Juneau gold belt

Gold was first found at Sumdum and Windham Bay, about 60 miles, 100 kilometers, south of Juneau.

Six major gold districts were developed in what is now called the Juneau Gold Belt.

Shortly after the first discovery, Chief Kowe, K-O-W-E-E, led Joe Juneau and Richard Harris – I actually have some descendants here in Ketchikan – To placer placer gold deposits, gold rich stream sediments in Silver Bow Basin about two miles east of Juneau in Gold Creek.

Prospectors soon found load or hard rock gold veins above the stream deposits in Silver Bow Basin.

The gold discoveries in Silver Bow Basin and later finds along the Treadwell Trend of Mines on Douglas Island proved to be the largest deposits found to date in southeast Alaska.

This area of the Coast Mountains between Burners Bay and Wyndham Bay was soon named the Juneau Gold Belt.

Gold deposits in this belt provided impetus for development of the three largest mines, the Treadwell Mine on Douglas Island and the Alaska Gaston and Alaska Juneau on the mainland east of Juneau.

At the peak of production, these three mines were processing a total of about 30,000 tons of ore Wow.