64°29′25″N165°24′47″W / 64.49028°N 165.41306°W /64.49028; -165.41306
| Nome Gold Rush | |
|---|---|
 Prospectors on Nome beach ca. 1900. | |
| Center | Nome, Alaska |
| Discovery | September, 1898,Anvil Creek |
| Duration | 1899–1909 |
| Goldfield | Snake River and beach at its outlet |
| Legacy | North to Alaska, 1960 |
TheNome Gold Rush was agold rush inNome, Alaska, approximately 1899–1909.[1][2] It is separated from other gold rushes by the ease with which gold could be obtained. Much of the gold was lying in the beach sand of the landing place and could be recovered without any need for a claim. Nome was asea port without a harbor, and the biggest town in Alaska.
Together with theKlondike Gold Rush (1896–1899) andFairbanks Gold Rush (1903–1911), Nome was among the biggest gold rushes north of 60 degrees latitude on the North American continent. It shared prospectors with both Klondike and later rushes likeFairbanks. It is memorialized in films likeNorth to Alaska. Nome City still exists and the area is mined asNome mining district andby tourists. Total production of gold from the area is estimated to be 112 metric tons.
The center of the Nome Gold Rush was the town of Nome at the outlet ofSnake River on theSeward Peninsula atNorton Sound of theBering Sea. TheIñupiat had camped for centuries in the Nome area before Russians came. In the 18th century, they established the port of St. Michael, 125 miles (201 km) to the southeast, for sailing on theYukon River. Fur traders and whalers from many countries visited the area. A few church missions were established beginning in the 1880s.[3] Gold was found in smaller amounts atCouncil 1897, the year before Nome, and subsequently other places in the area.[4]
In September 1898, the "Three Lucky Swedes": Norwegian-AmericanJafet Lindeberg, and two American citizens of Swedish birth,Erik Lindblom andJohn Brynteson, discovered gold onAnvil Creek and foundedNome mining district.[5][6] News of the discovery reached the outside world that winter. By 1899, Nome had a population of 10,000 many of whom had arrived from the Klondike gold rush area.[7] In that year, gold was found in the beach sands for dozens of miles along the coast at Nome, which spurred the stampede to new heights. Thousands more people poured into Nome during the spring of 1900 aboard steamships from the ports ofSeattle andSan Francisco.[n 1] More gold seekers from the distant city ofAdelaide, Australia set out for Nome aboard theschoonerInca in 1902.[9] By 1900, atent city on the beaches and on the treeless coast reached 30 miles, from Cape Rodney toCape Nome.[citation needed]
Many late-comers were jealous of the original discoverers, and tried to "jump" the original claims by filing claims covering the same ground. The federal judge for the area ruled the original claims valid, but some of the claim jumpers agreed to share their invalid claims with influential U.S. politicians. One of these,Alexander McKenzie, a Republican from North Dakota, took interest in the gold rush and seized mining claims with the help of a crooked judge,Arthur H. Noyes.[10] Mckenzie's claim-jumping scheme was eventually stopped by the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; however, the episode provided the plot forRex Beach's best-selling novelThe Spoilers (1906), which was made into a stage play and movies, most famouslyThe Spoilers (1942) starringJohn Wayne.[11] Because of the unrest,Fort Davis was established 1900 at the mouth of Nome River, 4 miles east of Nome City.[citation needed]
Claim jumping was mostly a problem before the beach gold was found, since it could not be claimed[4] and there was plenty of it.[7] As a matter of fact, the beach gold seems to have been more important than the claimed gold in the creeks.[10] The mining of Nome beach is a good example of gold rushesgoing through phases of increasing use of machinery and capital. The very first gold on the beach was found with a pan. Later in the summer of 1899 human powered equipment likesluices and rockers were present.[12] In 1900 small machines together with hoses and pumps were seen at the beach,[4] and finally from around 1902 big companies took over.[13] The season wasn't long. Due to ice, the beaches could only be worked from June to October.[14] Local police forced people with inadequate shelter to leave for the winter.[11]
Panning creeks for gold in Alaska is slow and cold. As in Klondike there was a layer of permafrost just below the surface. In Nome different kinds of equipment were used to thaw the ground and suck up gravel. The mining methods used were extensive meaning that the amount of soil processed was more important than the efficiency of the equipment that separated gold from sand. By hydraulic methods soil was washed off the creek banks[4] and into sluices either by gravity or suction. Dredges[4] and in some cases mine shafts were used. To facilitate digging the ground was softened with steam.[15] Steam was also used for collecting dumps of gravel in the winter. The gravel was sluiced the next summer.[citation needed]
By 1905 Nome had schools, churches, newspapers, a hospital, saloons, stores, and a post office,[16] an electric light plant[17] and other businesses.[18] A hothouse on the sand-spit[19] across the Snake River provided fresh vegetables. Some of the firstautomobiles in Alaska ran on the planks of Front Street.[20] Travelers going to the mines at Council City rode in heated stages. In 1904 the firstwireless telegraph in the United States to transmit over a distance of more than 100 miles began operating in Nome. Messages could be sent from Nome toSt. Michael and from there by cable to Seattle.[4]
Nome had no harbor for ships during the rush, only one for local boats. Ships anchored offshore and people were shuttled ashore in boats.[21] In early summer the coast could still be covered with ice. In that case passengers would be put off on the ice and brought ashore by dog sledges.[22] In 1901 a loading crane was built[23] and in 1905 a wharf.[24] This was by 1907 replaced by or combined with a tramway. Together with the tramway, which was 1,400 feet long,[25] people and freight were brought ashore by wire-pulled lighters.
In 1904 and 1905, gold was found in old beaches above the high-tide mark. The discovery of a second and then a third beach renewed mining close to Nome.[26] These strikes, however, were short-lived. Between 1900 and 1909 Nome's estimated population reached as high as 20,000; in the census of 1909 the population at Nome had dropped to 2600.[27][n 2] The rush was over, but gold mining continues to the present (2015) and every year prospectors arrive to look for gold.[7] Total gold production for the Nome district is at least 3.6 millionounces or 111.6 metric tonnes.
Among the Nome prospectors at least the three "Three Lucky Swedes" made a fortune. Around 1920 their mining company had made $20,000,000.[29] An attempt to calculate how much the average beach prospector earned in 1899 gives the following figure: Estimate of gold value recovered: $2,000,000, (~$63.5 million in 2024)[4] annual wage for a worker: $400,[30] number of prospectors: 2,000.[4] This yields 2.5-year of salary worth for each person. Also, saloon owners and other service providers made money during the rush. An example isWyatt Earp, who is estimated to have returned from Nome with $80,000.[31] A well-known prospector,Swiftwater Bill, made a fortune in both Klondike and Nome, but lost everything just as quickly.[32]
The people most affected were probably theAlaska Natives. Mining claims could only be staked lawfully by citizens. Since natives were considered to beuncivilized, they could not obtain citizenship. For them, the gold rush meant a drastic reduction inmoose,caribou and small game, as prospectors hunted them for food. In many areas, gold mining resulted in destruction ofsalmon streams. Contact with white men also had consequences like drinking and disease.[33]
The original claim sites of the "Three Lucky Swedes" were listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1976 (as "Anvil Creek Gold Discovery Site", "Erik Lindblom Placer Claim", and "Snow Creek Placer Claim No. 1"). In 1978, these three places, plus a fourth critical to the gold rush, were designated aNational Historic Landmark District,Cape Nome Mining District Discovery Sites. The fourth site is a 0.6-mile (0.97 km) stretch of the beach on the eastern edge of the city, extending from the seawall to East Limit Road.[34]
The legacy of the Nome gold rush is somewhat obscured by the fame of Klondike. The two gold rushes, however, should not be confused. Both Klondike and Nome are often thought of as Alaska gold rushes, even though only Nome is actually in Alaska. The center of the Klondike gold rush was nearDawson City in theYukon Territory, Canada and therefore outside Alaska, but the two locations are connected by theYukon River, which has its headwaters in northernBritish Columbia, Canada, and eventually flows through theYukon Territory intoAlaska.Klondike River giving name to the rush is a tributary of the Yukon River, which runs through Alaska and ends inNorton Sound opposite Nome. For that reason, Yukon River too is associated with both rushes. As mentioned earlier, there was an overlap of prospectors between Klondike and Nome and, finally, the two rushes shared some of the same routes.
Apart from the novel and the filmsThe Spoilers filmed in 1955 with Jeff Chandler, 1942 with John Wayne, 1930 with Gary Cooper, and 1914 with William Farnum, and alsoNorth to Alaska (1960 comedy, starringJohn Wayne as well and also known for itstheme song) is set in Nome during the rush. InWyatt Earp (1993 western based on the life of Wyatt Earp, starringKevin Costner) a scene in the end refers briefly to Nome.
| Topics | |
|---|---|
| Lists by state |
|
| Lists by insular areas | |
| Lists by associated state | |
| Other areas | |
| Lists of specific structure types | |
| Related | |
