Yesterday we went to Honolulu. Today we will go to the other capital that one cannot drive to from the continental United States - Juneau, Alaska.The photos are: 1) Auck Bay (Juneau's port); 2) the Gastineau Channel and Juneau; 3) early morning in Juneau; 4) the Alaska State Capitol Building; 5) cruise ships in Juneau; 6) the Mendenhall Glacier; and 7) the Red Dog Saloon in downtown Juneau (the oldest man-made tourist attraction in Juneau).
The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-Alaska Territory was moved from Sitka.
The municipality unified in 1970 when the City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the surrounding borough to form the current home rule municipality.
The area of Juneau is larger than that of Rhode Island or Delaware and almost as large as the two states combined. Downtown Juneau is nestled at the base of Mount Juneau and across the channel from Douglas Island. As of the 2000 census, the City and Borough had a population of 30,711. The U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 population estimate for the City and Borough was 30,690.
Juneau was named after gold prospector Joe Juneau, though the place was for a time called Rockwell and then Harrisburg (after Juneau's co-prospector, Richard Harris—several books credit the Tlingit Chief Kowee with showing these prospectors where the gold was). The Tlingit name of the town is Dzántik'i Héeni "river where the flounders gather", and Auke Bay just north of Juneau proper is called Aak'w "little lake" in Tlingit. The Taku River, just south of Juneau, was named after the cold t'aakh wind, which occasionally blows down from the mountains. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging 16 feet (4.9 m), below steep mountains about 3,500 to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) high. Atop these mountains is the Juneau Icefield, a large ice mass from which about 30 glaciers flow; two of these, the Mendenhall Glacier and the Lemon Creek Glacier, are visible from the local road system; the Mendenhall glacier has been generally retreating; its front face is declining both in width and height.
The current Alaska State Capitol is an office building in downtown Juneau, originally built as the Federal and Territorial Building in 1931. Originally housing federal government offices, the federal courthouse, and a post office, it became the home of the Alaska Legislature and the offices for the governor of Alaska and lieutenant governor of Alaska. Through the years, there has been discussion on relocating the seat of state government and building a new capitol, without significant development.
The municipality unified in 1970 when the City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the surrounding borough to form the current home rule municipality.
The area of Juneau is larger than that of Rhode Island or Delaware and almost as large as the two states combined. Downtown Juneau is nestled at the base of Mount Juneau and across the channel from Douglas Island. As of the 2000 census, the City and Borough had a population of 30,711. The U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 population estimate for the City and Borough was 30,690.
Juneau was named after gold prospector Joe Juneau, though the place was for a time called Rockwell and then Harrisburg (after Juneau's co-prospector, Richard Harris—several books credit the Tlingit Chief Kowee with showing these prospectors where the gold was). The Tlingit name of the town is Dzántik'i Héeni "river where the flounders gather", and Auke Bay just north of Juneau proper is called Aak'w "little lake" in Tlingit. The Taku River, just south of Juneau, was named after the cold t'aakh wind, which occasionally blows down from the mountains. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging 16 feet (4.9 m), below steep mountains about 3,500 to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) high. Atop these mountains is the Juneau Icefield, a large ice mass from which about 30 glaciers flow; two of these, the Mendenhall Glacier and the Lemon Creek Glacier, are visible from the local road system; the Mendenhall glacier has been generally retreating; its front face is declining both in width and height.
The current Alaska State Capitol is an office building in downtown Juneau, originally built as the Federal and Territorial Building in 1931. Originally housing federal government offices, the federal courthouse, and a post office, it became the home of the Alaska Legislature and the offices for the governor of Alaska and lieutenant governor of Alaska. Through the years, there has been discussion on relocating the seat of state government and building a new capitol, without significant development.
Long before European settlement in the Americas, the Gastineau Channel was a favorite fishing ground for local Tlingit Indians, known then as the Auke and Taku tribes, who had inhabited the surrounding area for thousands of years. The native cultures are rich with artistic traditions including carving, weaving, orating, singing and dancing, and Juneau has become a major social center for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of Southeast Alaska.
In 1880, 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. On their first trip, to Gold Creek, they found deposits of little interest. However, at Chief Kowee's urging Pilz sent Joe Juneau and Richard Harris back to the Gastineau Channel, directing them to Snow Slide Gulch (the head of Gold Creek) where they found nuggets "as large as peas and beans," in Harris' words.
On October 18, 1880, the two men marked a 160 acre (0.6 km²) town site where soon a mining camp appeared. Within a year, the camp became a small town, the first to be founded after Alaska's purchase by the United States.
The town was originally called Harrisburg, after Richard Harris; some time later, its name was changed to Rockwell. In 1881, the miners met and renamed the town Juneau, after Joe Juneau. In 1906, after the diminution of the whaling and fur trade, Sitka, the original capital of Alaska, declined in importance and the seat of government was moved to Juneau.
In 1954, Alaskans passed a measure to move the capital north. Robert Atwood, then publisher of the Anchorage Times and an Anchorage 'booster,' was an early leader in capital move efforts—efforts which many in Juneau and Fairbanks resisted. One provision required the new capital to be at least 30 miles (48 km) from Anchorage and Fairbanks, to prevent either city from having undue influence. In the end Juneau remained the capital. In the 1970s, voters passed a plan to move the capital to Willow, a town 70 miles (110 km) north of Anchorage. But pro-Juneau people there and in Fairbanks got voter to also 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.
Alaskans thus several times voted on moving their capital, but Juneau remains the capital. Once Alaska was granted statehood in 1959, Juneau grew with the growth of state government. Growth accelerated remarkably after the construction of the Alaska Pipeline in 1977, the state budget being flush with oil revenues; Juneau expanded for a time due to growth in state government jobs, but that growth slowed considerably in the 1980s. The state demographer expects the borough to grow very slowly over the next twenty years. Cruise ship tourism rocketed upward from about 230,000 passengers in 1990 to nearly 1,000,000 in 2006 as cruise lines built more and larger ships—even 'mega-ships', sailing to Juneau seven days a week instead of six, over a longer season, but this primarily summer industry provides few year-round jobs.
Juneau is larger in area than the state of Delaware and was, for many years, the country's largest city by area. Juneau continues to be the only U.S. state capital located on an international border: it is bordered on the east by Canada.
In 1880, 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. On their first trip, to Gold Creek, they found deposits of little interest. However, at Chief Kowee's urging Pilz sent Joe Juneau and Richard Harris back to the Gastineau Channel, directing them to Snow Slide Gulch (the head of Gold Creek) where they found nuggets "as large as peas and beans," in Harris' words.
On October 18, 1880, the two men marked a 160 acre (0.6 km²) town site where soon a mining camp appeared. Within a year, the camp became a small town, the first to be founded after Alaska's purchase by the United States.
The town was originally called Harrisburg, after Richard Harris; some time later, its name was changed to Rockwell. In 1881, the miners met and renamed the town Juneau, after Joe Juneau. In 1906, after the diminution of the whaling and fur trade, Sitka, the original capital of Alaska, declined in importance and the seat of government was moved to Juneau.
In 1954, Alaskans passed a measure to move the capital north. Robert Atwood, then publisher of the Anchorage Times and an Anchorage 'booster,' was an early leader in capital move efforts—efforts which many in Juneau and Fairbanks resisted. One provision required the new capital to be at least 30 miles (48 km) from Anchorage and Fairbanks, to prevent either city from having undue influence. In the end Juneau remained the capital. In the 1970s, voters passed a plan to move the capital to Willow, a town 70 miles (110 km) north of Anchorage. But pro-Juneau people there and in Fairbanks got voter to also 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.
Alaskans thus several times voted on moving their capital, but Juneau remains the capital. Once Alaska was granted statehood in 1959, Juneau grew with the growth of state government. Growth accelerated remarkably after the construction of the Alaska Pipeline in 1977, the state budget being flush with oil revenues; Juneau expanded for a time due to growth in state government jobs, but that growth slowed considerably in the 1980s. The state demographer expects the borough to grow very slowly over the next twenty years. Cruise ship tourism rocketed upward from about 230,000 passengers in 1990 to nearly 1,000,000 in 2006 as cruise lines built more and larger ships—even 'mega-ships', sailing to Juneau seven days a week instead of six, over a longer season, but this primarily summer industry provides few year-round jobs.
Juneau is larger in area than the state of Delaware and was, for many years, the country's largest city by area. Juneau continues to be the only U.S. state capital located on an international border: it is bordered on the east by Canada.
Today's Jumble (10/14/08):
OVEEK = EVOKE; LAUFT = FAULT; SNUFIL = SINFUL; FROGLE = GOLFER
CIRCLED LETTERS = EOLTSFOFR
She chased the real estate developer because he had---
"LOTS (TO) OFFER
Today is National Dessert Day, and coincidently, it's "Be Bald & Free" Day.
Grover's Birthday (Sesame Street).
Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier (Mach 1.0) in 1947.
Winnie the Pooh was published in 1926. This is one of my favorite songs about Pooh because it
reminds one of youthful and carefree days long gone and the fun we had growing up.
Today starts the celebration of Sukkot. The festival of Sukkot, also known as Chag’ha Succot, the “Feast of Booths” (or Tabernacles), is named for the huts (sukkah) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land.
Other things on this day in history:
1066 - Norman Conquest: Battle of Hastings - In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the forces of William the Conqueror defeat the Saxon army and kill King Harold II of England.
1322 - Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence.
1582 - Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1586 - Mary I of Scotland goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth I of England.
1656 - Massachusetts enacts the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism makes them regard the ritual-free Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive.
1758 - Seven Years' War: Austria defeats Prussia at the Battle of Hochkirk
1773 - The first recorded Ministry of Education, the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for Commission of National Education), is formed in Poland.
1773 - American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom's East India Company tea ships' cargo are burned at Annapolis, Maryland.
1789 - George Washington proclaims the first Thanksgiving Day.
1805 - Battle of Elchingen, France defeats Austria
1806 - Battle of Jena-Auerstädt France defeats Prussia
1812 - Work on London's Regent's Canal starts.
1834 - In Philadelphia, Whigs and Democrats stage a gun, stone and brick battle for control of a Moyamensing Township election, resulting in one death, several injuries, and the burning down of a block of buildings.
1840 - Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
1843 - The British arrest Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell for conspiracy.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Bristoe Station - Confederate General Robert E. Lee forces fail to drive the Union Army out of Virginia.
1867 - The 15th and last Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate resigns in Japan.
1882 - University of the Punjab is founded in present day Pakistan.
1884 - George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.
1888 - Louis Le Prince films first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene.
1910 - English aviator Claude Grahame-White lands his Farman biplane on Executive Avenue (now Pennsylvania Avenue) near the White House.
1912 - While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivers his scheduled speech.
1913 - Senghenydd Colliery Disaster, the United Kingdom's worst coal mining accident, which claimed 439 lives.
1916 - Sophomore tackle and guard Paul Robeson is excluded from the Rutgers football team when Washington and Lee University refused to play against a black person.
1916 - The Perm State University was founded in Russia.
1920 - Part of Petsamo province is ceded by Soviet Union to Finland.
1925 - Anti-French uprising in Damascus (French inhabitants flee)
1926 - The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne, is first published.
1933 - Nazi Germany withdraws from The League of Nations.
1939 - German U-Boat U-47 sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak.
1940 - Balham tube disaster during the Blitz.
1942 - A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137.
1943 - Prisoners at the Sobibor death camp in Poland revolt, resulting in the death of 11 SS. About half of the camp's 600 prisoners escape; about 50 survive the war.
1943 - U.S. 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17 Flying Fortresses during an assault on Schweinfurt.
1944 - Allied troops land in Corfu.
1947 - Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.
1949 - Eleven leaders of the U.S. Communist Party are convicted, after a nine-month trial, of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.
1949 - Chinese Red Army occupies Canton (Guangzhou).
1957 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian monarch to open the Parliament of Canada with the Speech from the Throne.
1958 - The U.S. conducts an underground nuclear weapon test at the Nevada Test Site.
1958 - The District of Columbia Bar Association votes to accept black Americans as members.
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U-2 flight over Cuba takes photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed.
1964 - Leonid Brezhnev becomes general secretary of the CPSU and leader of the Soviet Union, ousting Nikita Khrushchev.
1964 - American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1966 - The city of Montreal inaugurates the Montreal Metro.
1967 - Vietnam War: Folk singer Joan Baez is arrested in a blockade of the military induction center in Oakland, California.
1968 - Vietnam War: 27 soldiers are arrested at the Presidio in San Francisco for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War.
1968 - Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
1968 - First live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft Apollo 7.
1968 - A 6.8 earthquake wrecked the Australian town of Meckering, and also ruptured all major roads and railways nearby.
1968 - Jim Hines of the USA becomes the first man ever to break the ten second barrier in the 100 metres Olympic final at Mexico City with a time of 9.95 sec. He would be the only man to do so until 1983.
1968 - The rebuilt Euston railway station in London is opened.
1969 - The United Kingdom introduces the 50p (fifty-pence) coin, replacing the ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalisation of the currency in 1971.
1973 - Thailand's University Students protest for a democratic government; 77 are killed and 857 injured.
1979 - The first Gay Rights March on Washington, D.C., the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, demands "an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people," draws 200,000 people.
1981 - Citing official misconduct in the investigation and trial, Amnesty International charges the U.S. government with holding Richard Marshall of the American Indian Movement as a political prisoner.
1981 - Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims a War on Drugs.
1994 - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
1998 - Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with 6 bombings including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.
1322 - Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence.
1582 - Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1586 - Mary I of Scotland goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth I of England.
1656 - Massachusetts enacts the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism makes them regard the ritual-free Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive.
1758 - Seven Years' War: Austria defeats Prussia at the Battle of Hochkirk
1773 - The first recorded Ministry of Education, the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for Commission of National Education), is formed in Poland.
1773 - American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom's East India Company tea ships' cargo are burned at Annapolis, Maryland.
1789 - George Washington proclaims the first Thanksgiving Day.
1805 - Battle of Elchingen, France defeats Austria
1806 - Battle of Jena-Auerstädt France defeats Prussia
1812 - Work on London's Regent's Canal starts.
1834 - In Philadelphia, Whigs and Democrats stage a gun, stone and brick battle for control of a Moyamensing Township election, resulting in one death, several injuries, and the burning down of a block of buildings.
1840 - Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
1843 - The British arrest Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell for conspiracy.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Bristoe Station - Confederate General Robert E. Lee forces fail to drive the Union Army out of Virginia.
1867 - The 15th and last Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate resigns in Japan.
1882 - University of the Punjab is founded in present day Pakistan.
1884 - George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.
1888 - Louis Le Prince films first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene.
1910 - English aviator Claude Grahame-White lands his Farman biplane on Executive Avenue (now Pennsylvania Avenue) near the White House.
1912 - While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivers his scheduled speech.
1913 - Senghenydd Colliery Disaster, the United Kingdom's worst coal mining accident, which claimed 439 lives.
1916 - Sophomore tackle and guard Paul Robeson is excluded from the Rutgers football team when Washington and Lee University refused to play against a black person.
1916 - The Perm State University was founded in Russia.
1920 - Part of Petsamo province is ceded by Soviet Union to Finland.
1925 - Anti-French uprising in Damascus (French inhabitants flee)
1926 - The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne, is first published.
1933 - Nazi Germany withdraws from The League of Nations.
1939 - German U-Boat U-47 sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak.
1940 - Balham tube disaster during the Blitz.
1942 - A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137.
1943 - Prisoners at the Sobibor death camp in Poland revolt, resulting in the death of 11 SS. About half of the camp's 600 prisoners escape; about 50 survive the war.
1943 - U.S. 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17 Flying Fortresses during an assault on Schweinfurt.
1944 - Allied troops land in Corfu.
1947 - Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.
1949 - Eleven leaders of the U.S. Communist Party are convicted, after a nine-month trial, of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.
1949 - Chinese Red Army occupies Canton (Guangzhou).
1957 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian monarch to open the Parliament of Canada with the Speech from the Throne.
1958 - The U.S. conducts an underground nuclear weapon test at the Nevada Test Site.
1958 - The District of Columbia Bar Association votes to accept black Americans as members.
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U-2 flight over Cuba takes photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed.
1964 - Leonid Brezhnev becomes general secretary of the CPSU and leader of the Soviet Union, ousting Nikita Khrushchev.
1964 - American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1966 - The city of Montreal inaugurates the Montreal Metro.
1967 - Vietnam War: Folk singer Joan Baez is arrested in a blockade of the military induction center in Oakland, California.
1968 - Vietnam War: 27 soldiers are arrested at the Presidio in San Francisco for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War.
1968 - Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
1968 - First live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft Apollo 7.
1968 - A 6.8 earthquake wrecked the Australian town of Meckering, and also ruptured all major roads and railways nearby.
1968 - Jim Hines of the USA becomes the first man ever to break the ten second barrier in the 100 metres Olympic final at Mexico City with a time of 9.95 sec. He would be the only man to do so until 1983.
1968 - The rebuilt Euston railway station in London is opened.
1969 - The United Kingdom introduces the 50p (fifty-pence) coin, replacing the ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalisation of the currency in 1971.
1973 - Thailand's University Students protest for a democratic government; 77 are killed and 857 injured.
1979 - The first Gay Rights March on Washington, D.C., the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, demands "an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people," draws 200,000 people.
1981 - Citing official misconduct in the investigation and trial, Amnesty International charges the U.S. government with holding Richard Marshall of the American Indian Movement as a political prisoner.
1981 - Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims a War on Drugs.
1994 - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
1998 - Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with 6 bombings including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.
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