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Juneau ( JOO-noh; Tlingit: Dzántik'i Héeni [ˈtsʌ́ntʰɪ̀kʼɪ̀ ˈhíːnɪ̀] transl. Base of the Flounder's River), officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel in Southeast Alaska. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of what was then the District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900. On July 1, 1970, the City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current consolidated city-borough, which ranks as the second-largest municipality in the United States by area and is larger than both Rhode Island and Delaware.
Downtown Juneau is nestled at the base of Mount Juneau and it is across the channel from Douglas Island. As of the 2025 census, the City and Borough had a population of 31,454, making it the third-most populous city in Alaska after Anchorage and Fairbanks, but the sixth-least populous U.S. state capital. Juneau experiences a daily influx of 16,000 people or more from visiting cruise ships between the months of May and September. These cruise ships have a positive impact on Juneau's local economy, bringing in $375 million of direct spending in 2023. The city is named after a gold prospector from Quebec, Joe Juneau, although it was once called Rockwell and then Harrisburg (after Juneau's co-prospector, Richard Harris). The Tlingit name of the town is Dzántik'i Héeni (transl. Base of the Flounder's River), and Auke Bay just north of Juneau proper is called Áak'w (transl. 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.
Juneau is one of only two U.S. state capitals without roads connecting it to the rest of the state or to the contiguous United States; Honolulu, Hawaii, is the other. The absence of a road network is due to the extremely rugged terrain surrounding the city. In turn, Juneau is a de facto island city in terms of transportation; all goods coming in and out must be transported by plane or boat despite the city's location on the Alaskan mainland. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level with tides averaging 16 feet (5 m), below steep mountains about 3,500 to 4,000 feet (1,100 to 1,200 m) high. Atop the mountains is the Juneau Icefield, a large ice mass from which about 30 glaciers flow; two of them, the Mendenhall Glacier and the Lemon Creek Glacier, are visible from the local road system. The Mendenhall Glacier has been gradually retreating; its front face is declining in width and height.
The Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau was built as the Federal and Territorial Building in 1931. Prior to statehood, it housed federal government offices, the federal courthouse, and a post office. It also housed the territorial legislature and other territorial offices, including that of the governor. Juneau is the home of the state legislature, the governor, and lieutenant governor. Some executive branch offices have moved certain functions to Anchorage and elsewhere in the state.
The Gastineau Channel was a fishing place for the Auke (A'akw Kwáan) and Taku tribes, who had inhabited the surrounding area for thousands of years. The A'akw Kwáan had a village and a burying ground here. In the 21st century, it is known as Indian Point. They annually harvested herring during the spawning season.
Since the late 20th century, the A'akw Kwáan, together with the Sealaska Heritage Institute, have resisted European-American development of Indian Point, including proposals by the National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They consider it to be sacred territory, both because of the burying ground and the importance of the point in their traditions of gathering sustenance from the sea. They continue to gather clams, gumboot chitons, grass, and sea urchins, as well as tree bark for medicinal uses.
The city and state supported the Sealaska Heritage Institute in documenting the 78 acres (32 ha) site, and in August 2016, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. "It is the first traditional cultural property in Southeast Alaska to be placed on the register." Descendants of the indigenous people include the Tlingit. Native cultures have rich artistic traditions expressed in carving, weaving, singing, dancing, and through oral lore. Juneau is a social center for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of Southeast Alaska.
Although the Russians had a colony in the Alaska territory from 1784 to 1867, they did not settle in Juneau. They conducted extensive fur trading with Alaskan Natives of the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak.
The first European to see the Juneau area was Joseph Whidbey, master of the Discovery during George Vancouver's 1791–95 expedition. He and his party explored the region in July–August 1794. Early in August he viewed the length of Gastineau Channel from the south, noting a small island in mid-channel. He later recorded seeing the channel again, this time from the west. He said it was unnavigable, being filled with ice.
After the California gold rush, miners migrated up the Pacific Coast and explored the West, seeking other gold deposits. In 1880, Sitka mining engineer George Pilz offered a reward to any local native in Alaska who could lead him to gold-bearing ore. A local native 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, Pilz sent Joe Juneau (the cousin of Milwaukee co-founder Solomon Juneau) and Richard Harris back to the Gastineau Channel, directing them to go to Snow Slide Gulch (the head of Gold Creek). According to the Rev. Samuel Young, in his book Alaska Days with John Muir, Juneau and Harris decided to explore their party's campsite at the creek head in the summer of 1879. They found nuggets "as large as peas and beans" there, in Harris' words.
On October 18, 1880, the two men marked a 160-acre (650,000 m2) town site and soon a mining camp sprang up. Many miners arrived within a year and the camp became a village, albeit made up mostly of tents and shacks rather than buildings. It was the first European American settlement founded in the territory after the United States purchased Alaska. By the autumn of 1881, the village had a population of over 100 and was known as Rockwell, after Lt. Com. Charles Rockwell; later it was known as Harrisburg after prospector Richard Harris. On December 14, 1881, it was decided at a miners' meeting of 72 persons to name the settlement Juneau, after prospector Joe Juneau.
Likely due to the pressure of European encroachment, some Tlingit appealed to the Russian Orthodox Church. It held services in northern Tlingit settlements in local languages as early as 1800 and 1824. One of its priests translated scripture and liturgy into the Tlingit language during the 1830s and 1840s. The Tlingit arranged for an Orthodox priest to come to their Juneau settlement. In 1890, about 700 people converted after chief Yees Gaanaalx and his wife of Auke Bay joined the church. The Orthodox Church Missionary Society supported the Tlingit in furnishing and constructing a church for the large congregation.
The St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church was completed in 1894 and has maintained an important presence among the Tlingit, Serbians, and other Europeans who follow Orthodox traditions. The iconostasis has six large panels which were sent from Russia.
Prospector and placer miner John Lemon operated at the time in what is today the Lemon Creek area. The neighborhood which developed there was given his name by early settlers. Several other landmarks in Juneau have also been named for him. Major mining operations in the Juneau mining district prior to World War II included the Treadwell Mine, the Alaska-Juneau Mine, and the Alaska-Gastineau Mine.
By 1906, after the decline of whaling and the fur trade, Sitka which was the original capital of Alaska, had become less important and the territorial legislature moved the seat of government to Juneau in accordance with a 1900 federal law. Juneau was the most populous city in Alaska during the inter-war years, surpassing Fairbanks population by the 1920 census. Anchorage became the largest city in terms of population in 1950.
In 1911, the United States Congress authorized funds for construction of a capitol building for the District of Alaska. World War I delayed construction and there were difficulties purchasing the necessary land. Citizens of Juneau donated some of the required funds, and construction began on September 8, 1929. Construction of the capitol took less than two years, and the building was dedicated as the Federal and Territorial Building on February 14, 1931. It was designed by Treasury Department architects in the Art Deco architectural style. The building was originally used by the federal government to house the federal courthouse and the post office for the territory. Alaska gained statehood in 1959 and under the Alaska Statehood Act, the Federal and Territorial Building was transferred to the new state and became its capitol.
The Alaska Governor's Mansion was commissioned under the Public Building Act in 1910. The mansion was designed by James Knox Taylor in the Colonial Revival style. Construction was completed in 1912. The territorial governor at the time was the first governor to live in the mansion, and he held the first open house for citizens on January 1, 1913. The mansion is 14,400 square feet (1,340 m2). It has ten bathrooms, six bedrooms, and eight fireplaces. It is the governor's residence when in Juneau on official business. In June 1923, President Warren G. Harding became the first president to visit Alaska. He visited the Governor's Mansion while Territorial Governor Scott Bone, who was appointed by Harding, was in office. Harding spoke about his policies from the porch of the mansion and met with attendees
During World War II, more than 50 Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans residing in Juneau were sent to the internment camps inland as a result of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal of all ethnic Japanese away from their homes and businesses on the West Coast of the United States. The removal of Juneau's Japanese community during the war is memorialized by the Empty Chair Memorial, which was dedicated in July 2014 in the city's Capital School Park neighborhood.
Robert Atwood, who was then the publisher of the Anchorage Times and an Anchorage "booster", was an early leader in efforts to move the capital to Fairbanks, which many in both cities resisted. Some supporters of a move wanted a new capital to be at least 30 miles (48 km) away from Anchorage and Fairbanks, to prevent either city from having undue influence. Juneau has continued as 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 persuaded voters also to 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.
After Alaska achieved statehood in 1959, Juneau's population increased as well as the growth of state government. After construction of the Alaska Pipeline in 1977, the state budget was flush with oil revenues, and it expanded state spending programs. The population growth in Juneau slowed considerably after 1990.
In 2005, the state demographer projected slow growth in the borough for the next twenty years. Cruise ship tourism has expanded rapidly, from approximately 230,000 passengers in 1990 to nearly 1,700,000 in 2025, as cruise lines have built more and larger ships. They sail to Juneau seven days a week over a longer season than before, but the cruising tourism is still primarily a summer industry. It provides few year-round jobs but stimulates summer employment in the city. In 2010, the city was recognized as part of the "Playful City USA" initiative by KaBOOM!, created to honor cities that ensure their children have great places to play.
The city was temporarily renamed UNO, after the card game, on April 1, 2016 (April Fool's Day). The event was a promotion with Mattel to draw "attention to new wild cards in [the] game". For Juneau's cooperation, Mattel donated $15,000 "to the Juneau Community Foundation in honor of the late Mayor Greg Fisk."
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has an area of 3,255 square miles (8,430 km2). In land area, Juneau (proper) is the largest state capital and the second-largest city overall in the United States, with 2,716.7 square miles (7,036 km2) being made up of land and 538.3 square miles (1,394 km2) consisting of water (16.54%).
The central (downtown) area of Juneau is at 58°18′00″N 134°24′58″W / 58.30000°N 134.41611°W. The City and Borough of Juneau includes Douglas Island, which is a tidal island to the west of mainland Juneau. Douglas can be reached via the Juneau-Douglas Bridge. An unpopulated section of the city is located on Admiralty Island near its northern end.
As in the rest of Southeast Alaska, the Juneau area is susceptible to damage caused by natural disasters. The 2014 Palma Bay earthquake caused widespread outages to telecommunications in the area due to damage to a fiber-optic cable serving the area. In April 2008, a series of massive avalanches outside Juneau heavily damaged the electrical lines providing Juneau with power, knocking the hydroelectric system offline and forcing the utility to switch to a much more expensive diesel system.
The community is impacted by annual glacial outburst flooding (jökulhlaup) from Suicide Basin/Kʼóox Ḵaadí Basin above the Mendenhall Glacier. The 2024 event was declared a disaster by the State of Alaska and the Federal Government, and caused damages estimated between $2.8 and $5.6 million. Prior to the 2025 event, the City in partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers and informed by research, models and forecasting from the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center, the University of Alaska Southeast and the USGS, installed a temporary levee system along the Mendenhall River utilizing HESCO barriers to minimize the impact of future flood events. In August 2025, the City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska issued coordinated emergency disaster declarations in anticipation of a record-level flood. Despite record-breaking flood levels in 2025, property and other damages were minimal due to the levee system.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Juneau, Alaska”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.