Around Nome

Welcome to Nome Alaska! Nome has only 3 flights a day from Anchorage, the only carrier is Alaska Airlines. The plane from Anchorage to Nome was bigger than I expected. It has 3 seats on both sides and maybe 20 rows. There are smaller carriers that fly to the 15 villages. Most of the planes only carry 4-6 passengers.  

Nome is the end of the Iditarod race, the longest dog sled race. One of these days we are going to make it to Nome for the Iditarod. 

Nome was founded by gold miners. Nome is still a prosperous place for gold mining. We were told about a few mines the kids could walk around in and find small pieces of gold, but we were so busy we didn't make it. Next time!

This was one of the buildings in downtown Nome. (Notice how high the fire hydrant is) There are no stop lights in the town of Nome. Town is about 3/4 miles long and has about 3,000 people. There are also 13 bars in Nome because the villages are dry, so Nome is the only place to get alcohol. Nathan wanted to buy a beer at the grocery store, he looked at Alaskan Amber (which is made in Alaska), it was $18 a six pack!!!! How anyone has the money to drink is beyond me.

Everest saw this truck and had to get a picture of it. He was very excited that there was a cool truck in Nome. Most vehicles there are beaters, because they have to ship them by barge and there are only a few paved roads.

We went to the Nome museum. It was small, but really nice. There was a lot packed into a small space. Nome may be a small town, but it has a lot of history, from gold mining to dog sleds, to Eskimos. The library is in the top part of the museum. It was small, but as a former reading specialist, I was quite impressed with the book selection. The library has a few big windows that overlook the Bering Sea. Everest and I sat and read a few books with the Bering Sea in the background.

This is a dredge about 1/4 mile outside of town. We are not sure if it is supposed to be in water or not. All the other dredges we saw were just on land. This was used for gold mining. There are scoops in the back and somehow it sorts the gold from the dirt and shoots the extra stuff out the front (where Everest is standing). I have no idea how it works, it was huge. There are dredges all over the outskirts of Nome.

Nome is a cool place, but because they have no place for junk, and they reuse all that they can, there is junk laying around everywhere. Most people have old vehicles, 4 wheelers or snow machines that do not work, outside their houses. It makes the place look rough when you first see it, but after a day or two you overlook all of that and can see the potential Nome has to offer.