Before we get too far from Alaska, I want to share about my mom and dad’s short side trip to Nome. My dad watches the Bering Sea Gold reality TV show and he really wanted to go there. Well, me and Darin, not so much. We decided to skip that little trip and we hung out with Sally.
They flew on Alaska Airlines from Anchorage to Nome, rented a car, and stayed in a small local hotel for two nights. Nome is mostly famous for gold mining and the Iditarod race. For the rest of the year, the Iditarod Arch is located next to City Hall, but it is placed in the middle of Front Street to serve as the finish line on the first Saturday in March.
The feature photo of this article was taken at the Anvil City Square. Besides the gold pan sign and statues of the eskimos, there is a historic Roman Catholic Church. These are all reminders of early Nome.
A couple miles outside of town, is the location of the final checkpoint for the race. Along the path from Anchorage to Nome, there are 18 checkpoints where the dogs are checked by vets and everyone gets some food and much needed rest.
Homes throughout the town are basic and similar to those we saw in Barrow. All of the roads are gravel and you cannot reach Nome by car. Once in the area, you can drive on 300 miles of roads through tundra, mountains, and coastal plains.
One lady offers a driving tour to the fishing community of Teller, in which she provides a lot more background about the history of the village. She took them down the Nome-Teller Highway, and from the last hill you can see all of Teller.
They got to meet the driver’s ex-boyfriend who previously finished third in an Iditarod race. He still has some of his dogs on his property.
Many people were drying and smoking salmon in Teller. The fish were hanging outside, and somehow protected from predators.
Herds of muskoxen are often seen along the highway. They still forage in the tundra, just as they did during the ice age. Some farms raise these wild creatures and brush out their fur to make yarn. It is said to be the warmest and most water resistant of any natural fiber.
Now here’s a sight to make you go “huh”? Driving out of Nome and across a bridge, there are some old train engines just sitting in the tundra. They were abandoned where they sat after the bridge was washed out by the river and never rebuilt. The tracks were laid just beyond the bridge, but never finished. The train had originally been built to carry miners and supplies to the goldfields before roads were created.
Before the road bridge was erected, they used a ferry to get people and goods across the river.
There are still a few dredges in the vicinity. A smaller one sits a few blocks from the edge of town, while two larger ones owned by the Alaska Gold Company are further out of town. They were both operational until the mid-1990’s.
The Bering Sea was quite rough during this trip. It didn’t seem to deter the miners though. You can see the larger boats on the horizon, trying to get that gold.
I don’t know how much they reveal about Nome on reality TV, but my parents certainly enjoyed their visit. There’s so much to see and do around the giant state of Alaska.
Here’s a final picture of the Pomrenke’s mining area in Nome. Dad was disappointed that he didn’t run into any of the guys on the show.
