Nome’s Caucasian claim to Alaska’s history goes back more than 100 years after three greenhorn Scandinavians stumbled across gold in Cape Nome in 1898. Swedish tailor Eric Lindblom, 41, who worked his way north as a deck hand on a whaling ship, Norwegian Jafet Lindberg, 24, who got free passage by pretending to be an experienced reindeer herder, and Swedish coal miner John Brynteson, 27, all ended up in Nome because the promising land in the Klondike already had been claimed.
Their discovery led to America’s last big placer gold rush and yielded $3.5 million in gold by 1900. During the next two decades, it brought in another $80 million. The Nome stampede gave amateurs a chance to make fortunes, as well as provided a second chance to prospectors who’d failed elsewhere.
Following the Scandinavians’ find, thousands of people left Dawson and headed to Nome. The town filled with shady characters and hardened criminals who didn’t pay much attention to American mining laws. By July 1899, almost every potentially valuable claim had been jumped at least twice and some had multiple claimants.
Confusion and unrest reigned among the community’s 3,000 residents. Until a soldier, assigned to a small detachment sent up from St. Michael to guard the settlement, and an old prospector from Idaho found gold in the sands of Nome’s beaches.
Known as the “Poor Man’s Gold Rush,” the discovery of gold on Nome’s beaches meant that anyone could work the public property without staking or recording claims. The area’s population swelled to around 20,000 by 1900, and according to an article in the Nome News, the post office hired 23 clerks to handle 546,000 letters between June and August.
Veteran prospector E. C. Trelawney-Ansell later reported:
“Nome was different, it was a place where the creeks and the town itself filled with thousands of cheechakos who had never known the hardship of the trail and few if any other hardships. Worse still, the camp and surrounding country was filled with gamblers, cutthroats and murderers of the worst kind.”
With more than 60 saloons, dozens of criminals, a few hundred prostitutes and dishonest officials, including an embezzling postmaster, a tax assessor who went to prison for illicit financial dealings and a federal judge who made crooked rulings, it’s not surprising that robberies, murder and mayhem flourished in Nome.
The Poor Man’s Gold Rush played itself out by the end of 1900, and after a fierce storm destroyed the business district and the beach mining operations, thousands left on steamships heading south. Some stayed behind and continued on with placer mining, but by 1910, Nome’s population had dropped back to around 2,000.
This is awesome I love history and learning new things! Especially about Alaska!! Wonderful information!
Wow very interesting. I never knew any of this. Great article!
I have never heard of the Poor Man’s Gold Rush. Thanks for sharing this history.
I love reading your posts about this history in Alaska.
There’s so much history that we never really hear about. Thank you for sharing this.
Wow…sounds like it was a very scary time back then. Interesting story.
They were indeed interesting times, Traci!
You are so welcome, Stephanie – it’s fun researching and learning about our ancestors!
Thank you, Marjory. Alaska does have a lovely, colorful past so it’s fun to research and find entertaining stories to share!
It would have been quite the experience to have lived and participated in such a gold rush back in the day, Ashley – don’t you think?!
Thank you! Alaska’s history from the mid-1800s to early 1900s is steeped in gold rushes!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the story, Shari. I really enjoy researching and writing about my wonderful state!
This is great information and a nice history lesson about the gold rush. I learned so much today
This is a great piece of history that I did not know about the poor mans gold rush
I hope that worth of gold help the locals and not just the miner companies.. Thank you for the post!
One way in which the miners contributed to the local economy (there were only Alaska Native people living in the area before the white men found gold) was that the Natives could sell reindeer meat to them, Richard. Reindeer herding became “big business.”
I’m so glad you visited my history blog, Veronica. I think it’s fun to learn new things about different cultures!
It might have been fun, although hard work, to have participated in this mad dash for golden riches, Tom!
Her is another most interesting article.
I love history and thank you for sharing this.
Great reading the excerts from your books. I only have 2 that I bought from you at the market in Anchorage. Hope to see you this summer as we will be back in Aug. (Maybe buy another book)
I’m glad you are enjoying the posts, Audrey. If you do get to Alaska in August, you will find me at the Downtown Market and Festival across from the Hilton Hotel on Third Avenue in my little tent! Stop by and say “Hi!” I now have four books in the series and am up to 1960.
So glad you enjoyed the story, Dov. Alaska is rich in history!
One of my favorite bits of Alaska history–thanks for posting this!
Will do. You may be here in Harlingen now? We are in McAllen for the winter.
Yes, I’m in Harlingen until the third week of May. Looks like I may be speaking to a book club at the McAllen Country Club on April 10.
You bet, Lynn. It’s fun to learn new things about the world in which we live!