Photo: Forest Service Photography (Public domain)
A self-guided audio tour along the forest trail through the remains of the Treadwell mines on Douglas Island, across Gastineau Channel from downtown Juneau. It starts at the small five-stamp test mill John Treadwell brought north in 1882, which proved the ore was worth working; between 1911 and 1917 Treadwell was the largest operating hard-rock gold mine in the world. The trail passes the foundations of the 300-stamp mill of 1899, the Central Power Plant beside the company tennis courts, and Sandy Beach, built from the mine's own tailings. Offshore stands the concrete pumphouse at the end of its 600-foot pier; inland are Treadwell Plaza, where the Fourth of July was celebrated, and the concrete New Office Building of 1914, which survived the fire of 1926. It ends at the 240-stamp mill foundations, the water-filled Glory Hole, and the site of the cave-in of April 21, 1917, when the sea poured into the mines.
10 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 1 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
5-Stamp Mill, 300 Stamp Mill foundations, Central Power Plant, Sandy Beach.
Treadwell Pumphouse and wharf, Treadwell Plaza, New Office Building.
240 Stamp Mill foundations, Treadwell Mine Glory Hole, 1917 Cave-In site.
The small test mill John Treadwell brought north in 1882 to prove the ore was worth crushing, where the whole complex began.
Not a natural beach but mine tailings pumped onto the flats, where machine parts and dining-hall dishes surface at low tide.
A concrete pumphouse at the end of a 600-foot pier that lifted salt water for the mills, among the pilings of the old wharf.
The company's concrete office of 1914, which survived the fire of 1926 and served as a temporary hospital after another fire.
The water-filled pit of the first Treadwell mine, worked in the open until the shift to deep underground mining in 1906.
Where the sea broke into the mines on the night of April 21, 1917, flooding three of the four Treadwell mines.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 10 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 10 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Juneau — the Treadwell Gold Mine Ruins on Douglas Island, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
10 narration points, including Sandy Beach, Treadwell Pumphouse and wharf, 5-Stamp Mill, 300 Stamp Mill foundations and Central Power Plant. That is about 8 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 10 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.