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4.2.8.wavAlong with the thousands of prospectors coming to Nome from the Yukon, thousands more headed north from the Pacific Northwest and California. As had happened in the Klondike, those who came the following spring found the claims already staked along all the creeks.
One day, a soldier found gold in the beach sands. Frenzied digging on the Nome beach ensued. The commanding military officer enforced a land office ruling that claims could not be staked in the tidal zone, a 60-foot wide strip of beach. One Idaho prospector, John Hummel, went to work on the beach with a gold rocker and recovered $1,200 worth of gold in just 20 days. Workers from mines along the creeks, making good wages of as much as $11 a day, left their jobs for the beach. During the summer of 1899, 2,000 men and women recovered $2 million in gold from the "golden sands" of Nome's beaches.
Working the Nome beach, 1900
When news of the beach gold and its easy recovery spread, many more people arrived at Nome. Misleading advertisements led some to think they could pick nuggets off the Nome beach with little or no work. At the height of the Nome gold rush, thousands of people worked the beach, and hundreds of tents extended for 15 miles along the beach. Between 1899 and 1910, miners took over $46 million worth of gold from the Nome mining district.
Conditions in Nome were considered worse than those of other mining camps around the state. Barren of trees, miners had little wood for building cabins or heat. The city was notorious for being dangerous and lawless, with claim jumping (illegally taking over a claim), shootouts, muggings, and saloon brawls commonplace. The appointment of Nome's first judge, Arthur Noyes, did not improve the situation. Noyes conspired with the sheriff and district attorney to illegally take over disputed mining claims. All were eventually arrested by U.S. Marshalls sent from San Francisco.
Front St. of Nome, July 1, 1900.
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