Yukon who is who

Joseph Juneau (1833 -1899)

Joseph Juneau was born in Saint-Paul-Quebec l'Ermite (renamed Le Gardeur and now part of Repentigny) to parents François Xavier Juneau and Marguerite Thiffault Juneau.¹⁾ The family immigrated to Wisconsin when Joe was an infant. He searched for gold in California and the Cassiar district of British Columbia. ²⁾

Joe Juneau and partner Richard “Dick” Harris arrived at Sitka, Alaska in 1879.³⁾ Entrepeneur and mining engineer George Pilz sent Juneau and Harris with Chief Kowee to what would become the Juneau area to prospect. On their second trip they discovered gold and returned to Sitka with 1,000 pounds of ore. Miners stampeded to the area and a little settlement sprang up. It was called Harrisburg, and then Rockwell, and then a miner’s meeting in 1881 took a vote and called the town Juneau. The voters may have been influenced by Joe’s offers of free drinks.⁴⁾ Juneau made about $18,000 from his claim on the Gastineau Channel, and was broke again within two years.⁵⁾

Juneau was in Circle City, Alaska around 1894 and then he moved to the Klondike after the gold strike there. In 1899 he ran a little restaurant in Dawson, trying to finance a group of prospectors. He died of pneumonia in Dawson in 1899.⁶⁾ Miners took up a collection to return his body to Juneau where it was buried in 1903.⁷⁾

Joseph Juneau’s name is inscribed on a bronze plaque at Bonanza Creek Discovery Claim: “En souvenir de nos voyageurs In memory of our voyageurs: Francois, Mercier, Moise Mercier, Michael Laberge, Napoleon Robert, Joseph Dufresne, Jean Beaudoin, Joseph Chabet, Ephame Gravel, Monseigneur Clut, Le Pere Lecore, Joseph Ladue, Nolasque “Jack” Trembley, Emilie Fortin-Tremblay, Frank Buteau, N. [Napoleon] Picotte, Joseph Juneau et tous les autres… and all the others…”