Treadwell gold mine

Composed of four sub-sites, Treadwell was in its time the largest hard rock gold mine in the world, employing over 2,000 people.

Although John Treadwell had twelve years of experience in both placer and lode mines, he was a carpenter and builder by trade who had come to Alaska prior to the Klondike Gold Rush.

This brought waves of prospectors to the region, including John Treadwell, whose first move was to purchase a lode claim on Douglas Island from Pierre Joseph Erussard ("French Pete") on September 13, 1881.

For unknown reasons he later backed out of this, and in early December 1881 he devoted his attention solely to the Douglas Island property.

Treadwell extracted twenty two samples from his three claims which he sent to San Francisco, California for a mill test, yielding encouraging results.

These men were James Freeborn (1828 - June 21, 1894), San Francisco banker and mining magnate John Douglas Fry (July 1, 1819 - February 3, 1901), Horace Lewis Hill (1840 - November 6, 1912), Howard Hill Shinn (born April 4, 1857) and E. M. With these men funding him, Treadwell began running a tunnel and discovered that much of the vein he was mining was not on his property.

Because word of his strike had not yet gotten out he was able to buy many of the adjoining claims for very little money, after which he returned to San Francisco to secure more backing for a much larger mill.

"Secondarily fractured and mineralized diorite dikes constitute the ore bodies in the Treadwell group of mines on Douglas Island."

The only casualties were a dozen horses and one mule; local lore has it that one man unaccounted for used the opportunity to head for parts unknown.

[citation needed] From the dissolution of the Boston Alaska Mining Company, the property became 99.9% interest to the historical Nowell family and specifically George.

The Nowell descendants and Alaska Electric Light & Power, have since deeded a portion to the city of Juneau with the stipulation that it be maintained as a historic site.

Under the management of the Treadwell Historic Preservation & Restoration Society there are recreation trails with markers identifying various locations.

[citation needed] Directly above the cave-in site is a concrete pad where the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities placed a 105mm howitzer, which was fired across Gastineau Channel at a shoulder of Mount Roberts to break up avalanches before they get so big as to pose a danger to Thane Road and residences there; however, in 2019 the howitzer was removed and avalanche control is now handled by helicopters with attached DaisyBell devices.