Nome, Alaska

Nome, Alaska

The City of Nome, in Western Alaska, facing the Bering Sea

Coordinates64°30′14″N, 165°23′58″W, 102 miles south of the arctic circle.

Nome is located on the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula, on Norton Sound.

Nome( Inupiaq: Sitnasuaq ), Population 4 500Founded in 1901.

• Native Alaskans Inupiaq Eskimos are about 60%, whites 40% of population.

• No road connections - you

must fly to access Nome (jet service daily from Anchorage or Fairbanks),

• The climate in Nome is arctic with very cold winters featured by an average temperature of -15º.

Gold dust pan

Nome and vicinity has a rich and varied history beginning with gold discovery at Anvil Creek and the “gold beaches of Nome”, in 1898.

The "Three Lucky Swedes," Jafet Lindbert, Erik Lindbolm and John Bryneston, discoverd gold in 1898, at Anvil Creek, It took months for word to reach the outside world of the fabulous gold strike that had been made, but when it did, thousands of men came from the United States, Canada, Russia.These statues stand in a Anvil City Square, Nome´s central

Aerial view of Nome, showing the core of the town: St Joseph Church, in Anvil City Square, and Front Street.

The restored 1901 Old St. Joe's, its cross the highest point in town.

Welcome to the city of Nome

http://www.travbuddy.com/Nome-travel-guide-4691/photos/view/3

On Anvil City Square, and behind the statues of the "Three Lucky Swedes," stands the old St. Joseph's Church, the oldest building still standing in Nome.

The church was established in 1901, shortly after the 1898 gold rush.

The lighted cross atop the church known to the Eskimos as "white man's star”.

A statue of a gold miner standing in the night near the Old St. Joseph's Church.

Old St. Joe's Old St. Joe's Old St. Joe's

"Welcome to Nome" sign, in Anvil City Square, is in the shape of a gold pan.

The world's largest gold pan.


Nome´s City Hall.


The City Hall stands on Front Street, the main street of Nome, lined with municipal buildings, hotel, souvenir

shops, and numerous bars.

In front of Nome City Hall stands a bust of Roald Amundsen.

On May 11, 1926, Amundsen and a crew of 15 aboard a dirigible named Norge reached the North Pole, then headed for Nome ( the flight was billed as "Rome to Nome” ).

But then, strong winds forced him to land 59 miles northwest of Nome.This was also the first travel from Europe to North America by air .

Nome is decorated with some dredge buckets of flowers.

Front Street, lined with wooden buildings with their hindquarters facing the tide line and their front doors opening onto boardwalks,

The Glue Pot, Nome's all-night hamburger hangout and pawn shop.

Restaurant, ice cream stand and bar

Alaska's oldest newspaper, the weekly Nome Nugget.

http://www.nomenugget.net/

Nome’s only parking meter (a local joke)

Anchorage had just surplused a couple thousand old parking meters, and Nome bought one of them, offering 20 minutes of parking for a nickel and 40 minutes for a dime.

Meter's installation on the curb in front of the Nome Nugget newspaper building was called “the infernal device”.

So one day someone hung an "out of order" sign on the parking meter.

Front street in the rain

Historic shop fronts

211 Front Street

Gold rush era historic pub, “The Board of Trade”

Opened in 1900, the Board of Trade, on the Bering Sea (south) side of Front Street, is the town´s oldest bar.

The "Sin City of the Arctic," as a sign proudly proclaims!

The Saloon has gilt mirrors and a hand carved bar, which would make a good set for an old western movie.

The Discovery saloon,now a private residence.

One of very few historic buildings to survive fire, flood, wind and various calamities during the past 100- odd years.


114 Front St

Breakers BarEven by Alaskan standards, drinking in Nome is legendary.

The Nugget InnAn old gold rush era hotel, with historic atmosphere.

Outside, the local tourist bus waits.


Just outside the lobby, the Nome Nugget Inn also has its own historic bar !

Café/ hotel Polaris, near the western end of Front Street..

When you come in from the cold, anything warm will do.

• Home pizza delivery to rural Alaska by air.• Brings orders to people's doors and even flies special

orders to Bush villages hundreds of miles away.

Airport Pizza in Nome406 Bering Street

Rasmussen's Music Mart, retail trade

It concerns the remnant of an area that is thought to have once been a natural land bridge connecting Asia and the North American continent, 13,000 years ago.

Inside, a large display of Inupiaq art and artifacts.

The Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is one of the most remote areas administered by the U.S. National Park Service.

Library (floor)Museum (1st stage) - Carrie M. McClain Memorial Museum

restaurant, ice cream stand and bar

223 Front Street

http://www.nomealaska.org/museum/index.htmlThe Museum displays exhibits of Inupiaq Eskimo culture and life from the Bering Strait region, the gold rush, and an extensive collection of historic photographs.

Gold rush relics

The three lucky swedes

The Arctic Trading Post , on West Front Street

A gift shop where you can get a bouquet of flowers and a cup of espresso too.• carved ivory, artifacts, books, jewelery and Nome shirts, socks, coats and hats.

Authentic sea glass found on the beaches of Alaska, Nome

The Maruskiyas of Nome on Front Street specializes in authentic native Alaskan artwork and handicrafts, including ivory, baleen and jade sculptures, jewelry, dolls, and masks.

The Pioneers of Alaska building

The Pioneers of Alaska is a fraternal organization that gathers and preserves the relics and early history of Alaska.

In 1902 a group of men got together in Nome and outlined an idea for a strictly Alaskan order that would work for the benefit of the territory and look after it's sick and aged members.

Nome's House of Bargains The "House of Bargains" has looked like this for years... including a front door that won't shut and not a single level horizontal line on the building.

The Visitor´s centre on Front Street.The first port of call.

Browse through scrapbooks, historic photo albums, restaurant menus, bird/wildlife sightings and brochures and informational handouts about Nome and Alaska.

http://www.knom.org/

KNOM local radio

it's always fun to visit Maurice and Chris at KBHR. Alaska's most famous radio station, however fictional.

Arctic Native Brotherhood Club

Nome-Beltz Junior/Senior High School is a middle and high-school in Nome. It is located at the base of Anvil Mountain.

The mascot is the nanook, or Polar Bear.

The University of Alaska operates a regional satellite facility in Nome called the Northwest Campus.

The Nome Seawall

Nome's Front Street is just a few feet above the water and many businesses are built on the narrow strip of land between Front Street and the sea.

After 50 years of severe loss to the stormy Bering Sea, the U.S. Government built this seawall, beginning in 1949, to buffer downtown Nome from the ocean. The wall cost more than $1.5 million and took about two years to build.


The tidewater edge of the city is protected by a 3,350-foot-long sea wall of gigantic granite boulders estimated to weigh a total of 135,000 tons. The huge rocks were trucked in from Cape Nome in 1951, to protect the town from occasionally savage winter storms.

Even with the protection of the seawall, buildings still sometimes sustain damage. In a recent storm the Board of Trade Saloon suffered broken windows and three feet of water in bottom floor.

Beach and seawall

Pebble Beach, Nome You can still make a living panning gold on this Bering Sea beach.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

On Front Street in Nome for the start of sled dog race.

Nome is the finish line for the annual Iditarod Race. Known as "The Last Great Race on Earth", mushers and dogs travel 1,049 miles from Anchorage to Nome each March.

Heading out along the ice just outside of Nome.

heads out along the ice just outside of Nome

The Finish Line, between the City Hall and the Nugget Inn.

A mural commemorating sled-dog racing

The Nome National Forest on the frozen Bering Sea,is a great example of the Nomites’ sense of humor. Each year after Christmas, Christmas trees are recycled by freezing them into the sea ice.

It's strange because Nome is on the tundra - there are no trees anywhere for a hundred miles. Gives the Ididtarod visitors something to smile at...

Taking one of the commercial tours of Nome.

Little Creek Gold Mining Station

Still working !

Old mine office (museum)

The famous “Last train to nowhere” in the tundra.

For use during the gold rush in 1903. Before the tracks could be completed, the company that purchased the engines went under in 1907.

Swanberg's dredge #5

Swanberg's dredge


Another abandoned gold mining facility.

Nome stretches east and west largely on a relatively flat stretch of tundra coastline.

Treeless hills roll into the background.

Tundra under midnight sun.

Nome River

Nome River Nome River

A tundra cabin.

Inupiaq eskimo igloo

FaunaAleutian Terns outside of Nome

Ptarmigan in a willow

Reindeer herd

Musk ox feeding in the willows

Driftwood in the shores of the Bering sea.

The Safety Roadhouse, Solomon village. An 'operating' typical roadhouse in the tundra, looking out over the Bering Sea.

Most of old roadhouses are in ruins; some, declared heritage, are being recovered.

http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/36294/photos/view/30/2

Inside: relax and warm up



Old Cape Nome roadhouse, now recovered and private.Built in 1900, the roadhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Nome Data:

• How to get there: Nome is about 540 air miles, or about three hours, northwest of Anchorage. Driving to Nome, Alaska isn’t possible - there are no roads other than a few from neighboring towns on the tip of the Seward Peninsula

• Facilities: Nome is pretty self-sufficient with 24-hour emergency medical service, hospital, dental clinics, pharmacy, and other community health services.

• “Nomites” also are able to attend one of 12 churches, or use one of two libraries. There is a museum, two banks and a credit union, an indoor swimming pool, a convention center, and school of any grade, including a college

• Other important structures include two airports, port and harbour. Nome is almost entirely supplied by ship and airplane.

The Port of Nome, cargo and petroleum off-loading vessels and cruise ships.

Nome harbour

Alaska Airlines at the Nome Airport

Nome area map

Sources:

• http://www.trekearth.com• http://www.panoramio.com/• http://www.pbase.com• http://www.flickr.com/• http://picasaweb.google.com• http://www.woophy.com/photo• http://www.ldgo.columbia.edu/~cullat/AK/• http://www.nomealaska.org/• http://baltosource.timduru.org/board/viewtopic.php?

f=22&t=22245&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=30

© Mário Ricca, 2009


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Nome, Alaska