of
Richard Harris (prospector) Richard and Joe were sent with Kowee by George Pilz, an entrepreneur from Sitka. Richard and Joe traded with the natives much of their grubstake for hoochinoo. When they returned to Pilz empty-handed, he promptly sent them back to the Juneau area. There, Kowee took them beyond Gold Creek (which today flows beside the city's United States Federal Building) to Silver Bow Basin. Today, a creek on Douglas Island is named Kowee Creek. After the discovery of gold in Juneau, Richard and Joe loaded approximately 1,000 pounds of gold ore back to Sitka. The town did not take its current