Product Details

Beautifully engraved antique stock certificate from the Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Company dating back to the 1920's. This document, which is signed by the company President and Secretary, and measures approximately 10 3/4" (w) by 7 3/4" (h).

his certificate features a pair of vignettes - a mining scene at the left and a snow covered peak at the right.

Images

You will receive the exact certificate pictured.

Historical Context

In 1848, the same year gold was discovered in California, a Russian geologist named Petr Doroshin explored Alaska's Kenai Peninsula for minerals. He reported finding gold in streams emptying into Kenai Bay. Rumors of gold in Alaska soon spread through California mining camps. Working their way north from California, prospectors found gold on Telegraph Creek in Southeast Alaska in 1861. In 1872, following another discovery in a Stikine River tributary, there was a rush to what became known as Alaska mining's Cassiar gold district.

Other small gold discoveries by prospectors headquartered at Sitka led to the organization of Alaska's first mining district on May 10, 1879. Prospectors wanted their claims legally recognized because Congress had failed to provide civil government for the Alaskan territory.

A big strike was made the following year. Chief Kowee led prospectors Richard Harris and Joe Juneau to Silver Bow Basin on the mainland east of Sitka and north of Fort Wrangell. Hearing the news, several thousand prospectors and entrepreneurs rushed north from Portland and San Francisco and they founded the town of Juneau. Two years later, miner John Treadwell located hard rock gold deposits on Douglas Island across the channel from Juneau. In 1887 he formed the Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Company. Before the mines flooded in 1917, the company extracted $67 million worth of gold. At its peak, the company operated 900 stamps to crush the rock and free the gold, and employed 2,000 people.