Juneau, Alaska

Juneau ( ; ), officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel in Southeast Alaska. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of what was then the District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900. On July 1, 1970, the City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current consolidated city-borough, which ranks as the second-largest municipality in the United States by area and is larger than both Rhode Island and Delaware.

Downtown Juneau is nestled at the base of Mount Juneau and it is across the channel from Douglas Island. As of the 2020 census, the City and Borough had a population of 32,255, making it the third-most populous city in Alaska after Anchorage and Fairbanks, but the sixth-least populous U.S. state capital. Juneau experiences a daily influx of 16,000 people or more from visiting cruise ships between the months of May and September. The city is named after a gold prospector from Quebec, Joe Juneau, although it was once called Rockwell and then Harrisburg (after Juneau's co-prospector, Richard Harris). The Tlingit name of the town is (), and Auke Bay just north of Juneau proper is called () in Tlingit. The Taku River, just south of Juneau, was named after the cold wind, which occasionally blows down from the mountains.

Juneau is unique among U.S. state capitals in that there are no roads connecting the city to the rest of the state or to the contiguous United States. Honolulu, Hawaii, is the only other state capital which is not connected by road to the contiguous United States. The absence of a road network is due to the extremely rugged terrain surrounding the city. In turn, Juneau is a de facto island city in terms of transportation; all goods coming in and out must be transported by plane or boat despite the city's location on the Alaskan mainland. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level with tides averaging , below steep mountains about high. Atop the mountains is the Juneau Icefield, a large ice mass from which about 30 glaciers flow; two of them, the Mendenhall Glacier and the Lemon Creek Glacier, are visible from the local road system. The Mendenhall Glacier has been gradually retreating; its front face is declining in width and height.

The Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau was built as the Federal and Territorial Building in 1931. Prior to statehood, it housed federal government offices, the federal courthouse, and a post office. It also housed the territorial legislature and other territorial offices, including that of the governor. Juneau is the home of the state legislature, the governor, and lieutenant governor. Some executive branch offices have moved certain functions to Anchorage and elsewhere in the state.

History

thumb|left|The city of Juneau in 1887

thumb|left|Chief Anotklosh of the Taku tribe, circa 1913

The Gastineau Channel was a fishing place for the Auke (A'akw Kwáan) and Taku tribes, who had inhabited the surrounding area for thousands of years. The A'akw Kwáan had a village and a burying ground here. In the 21st century, it is known as Indian Point. They annually harvested herring during the spawning season.

Since the late 20th century, the A'akw Kwáan, together with the Sealaska Heritage Institute, have resisted European-American development of Indian Point, including proposals by the National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They consider it to be sacred territory, both because of the burying ground and the importance of the point in their traditions of gathering sustenance from the sea. They continue to gather clams, gumboot chitons, grass, and sea urchins, as well as tree bark for medicinal uses. Descendants of the indigenous people include the Tlingit. Native cultures have rich artistic traditions expressed in carving, weaving, singing, dancing, and through oral lore. Juneau is a social center for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of Southeast Alaska.

European encounters

thumb|left|The Juneau Hotel near the [[Juneau–Douglas Bridge ]]

Although the Russians had a colony in the Alaska territory from 1784 to 1867, they did not settle in Juneau. They conducted extensive fur trading with Alaskan Natives of the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak.

The first European to see the Juneau area was Joseph Whidbey, master of the Discovery during George Vancouver's 1791–95 expedition. He and his party explored the region in July–August 1794. Early in August he viewed the length of Gastineau Channel from the south, noting a small island in mid-channel. He later recorded seeing the channel again, this time from the west. He said it was unnavigable, being filled with ice.

Mining era and naming

After the California gold rush, miners migrated up the Pacific Coast and explored the West, seeking other gold deposits. In 1880, Sitka mining engineer George Pilz offered a reward to any local native in Alaska who could lead him to gold-bearing ore. A local native arrived with some ore, and several prospectors were sent to investigate. On their first trip to Gold Creek, they found deposits of little interest. However, Pilz sent Joe Juneau (the cousin of Milwaukee co-founder Solomon Juneau) and Richard Harris back to the Gastineau Channel, directing them to go to Snow Slide Gulch (the head of Gold Creek). According to the Rev. Samuel Young, in his book Alaska Days with John Muir, Juneau and Harris decided to explore their party's campsite at the creek head in the summer of 1879. They found nuggets "as large as peas and beans" there, in Harris' words.

On October 18, 1880, the two men marked a town site and soon a mining camp sprang up. Many miners arrived within a year and the camp became a village, albeit made up mostly of tents and shacks rather than buildings. It was the first European American settlement founded in the territory after the United States purchased Alaska. By the autumn of 1881, the village had a population of over 100 and was known as Rockwell, after Lt. Com. Charles Rockwell; later it was known as Harrisburg after prospector Richard Harris. On December 14, 1881, it was decided at a miners' meeting of 72 persons to name the settlement Juneau, after prospector Joe Juneau.

Establishment of Russian Orthodox Church

thumb|[[St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church (Juneau, Alaska)|St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1894 by Tlingit and Serbians in Juneau]]

Likely due to the pressure of European encroachment, some Tlingit appealed to the Russian Orthodox Church. It held services in northern Tlingit settlements in local languages as early as 1800 and 1824. One of its priests translated scripture and liturgy into the Tlingit language during the 1830s and 1840s. The Tlingit arranged for an Orthodox priest to come to their Juneau settlement. In 1890, about 700 people converted after chief Yees Gaanaalx and his wife of Auke Bay joined the church. The Orthodox Church Missionary Society supported the Tlingit in furnishing and constructing a church for the large congregation.

Development of mining

Prospector and placer miner John Lemon operated at the time in what is today the Lemon Creek area. The neighborhood which developed there was given his name by early settlers, several other landmarks in Juneau have also been named for him. Major mining operations in the Juneau mining district prior to World War II included the Treadwell Mine, the Alaska-Juneau Mine, and the Alaska-Gastineau Mine.

By 1906, after the decline of whaling and the fur trade, Sitka which was the original capital of Alaska, had become less important and the territorial legislature moved the seat of government to Juneau in accordance with a 1900 federal law.

Robert Atwood, who was then the publisher of the Anchorage Times and an Anchorage "booster", was an early leader in efforts to move the capital to Fairbanks, which many in both cities resisted. Some supporters of a move wanted a new capital to be at least away from Anchorage and Fairbanks, to prevent either city from having undue influence. Juneau has continued as the capital. In the 1970s, voters passed a plan to move the capital to Willow, a town north of Anchorage. But pro-Juneau people there and in Fairbanks persuaded voters also to approve a measure (the FRANK Initiative) requiring voter approval of all bondable construction costs before building could begin. Alaskans later voted against spending the estimated $900 million. A 1984 "ultimate" capital-move vote also failed, as did a 1996 vote.

After Alaska achieved statehood in 1959, Juneau's population increased as well as the growth of state government. After construction of the Alaska Pipeline in 1977, the state budget was flush with oil revenues, and it expanded state spending programs. The population growth in Juneau slowed considerably after 1990.

File:Alaska-Harris-Juneau memorial.tif|Memorial to the founders of the city, Richard Harris and Joe Juneau

File:Alaska - Juneau - NARA - 23939711.jpg|View of Juneau, 1940s

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21st century

thumb|Downtown Juneau at night

In 2005, the state demographer projected slow growth in the borough for the next twenty years. Cruise ship tourism has expanded rapidly, from approximately 230,000 passengers in 1990 to nearly 1,700,000 in 2025, as cruise lines have built more and larger ships. They sail to Juneau seven days a week over a longer season than before, but the cruising tourism is still primarily a summer industry. It provides few year-round jobs but stimulates summer employment in the city. In 2010, the city was recognized as part of the "Playful City USA" initiative by KaBOOM!, created to honor cities that ensure their children have great places to play.

The city was temporarily renamed UNO, after the card game, on April 1, 2016 (April Fool's Day). The event was a promotion with Mattel to draw "attention to new wild cards in [the] game". with being made up of land and consisting of water (16.54%).

The central (downtown) area of Juneau is at . The City and Borough of Juneau includes Douglas Island, which is a tidal island to the west of mainland Juneau. Douglas can be reached via the Juneau-Douglas Bridge. An unpopulated section of the city is located on Admiralty Island near its northern end.

As in the rest of Southeast Alaska, the Juneau area is susceptible to damage caused by natural disasters. The 2014 Palma Bay earthquake caused widespread outages to telecommunications in the area due to damage to a fiber-optic cable serving the area. In April 2008, a series of massive avalanches outside Juneau heavily damaged the electrical lines providing Juneau with power, knocking the hydroelectric system offline and forcing the utility to switch to a much more expensive diesel system.

The community is impacted by annual glacial outburst flooding (jökulhlau) from Suicide Basin/Kʼóox Ḵaadí Basin above the Mendenhall Glacier. The 2024 event was declared a disaster by the State of Alaska and the Federal Government, and caused damages estimated between $2.8 and $5.6 million. Prior to the 2025 event, the City in partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers and informed by research, models and forecasting from the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center, the University of Alaska Southeast and the USGS, installed a temporary levee system along the Mendenhall River utilizing HESCO barriers to minimize the impact of future flood events. In August 2025, the City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska issued coordinated emergency disaster declarations in anticipation of a record-level flood. Despite record-breaking flood levels in 2025, property and other damages were minimal due to the levee system.

File:Juneau by Sentinel-2, 2020-07-30 (small version).jpg|Satellite image shows all of Juneau

File:Core Area of Juneau by Sentinel-2, 2020-07-30.jpg|Core area of Juneau including Douglas Island from satellite image above

File:Operational Navigation Chart D-12, 6th edition.jpg|Map including Juneau

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Adjacent boroughs and census areas

Haines Borough, Alaska – northwest, west
Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska – south, southwest
Petersburg Borough, Alaska – quadripoint

Border area

Juneau shares its eastern border with the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the only U.S. state capital which borders another country.

Stikine Region, British Columbia – northeast, east

National protected areas

Tongass National Forest (part)
Admiralty Island National Monument (part)
Kootznoowoo Wilderness (part)
Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness (part)

State parks

Alaska State Parks maintains the Juneau Trail System, a series of wilderness trails which vary from easy to extremely difficult to hike.

Climate

thumb|right|Climate chart for Juneau

The Juneau area is in a transition zone between a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc), and an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb/Cfc), depending on the isotherm used. The city's climate is heavily influenced by the proximity of the Pacific Ocean, specifically the warm Alaska Current, and the Coast Mountains that form a natural orographic barrier for incoming air. As a result, the weather is mild and moist, which, as in other parts of the Alaska Panhandle, allows the growth of temperate rainforests. Like other cities in southeast Alaska, Juneau does not have permafrost. As of 2023, Juneau falls within USDA Hardiness Zones 6B and 7A.

There are two prevalent types of wind in Juneau. Particularly in winter, the Aleutian Low draws warm and moist air from the south, bringing ample snow- or rainfall, and even in summer, winds will tend to blow onshore. The strength and frequency of the rainfall depends on several factors, including the presence of El Niño (more mild and rainy weather) or La Niña (colder and drier periods due to the presence of an anticyclone in the Gulf of Alaska). Conversely, offshore winds from the interior are normally dry but may have extreme variations in temperature. Most of it will occur in fall and winter, some falling as snow from November to March.

Records have been officially kept at downtown Juneau from January 1890 to June 1943, and at Juneau International Airport since July 1943. The coldest temperature ever officially recorded in Juneau was on February 2, 1968, and January 12, 1972, while the hottest was on July 7, 1975.

{|style="width:100%;text-align:center;line-height:1.2em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" class="wikitable"

!Colspan=14|Coastal temperature data for Juneau

!Month

!Jan

!Feb

!Mar

!Apr

!May

!Jun

!Jul

!Aug

!Sep

!Oct

!Nov

!Dec

!style="border-left-width:medium"|Year

!Average sea temperature °F (°C)

| style=""|40.6 (4.78)

| style=""|40.5 (4.72)

| style=""|39.9 (4.39)

| style=""|40.8 (4.89)

| style=""|43.5 (6.39)

| style=""|47.1 (8.39)

| style=""|50.4 (10.22)

| style=""|53.2 (11.78)

| style=""|50.5 (10.28)

| style=""|46.6 (8.11)

| style=""|44.6 (7.00)

| style=""|43.0 (6.11)

| style=""|45.1 (7.25)

!Colspan=14 style="background:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-size:100%;"|Source 1: Seatemperature.org