Curious Juneau

When Americans walk into a multi-story building, they'd usually say they're on the first floor. Not in the lobby of Alaska's Capitol building.

The fan of fallen trees on the west side of Auke Nu Cove may be evidence of one of Juneau's weirdest wind phenomena.

Studies show drivers remember fewer details about routes they're more familiar with. Around Juneau and in other parts of the U.S., experimenting with speed limits can improve road safety.

In the late '90s Juneau had two Taco Bells. But by the early 2000s they were both gone.

Some Juneau residents have noticed street lights with a purple glow popping up around town. A KTOO listener asked why.

A Curious Juneau listener wrote in saying they'd witnessed a snake-like cloud forming along the Gastineau Channel and wondered if there are any Lingít stories or a Lingít name for this cloud feature.

The short answer is yes. It was there for decades, and there are plenty of people still around in Juneau who remember it.

One Curious Juneau listener has noticed janky-looking rafts and unnatural pits proliferating in recent years at his go-to fishing spot. So we asked one of the raft owners what they’re up to.

Sure it's small, but is it the smallest? When inside, do you shop clockwise or counterclockwise? And what's up with ToshCo in Gustavus?

The plan is for volunteers this summer to prune some encroaching vegetation, and to plant spruce seedlings in the footprint of the peace sign. Eventually, they expect the spruce will outgrow and contrast with the existing alders on the hillside.

Professional ticket reselling is rare for events in Juneau. A longtime local event organizer says the nine-time Grammy Award winner's upcoming concert in Juneau has caused the biggest stir she can think of.

Theodolites, semaphore, trigonometry and some "Big Lebowski" references — everything you wanted to know about the peace sign and a few things you didn't.

They've been gone for about four years. The system was originally installed by a private downtown bank in the 1960s.

How did the Red Dog Saloon come to have an antique Smith & Wesson No. 3 mounted behind the bar — and did it really belong to Wyatt Earp? Curious Juneau tries to find out.

Xtratufs, Bogs, Muck Boots -- comfortable, waterproof footwear is pretty much a necessity here in Juneau. But not for the local some know as “the barefoot guy.”

In this Curious Juneau, John Hollis asks: What’s the highest wind speed recorded in Juneau? The answer will blow away this Coast Guard retiree.

Tucked away in the second floor of the Triangle Building in downtown Juneau, there’s a museum filled with snapshots of history – but in this museum, they’re made out of wood, cloth and plastic.

A common story goes that there was a shipping mix up. Somewhere in Florida, there's a federal building with our eagle statue, and our federal building got their pelicans. Is it true?

Tall tales abound in regards to the giant blocks near Lemon Creek. The stories behind the mysterious blocks are almost too good to be true: Ancient monoliths, hatches for alien space craft, White Alice -- even cow graves. But nothing is really, so to speak, concrete.

In the mid-1970s the city and power company jointly built a 350-foot tunnel under Telephone Hill. It still carries water and power underground but its use as a pedestrian short cut was short-lived.

A hydrologist's marker dye is unlikely, but there are a variety of biological processes that could be responsible for discoloration of the pond that's located about 4 miles down the Herbert Glacier trail.

The children's book, “Patsy Ann of Alaska: the true story of a dog" says the bull terrier, Patsy Ann, pushed her paw prints into sidewalk cement. But do they actually exist?

Juneau isn't on the road system, but yet car thefts in the de facto island city -- are on the rise. In fact, 2017 has already surpassed the number of stolen motor vehicles reported in recent years -- and more than doubled since 2014.

If you’ve driven on Mendenhall Loop Road, you may have seen the huts. The rusted steel half-circles look a bit like mini-airplane hangars.

“The fact is that after 1902, all of the people who were executed in Alaska were either racial minorities or ethnic minorities,” said attorney Averil Lerman. The last three men executed in the territory were an Alaska Native and two black men.

Many people are familiar with the story of Robert Stroud, one of the country’s most famous inmates of the last century, and how he spent over half his life in solitary confinement and gained fame for his careful study of birds and bird diseases. But many people probably don't know that Stroud was initially sent to prison for a murder he committed just a few short blocks away from the present-day Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau.

Curious Juneau examines why Gastineau Channel isn't maintained as a through waterway. Instead most vessels have to take the long way around Douglas Island.