The Mendenhall Valley (historically Mendenhall, colloquially The Valley) is the drainage area of the

Mendenhall River The Mendenhall River (Lingít: ''Woosh Ilʼóox̱ʼu Héen'') is an Alaskan river north of Juneau in the Mendenhall Valley. The river begins at the Mendenhall Lake, at the base of the Mendenhall Glacier. Rafting on the river The Mendenhall is abou ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

. The valley contains a series of neighborhoods, comprising the largest populated place within the corporate limits of the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska's

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

. The valley was formed by

Mendenhall Glacier Mendenhall Glacier (in Tlingit language “Sít”) is a glacier about long located in Mendenhall Valley, about from downtown Juneau, Alaska, Juneau in the southeast area of the U.S. state of Alaska. The glacier and surrounding landscape is p ...

over the course of roughly three thousand years. It was named for

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

and

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while th ...

Thomas Corwin Mendenhall Thomas Corwin Mendenhall (October 4, 1841 – March 23, 1924) was an American autodidact physicist and meteorologist. He was the first professor hired at Ohio State University in 1873 and the superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey ...

. The Mendenhall Valley begins ten miles from the downtown area, at the intersection of Egan Drive and Glacier Highway, and ends ten miles farther west at the intersection of Glacier Highway and Mendenhall Loop Road at

Auke Bay Auke Bay is a neighborhood located in the city and borough of Juneau, Alaska, that contains Auke Bay Harbor, Auke Lake, the University of Alaska Southeast, an elementary school, a church, a post office, a bar, a coffee shop, a waffle house, a ...

. The Valley comprises an area stretching from the

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free ( anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

along

Fritz Cove Fritz Cove is a bay on the northwestern coast of Douglas Island in the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska, United States. Lying in Stephens Passage, it is northwest of the city of Juneau. Historically, Fritz Cove was used for fishing by Alaska ...

and Auke Bay back to the Mendenhall Glacier as well as

Mendenhall Lake Mendenhall Lake is a proglacial lake in the Mendenhall Valley at the 1962 terminus of Mendenhall Glacier, north of the Juneau Airport in the Coast Mountains. It is the source of the short Mendenhall River. The lake is included in the Mendenh ...

and the

, which for the most part drains the Valley. The Valley forms the core of Alaska's 34th election (or state House) district, which is represented in the

Alaska House of Representatives The Alaska State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. The House is composed of 40 members, each of whom represents a district of approximately 17,756 people pe ...

Andi Story Andrea Douglas Story (born April 2, 1959) is a Democratic member of the Alaska Legislature representing the State's 34th House district. Career Story won the election for her House seat on November 6, 2018, as the candidate of the Democratic Pa ...

, a Democrat. Along with the rest of Juneau and adjoining communities, it is part of Senate District Q, represented in the

Alaska Senate The Alaska State Senate is the upper house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It convenes in the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska and is responsible for making laws and confirming or rejecting gu ...

Jesse Kiehl Jesse Kiehl (born April 17, 1976) is a Democratic member of the Alaska Legislature representing the State Senate's Q district and a former member of the Assembly of the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska. Early life Jesse Kiehl was born on Ap ...

, a Democrat. There are four

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

s (

, Glacier Valley,

, and Riverbend), one

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

( Floyd Dryden), and one

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

( Thunder Mountain) located in Mendenhall Valley. Most of Juneau's churches are located in the Valley.

Points of interest

Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park is a sports facility complex in Juneau City and Borough, Alaska, Juneau, Alaska, and adjacent to Floyd Dryden Middle School. It was named after Richard James Adair and Jimmy Earl Kennedy, two Juneau Police Department of ...

* Heintzleman Ridge *

Juneau International Airport Juneau International Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport and seaplane base located seven nautical miles (8 mi, 13 km) northwest of the central business district of Juneau, a city and borough in the U.S. state of Alaska t ...

* Mendenhall Mall *

Brotherhood Bridge The Brotherhood Bridge is a road bridge in Juneau, Alaska. The bridge carries the Glacier Highway over the Mendenhall River, acting as a demarcation point of sorts between the urban and rural portions of mainland Juneau. The bridge was named ...

* Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge * Nugget Mall * Diamond park * Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center

References

{{authority control Landforms of Juneau, Alaska Populated coastal places in Alaska on the Pacific Ocean Populated places in Juneau, Alaska Valleys of Alaska