Page 11 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book
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Backing Juneau are mountains capped with the Juneau Icefield, which has thirty glaciers radiating from it.
The Native Americans who called the site of Juneau home were the Auke and Taku tribes.
The first European to visit the Juneau area was Joseph Whidbey, captain of the ship in July–August 1794. He recorded the area as being unnavigable, so no further Europeans came until 1880.
In that year, Sitka mining engineer George Pilz offered a reward to any local chief who could lead him to gold-bearing ore. Chief Kowee arrived with some ore and several prospectors were sent to investigate. Chief Kowee’s told Pilz to send Joe Juneau and Richard Harris to Snow Slide Gulch
(the head of Gold Creek) on the Gastineau Channel. Here they found nuggets “as large as peas and beans”, as Harris described them.
Juneau 1914
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