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Windham Bay, located 63 miles south of Juneau along the mainland, is a prime site for nature enthusiasts and photographers. A unique combination of lush rainforest, fresh and saltwater habitat with numerous estuaries creates a bird watcher's paradise.
A big attraction of Windham Bay is the colorful gold history. This was the first gold discovery in Alaska, documented in 1878 by John Muir. The famed naturalist and geologist was on his first trip to Alaska, traveling alone by steamship from California to Wrangell, and then further north with two local guides and a canoe.
This hardy trio heard there were miners in Windham, so they stopped and met them, and Muir noted their gold diggings in his journal. As they paddled on, Muir then closely studied the geology of Stephens Passage, and determined that a gold belt likely existed between Windham Bay and the area now known as Juneau.
That winter Muir wrote a series of articles in a San Francisco newspaper on his recent Alaska travels. When news of the likely gold belt hit Sitka the next spring, miners Joe Juneau and Dick Harris were sent by rowboat, first to Windham Bay, to begin prospecting north.
Juneau soon became the largest gold discovery in the territory, while the miner population in Windham Bay peaked at about 200 in the early 1900's. Things have stayed virtually the same here for the last 100 years; no cars or noise, and few people, but plenty of fresh water, fish and wildlife, a little gold, and a lot of good times.
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