In 1879, Lemon operated a placer mine with James Hollywood in what was the District of Alaska.
In the same year, Lemon and Hollywood also worked in Silver Bay.
He traveled to Sitka, Alaska early in the year,[1] where he joined the Edmund Bean party, and in the summer of 1880 helped blaze a trail over Chilkoot Pass to the headwaters of the Yukon River.
[2] The area in which Lemon mined has since been incorporated into modern day Juneau, Alaska.
Several natural landmarks, at least one structure and the neighborhood that grew around the site of his placer mine in present-day Juneau have been named for John Lemon.