Beginnings

Beginnings. Sea and Sky: Juneau's Links to the World. Because Juneau cannot be reached by road, the waterfront has always been Juneau's doorway to the outside world. Today travelers and freight continue to arrive at this waterfront by sea and air., The first vessels on the Gastineau Channel were the great dugout canoes of the Tlingit people who lived along the mainland coast and the islands of the Alexander Archipelago. Each canoe was hewn from a single giant cedar log. The first merchant steamship anchored in Juneau's harbor in 1881, the year after gold was discovered here. It carried tools and provisions, entrepreneurs to sell them , and more prospectors., The first airplane over Juneau flew up the Gastineau Channel in 1920. Flying low over the waterfront and Front Street (now South Franklin), it ceremoniously dropped a decorated package addressed to Thomas Riggs, Alaska's Territorial governor. The package contained a copy of the New York Times. The first plane to take off from Juneau arrived as ship's cargo. The aircraft was shipped in pieces and assembled here. It took to the air from a pile of mine tailings just south of downtown and landed on the beach in Skagway in 1922., Regional aviation took off from these waters because Juneau was Alaska's hub. The floatplane was an ideal craft for reaching surrounding settlements., Captions (left to right) , . A Northwest style red cedar canoe in Douglas (Early Prints Collections Alaska State Library-PCA 88-001) , . The steamer City of Seattle arrives with Gov. W. B. Hoggatt, June 20, 1908. (Early Prints Collection: Alaska State Library PCA 39-0364) , . The first airplane sighted over Juneau in 1920. (Early Prints Collection, Alaska State Library PCA 87-1089) , . Embossing Stamp Juneau-Douglas City Museum