Monday, August 20, 2007
Nome
First of all, I think Nome is a great placename.
Nome is located on the Seward Peninsula, in northwestern Alaska on the Bering Sea. This is the penisula where the state comes the closest to Asia. The peninsula is the location of the Beringea land bridge.
You must fly to Nome (or go by water). Alaska Airlines has 2 flights daily in specially fitted planes that have about 1/2 of the passenger seats removed to make way for cargo. The only roads are 3 local roads that are each about 70 miles long that go to nearby villages. Nome is located far enough north so that no trees grow nearby. One of the reasons that people like to go to the end of the Council road is because there are trees there.
The town seems desolate and forlorn without snow. I imagine that WITH snow is it white and forbidding but less tattered looking. The tattered appearance may be due to the lack of trees to shelter the buildings. After the inital shock of the treeless landscape I really liked it. I felt like I was on the edge of the world.
Nome became a boom town during the Alaskan gold rush when gold was found on the beaches. There are abandoned gold dredging buckets sprinkled around town as a reminder of its gold-obsessed past. Gold mining has recently been revived. There were "miners" living in tents all along the beach. They had various kinds of makeshift dredging devices. I spent part of an afternoon wading around in the Bering Sea panning for gold. I have a few flakes for my trouble.
Nome is also the end of the Iditarod, the 1000 mile dogsled race that begins in Anchorage. The race milepost says 923. It is located near the Safety Roadhouse about a dozen miles from Nome on the Council road.
Nome is located on the Seward Peninsula, in northwestern Alaska on the Bering Sea. This is the penisula where the state comes the closest to Asia. The peninsula is the location of the Beringea land bridge.
You must fly to Nome (or go by water). Alaska Airlines has 2 flights daily in specially fitted planes that have about 1/2 of the passenger seats removed to make way for cargo. The only roads are 3 local roads that are each about 70 miles long that go to nearby villages. Nome is located far enough north so that no trees grow nearby. One of the reasons that people like to go to the end of the Council road is because there are trees there.
The town seems desolate and forlorn without snow. I imagine that WITH snow is it white and forbidding but less tattered looking. The tattered appearance may be due to the lack of trees to shelter the buildings. After the inital shock of the treeless landscape I really liked it. I felt like I was on the edge of the world.
Nome became a boom town during the Alaskan gold rush when gold was found on the beaches. There are abandoned gold dredging buckets sprinkled around town as a reminder of its gold-obsessed past. Gold mining has recently been revived. There were "miners" living in tents all along the beach. They had various kinds of makeshift dredging devices. I spent part of an afternoon wading around in the Bering Sea panning for gold. I have a few flakes for my trouble.
Nome is also the end of the Iditarod, the 1000 mile dogsled race that begins in Anchorage. The race milepost says 923. It is located near the Safety Roadhouse about a dozen miles from Nome on the Council road.
# posted by blue-foot Sue @ 9:24 PM 
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