September 18, 2012
Nome, Alaska in Pictures: Part I
Posted by Evelyn Mervine
Rust and paint on a gas tank in Nome.
I haven’t done an “…in Pictures” post for awhile, and I have many, many photographs from Nome, Alaska to share with you. I just spent 2 months living and working in Nome, which is an unusual town filled with gold miners in the summer and sled dog racers in the winter. About 3,000 people call Nome home year round. No roads lead to Nome, so everything (people, cars, mining equipment, etc.) is brought in either by airplane or by boat. Because of this, nothing ever leaves Nome. Well, people do, but things (aside from gold, of course) rarely do. The yards of many of the houses in Nome are filled with years of discarded cars, equipment, tools, and so on. Various fields at the edges of town are piled with mounds of junk. I guess it’s just too expensive to remove worn-out items. At first, I found Nome overwhelming and a little bit scary. After a few weeks, however, Nome– piles of rusted junk and all– began to grow on me. While I’m happy to be back at my home base in Cape Town now, I can truly say that I enjoyed my two months in Nome.
Today I’m going to share some pictures from Nome. I took all of the pictures in this post during a walk on a rare sunny (well, overcast… but the sun poked through the clouds sometimes) day back in August. In future posts I’ll share some additional pictures from Nome. Enjoy!
Nome #1. Those are little gold dredge boats on the horizon.
Nome #2. Again, those are little gold dredge boats on the horizon.
Nome #3. Some houses and a wood stockpile.
Nome #4. More houses.
Nome #5. Seagulls and a sign.
Nome #6. Another view of some little gold dredge boats.
Nome #7. A closer view of some gold dredge boats.
Nome #8. The nicest house in Nome?
Nome #9. A bush plane flying over some houses.
Nome #10. A closer view of the bush plane.
Nome #11. Interestingly, many of the locals are Green Bay Packers fans.
Nome #12. Bible & Bookstore.
Nome #13. Another house.
Nome #14. An interestingly shaped house.
Nome #15. A sidewalk mermaid.
Nome #16. Little gold dredge boats everywhere.
Nome #17. Another close-up view of some gold dredge boats.
Nome #18. Some of the little gold dredge boats seem to barely float!
Nome #19. A little gold dredge boat with another little boat in tow.
Nome #20. An ominous sky over the little gold dredge boats.
Nome #21. Looking back towards town from the beach.
Nome #22. The Nome Trading Company.
Nome #23. Well, I bet you won't see this creative home decoration in Martha Stewart's "Living."
Nome #24. A crazy caravan and an American flag.
Nome #25. Abandoned mining equipment from one of Nome's previous gold rushes.
Nome #26. Gears and tundra flowers.
Nome #28. An old cement mixer truck.
Nome #29. More old gold mining equipment.
Nome #30. Gold dredging equipment, old and new.
Nome #31. Addressed to Nome.
Nome #32. An old Ford.
Nome #33. A painted gas tank.
Nome #34. Truck trailers.
Nome #35. Big Jim's Auto Repair.
Nome #37. Junk everywhere!
Nome #37. Beaver digger.
Nome #38. Containers.
Nome #39. Subway... and Nome's movie theater!
Nome #40. Nome's best restaurant (in my opinion, anyway): The Bering Sea!
Hope you enjoyed these pictures from Nome. I’ll share more soon.
Looked over your pictorial, seems you did not wander to far off of Front St..you missed more junk. 🙂 We have lived here for about thirty years, and call Nome home. Nome has many miles of roads to investigate and therein lies a secret about this bush community, many animals to see and such beauty. We never tire of this area and rarely leave.
Wher you live seems scary to me. 🙂
Hi Dennis–
Yes, on this particular walk I didn’t venture too far from Front Street. I did wander a little bit further afield on other walks and drives. I do enjoy Nome– I guess it was just a shock at first since it’s so different from any place I’ve ever been before :-).
I, too, found South Africa a little bit scary when I first moved here (my husband in South African), but I’ve since grown to love South Africa. I guess it’s all what you’re used to!
Please let me know if there’s any particular places in Nome which I should visit. I’m pretty sure I’ll be back in Nome next year!
live there about 4 years ago in the
’40s when front st was a boardwalk. worked in the federal bldg. which, at the time, was behind the only paved street in town. I was w. the Army’s Alaska Communication Service by day at AFRS at nite – WXLN, The Voice of the Arctic. Loved the town and the people
I wrote this some time ago, send it to the museum in an effort to locate pictures I sent them a couple years ago that were to have been part of a display there. Since then, I have sent several e-mails there to check their status and have them returned since I am 86, have bone degeneration. I want them for my family. I’ve never had the courtesy of a reply. Could you help me. I would deeply
appreciate it. Frank Roberts
Good to see some Old Home pics (I was born in Nome-some 50 yrs ago) My parents worked in a store-a Mercantile that had Whale Baleen on both sides of the entryway.