Juneau Historic Park or Site

This 1898 house was the home of Judge James Wick­er­sham, a leg­end in Alas­ka who brought civil­i­ty and law to the wild gold-rush towns of Eagle, Fair­banks, and Nome. After climb­ing Denali (Mt McKin­ley), he also helped lob­by for the cre­ation of Denali Nation­al Park, and was a force in Wash­ing­ton, where he per­suad­ed the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to build uni­ver­si­ties and rail­roads in Alas­ka while giv­ing the ter­ri­to­ry legal rights. The house was in the…  ...more

This Russ­ian Ortho­dox church was built by and for Ser­bian min­ers and Tlin­git Indi­ans — not Rus­sians. Tlin­gits were attract­ed to the reli­gion because of the church’s accep­tance of their lan­guage and cul­ture; Protes­tant mis­sion­ar­ies attempt­ed to erase their cus­toms. Now, more than 110 years lat­er, the church con­tin­ues to serve the com­mu­ni­ty, with ser­vices sung in Eng­lish, Tlin­git, and Slavon­ic. A clas­sic Russ­ian build­ing, paint­ed in the…  ...more

Just a short, most­ly uphill, walk from down­town sits this estate that was built in 1913 for $40,000 and now hous­es Alas­ka Gov­er­nor Bill Walk­er. Along with a totem pole out­side, the 26-room build­ing has eight fire­places to keep the wet, cold win­ter at bay. There aren’t tours of the man­sion, but local bus tours made it a des­ti­na­tion dur­ing Sarah Palin’s time in office — par­tic­u­lar­ly, of course, when she was the Vice Pres­i­den­tial nominee.

Take a walk­ing tour through the his­toric dis­trict in Marine Park. Pick up a free map at the kiosk and just go! South Franklin Street is the main tourism dis­trict and one of the best shop­ping areas to find every­thing Alaskan, from cute and fur­ry faux crea­tures (like ice­worms) to hand­made native crafts and expen­sive fine art. To ensure authen­tic­i­ty, look for the polar bear sym­bol for goods made in Alas­ka and the Sil­ver Hand label for genuine…  ...more