Port 5 on our journey is Juneau. Juneau has been the capital of Alaska since 1906. The area was a favourite fishing ground for the local natives and they had a village and burying ground here. The first European to see the Juneau area is recorded as Joseph Whidbey, master of the Discovery during George Vancouver’s 1791–95 expedition. He and his party explored the region in July–August 1794. In the 21st century it is known as Indian Point. They annually harvest herring during the spawning season, and celebrate this bounty. On October 18, 1880, Joe Juneau and Richard Harris marked a 160-acre town site where soon a mining camp sprang up. Within a year, so many miners had arrived that the camp became a village, albeit made up mostly of tents and shacks rather than substantial buildings. It was the first European American settlement founded in this territory after the United States purchased Alaska. The village was first known as Rockwell, then Harrisburg (af...
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