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    Alaska Gold Rush at Nome
    Alaska Gold Rush at Nome
    Alaska Gold Rush at Nome
    Ebook141 pages1 hour

    Alaska Gold Rush at Nome

    By Lawrence David Weiss

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    About this ebook

    These are true stories of the Nome gold rush immortalized by the voices of the journalists and miners who lived through those exciting and dangerous times. Most of the miners were propelled into the harsh lands by wildly enthusiastic dreams and expectations. Some of these stories tell of the miners that made fabulous fortunes in gold pulled from the sands and creek beds around Nome. But that is not the only story.
    Most miners found barely enough gold to sustain themselves, and many found less than that. Claim jumpers stole their legal right to mine their treasures. Murderers and thieves preyed on the miners. Suicide, and epidemics of yellow fever and small pox killed hundreds of miners, and starvation and massive blizzards took hundreds more. Finally, in just a few short years, individual miners were pushed out by corporate mining interests with huge reserves of cash and gigantic pieces of machinery to systematically strip the land of its wealth.
    This book focuses on the years 1899 - 1901 because these are the most exciting and promising years for individual prospectors. Scores of newspaper stories and miners’ diaries of the period were reviewed to find the most interesting and informative stories for your enjoyment. Their stories have been reproduced here with most of the original grammar and spelling uncorrected, to preserve the flavor of the times.
    Over 50 period photographs from the Nome area and graphics from newspapers and publications have been included to give the reader a better feel for the culture and daily life of the times.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLawrence David Weiss
    Release dateFeb 11, 2015
    ISBN9781943031009
    Alaska Gold Rush at Nome
    Author

    Lawrence David Weiss

    Lawrence David Weiss PhD has lived in Anchorage Alaska since 1982. He formerly taught sociology and public health at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and has been the executive director of two nonprofit organizations engaged in public health and social policy matters. He is the author of several books and numerous papers on topics such as the economic history of the Navajo people; public health issues, policy, and systems; and Alaska gold rush era history. Weiss is the founder of Kennyhill Publishing Company which was established with a focus on American Southwest and Northwest historical works produced as electronic publications.

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      Book preview

      Alaska Gold Rush at Nome - Lawrence David Weiss

      Alaska Gold Rush at Nome

      True stories told by the people who were there

      Copyright 2013 Lawrence David Weiss

      Published by Lawrence David Weiss at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1 - New Gold Rush at Nome!

      Gold Dust By the Shovel at Cape Nome

      Chapter 2 - Nome Gold Rush Overview

      Chapter 3 - 1899

      Laden With Gold From The Yukon

      Killed Their Dogs To Escape Starvation

      Klondike Gold And News From Cape Nome

      A Tragedy Of Arctic Wilds

      Not Much Faith In Cape Nome

      Nome Fields Now Said To Be Eclipsed

      Chapter 4 - 1900

      The Land Of Nome

      New Finds Of Gold In The Nome District

      Miners At Nome Suffer From Cold

      Promise Of Nome’s Sands Fails

      Government Help Unlikely

      Romance of Cape Nome

      Chapter 5 - 1901

      Nome Coast Blizzard Claims Two Hundred Victims

      The Dangers Of Bering Sea -- A Dismal Outlook

      Struggle With Ice And Snow

      Fortunes In Alaska

      Not For Poor Men

      Preface

      These are true stories of the Nome gold rush immortalized by the voices of the journalists and miners who lived through those exciting and dangerous times. Most of the miners were propelled into the harsh lands by wildly enthusiastic dreams and expectations. Some of these stories tell of the miners that made fabulous fortunes in gold pulled from the sands and creek beds around Nome. But that is not the only story.

      Most miners found barely enough gold to sustain themselves, and many found less than that. Claim jumpers stole their legal right to mine their treasures. Murderers and thieves preyed on the miners. Suicide, and epidemics of yellow fever and small pox killed hundreds of miners, and starvation and massive blizzards took hundreds more. Finally, in just a few short years, individual miners were pushed out by corporate mining interests with huge reserves of cash and gigantic pieces of machinery to systematically strip the land of its wealth.

      In this book I focus on the years 1899 - 1901 because these are the most exciting and promising years for individual prospectors. I reviewed scores of newspaper stories and miners’ diaries of the period to find the most interesting and informative stories for your enjoyment. Their stories have been reproduced here with most of the original grammar and spelling uncorrected, to preserve the flavor of the times. I have located and inserted over 50 period photographs from the Nome area and graphics from newspapers and publications to give the reader a better feel for the culture and daily life of the times. I sincerely hope you find this unique piece of history as exciting and interesting to read as I found it to research and compile. --- Lawrence David Weiss.

      Chapter 1 - New Gold Rush at Nome!

      Gold Dust By the Shovel at Cape Nome

      Marvelous Sea Beach Mining In Alaska -- Precious Metal Dug Up Like Dirt -- Richest and Easiest Mining In History But Easy Part Will Soon be Over When Gold-Bearing Sea Sand Is Exhausted

      Origin Is a Mystery

      St. Michael Alaska Sept 1 1899 -- The most remarkable gold mining at present in the world if not in the entire history of gold mining is that now in progress at and about Cape Nome on Norton sound, Bering sea Alaska situated about 225 miles north and west of the mouth of the Yukon river, or 15 miles from this point.

      Gold was first discovered on Snake river last fall and during the earlier portion of the season Cape Nome district had acquired considerable repute as a gold producer and not a few miners from the Yukon river country, many of them stranded here, went over to Nome and either staked such claims as they could get or secured work as they could find it. Much complaint was made that claims had been taken by persons holding powers of attorney, their principals not being present in person, and in June the Cape Nome district had become so unpopular that reports were circulating to the effect that the whole thing was a fake foisted on the public by the transportation companies to improve their business.

      Whatever of truth may have been in these stories is now of small import for in June or early July some one of the stranded miners tenting on the beach as the only unclaimed space accidentally discovered gold in the sand at his feet. He told the story quickly among his stranded friends and soon all the unemployed were at work on the beach with any and all kinds of tools that would dig. Their success was such that within a few days men who had work on claims along the creek at $10 a day and board, threw up their jobs and took to the beach expecting to earn, and actually earning in many instances, as much in an hour as they had earned in a day.

      The Easiest Mining On Record

      Never had such easy mining been heard of, never had it been found so unexpectedly and so opportunely. It was not long before everything else was deserted for the seashore and even women and boys of 10 or 12 years were to be found as busy in the sand as the men were. Since the discovery the number of beach combers, as they are called, has steadily increased, and today is presented the strange sight of hundreds of miners of both sexes and all ages and conditions strung out along the beach for a dozen miles or more. For miles to the west of Cape Nome the beach runs straight away in a strip of tide land varying from forty to sixty feet in width between high and low water mark, extending up to the tundra or black alluvial soil which is from three to five feet higher than the beach proper.

      All of this tundra and all the territory along the creeks and rivers east and west for thirty or forty miles and back into the mountains for ten or twelve miles had been staked, but on the long strip of tidelands no man had a better claim than another or could have under the tideland laws, and here the grand army of onlookers camped and in very short order had converted the barren strand into a site of tremendous and enthusiastic industry. At the same time business of all kinds begun to respond to the boom from the beach and the usual collection of gambling halls, saloons, and dance halls went into operation.

      [Nome, Alaska 1900. View down beach. By image source: Lomen Bros., Nome. Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944. (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons]

      At present I estimate that 1,000 to 1,200 miners are at work on the beach extending west for twenty miles. All these work with rockers and they occupy just as much territory to the man or group as can work it. It is not unusual for one small square bit of beach to pan out $10 to$15 an hour but of course the space is soon exhausted and the lucky digger must move to another spot.

      Where Does It Come From?

      This beach deposit of gold is as yet an unsolved problem. By some it is claimed that the gold in the sand,which is entirely dust, has been washed out from the tundra by the wave at high tide and deposited through hundreds of years in the sand. It is found here now from two to five feet below the surface in the drift, and so plentiful that the miner who does not find it in paying quantities is the exception. On the other hand there are some who claim that the

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