Juneau Gold Rush Days will celebrate its 31st year

Friday, June 2, 2023 at 2:03 PM

Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Juneau Gold Rush Days participants came onto Capital Chat to promote the upcoming event.

Rochelle Lindley works for the Coeur Alaska Kensington Mine, one of the sponsors of the event. She gave background on the celebration.

"Juneau Gold Rush Days is actually a nonprofit organization. The mission is really to educate people about Alaska's rich history of mining and logging," Lindley said. "To do that we throw a big party for two days in the summer where we've got mining and logging competitions, kid carnivals, local food vendors. This year we'll have live music, a beer garden...so just a big celebration to celebrate Juneau's history."

The Pajama Cat Sharks will be performing Saturday.

The event will take place on Jun.17 and 18 this year at Savikko Park.

It's 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Jun. 17 and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Jun. 18.

Saturday is mining day and Sunday is logging day. Jeremy Whitmore, who also works at Kensington, explained the mining events.

"We'll get everything kicked off with opening ceremonies about nine o'clock in the morning and then the events will start at 9:30. We have jackleg drilling, 12 B overshot mucking. Then we have spike driving for men's and women's," he said. "Then we've got some hand mucking which is all physical work that it's something that they've done for years and years in the mining industry. Now mining's more modern but this just brings back the history of what mining used to be and what brought mining into Juneau and what built Juneau."

Some of the logging day events include axe throwing, hand bucking, saw bucking, and log rolling.

To end the weekend, a traditional Miners vs. Loggers Tug-of-War will take place.

Lindley gave insight into Juneau's rich mining history.

"There were tons of mines around the area. I know for Kensington alone within the five-mile radius of where our modern mine is today, there was 16 operating mines back in the late 1800s. Here in the kind of city of Juneau, two of the largest mines were the Treadwell and AJ," she said. "Treadwell, at the time employed 2,000 people. That's where Gold Rush Days event sits today. So it's kind of cool to tie that into, you know, we're here today, but this is also where all that mining was happening back in the late 1800s."

Juneau hosts 2 of Alaska's 6 large operating and producing mines- Coeur Alaska Kensington Mine and Hecla Greens Creek Mine. The two Juneau mines are the largest private employers in the City and Borough of Juneau, and the two largest property taxpayers in the City and Borough of Juneau.

Whitmore stated the goal is to bring back family-friendly events in Juneau.

"When it first got kicked off with Jerry Harmon and David Stone, the big thing was just bringing back to the community. One of the biggest ways you can do that to bring people together is to create these events, whether it's Gold Rush Days, or creating a softball game. Early back on when Treadwell and AJ were up and running, they kind of had the same thing, but it was with a baseball game," Whitmore said. "The two mines would compete against each other on the Fourth of July. The mines would actually hire professional baseball players to come work for them in order to play in the baseball game. We just wanted to kind of bring that history back into the modern era of where we're at in 2023."

The event is free, and it takes a community wide-effort, the two said. As a non-profit, they rely heavily on business and community member contributions.

The opening ceremony is on Jun. 17 at 9:00 a.m. All ages are welcome to participate.

There are skills competitions for kids, teens, and adults.

Juneau Gold Rush Days also includes vendor booths and food.

To sponsor the event, sign up for competitions or to sign up as a vendor, go to the website below.

https://juneaugoldrushdays.com/home