Gold mining in the belt became active after an 1869 study of the
Juneau mining district, of which the Juneau gold belt is but one part. Chief Kowee was one of the earliest gold prospectors in the belt area. In 1880, he revealed to prospectors
Joe Juneau and
Richard Harris the presence of
gold in
Silver Bow Basin's
Gold Creek, after which Juneau was founded in the same year. The Juneau
gold rush of 1880 resulted in some of the largest gold mines in the world, including the
Treadwell complex of lode mines on
Douglas Island and the
Alaska-Juneau lode mine, in Juneau itself. The steep, wet, timber-covered, seaside mountain setting provided water power, transportation, and lumber such that, "extraordinarily low costs of operation make available low grade ore that under conditions only slightly different would be valueless." In 1895,
southeastern Alaska was the first part of the
Territory of Alaska to have its mineral resources researched by the
U.S. Geological Survey. It surveyed the gold deposit areas of Juneau and
Sitka. Systematic surveying began in 1902 which included a topographic map of the gold-bearing area adjacent to Juneau. In the following year, a detailed map of the Juneau region's geology was mapped in detail. A reconnaissance of almost the entire Juneau gold belt was carried out from
Port Houghton to the boundary with
Canada; in 1904, another reconnaissance, this time of nearby
Admiralty Island, was conducted, concentrating on ore deposits and
economic geology. The 1986 study by the
Bureau of Mines concentrated on the mineral resources of the northern region of southeast Alaska, specifically covering the Juneau gold belt. Aside from information on geological formations of the area, data related to mining was also examined. ==Geography==