Father Ivan Veniaminov arrived in Alaska in 1824. On wind swept Unalaska Island he built a Russian Orthodox chapel, set up a meteorological station and taught indigenous Aleuts carpentry, blacksmithing and brickmaking. He also learned their dialect, created an alphabet and translated the gospels for them.
Richard Harris discovered the first big gold field in Alaska in 1880. Along with his partner Joseph Juneau, he established a town he called Harrisburg. A year later, angry miners renamed the town Juneau.
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