by thenewgreen

Canadians Jon Juneau and Richard Harris made Alaska's first significant gold strike in 1880. Within the decade there were 1,200 men and a handful of dancing girls in the burgeoning town of Juneau, and in 1906, when Americans' love of gold had overtaken the Russians' love of sea-otter fur, Juneau wrested capital status from Sitka, the capital city under the Russians. Strikes became rushes became stampedes, as 100,000 men from all across the globe flocked to Alaska. Gold was found in Chicken Creek in 1891, and a makeshift settlement grew up around the claims. At peak, the town had close to a hundred residents.