Gold mines and
mining - Nome, Alaska. C.L. Morris Co. moving
50-ton gold beach dredge, 1911. J.H. Montgomery, Manager. Scanned
photo from Anchorage Museum of Fine Arts, Archives Library,
B65.18.652.
Miners drawn north by the Klondike strike soon fanned across Alaska; it didn't take long to hit gold again. Three Scandinavian prospectors struck pay dirt at Cape Nome in late 1898. By July, gold was found mixed in the sand along the Bering Sea. In the summer of 1900, 20,000 people crowded into a tent city on the beach. The next year yielded the biggest nugget ever found in Alaska. It was seven-by-four-by-two inches and weighed 107 ounces, 2 penny-weight.
Every miner was armed, and claim jumping was common. A federal judge, Arthur H. Noyles, was appointed in 1900. He was to bring order to chaos. Noyles disputed claims placed in receivership. Then he appointed Alexander McKenzie {a former North Dakota sheriff,political boss, and Washington lobbyist} as trustee.
McKenzie was taken to San
Francisco, tried, and sentenced to a one-year prison term. Later
President William McKinley reduced his sentence to three months due
to McKenzie's "poor health." Several months later, Noyes was stripped
of his office, fined $1,000, and the respected Judge James Wickersham
was brought in to clean up the town.
A story from the Nome gold rush
The sea-going ship that Dr. Wirt and his companions boarded at St. Michaels was crowded to scuppers. As the ship dropped anchor, five hundred miners on board of the ship jumped out and waded the last few steps. As they made for the far edges of the crowd on the beach. They began to stake claims even before they even set up their tents. Miners with rich claims were panning out the wet sand right at the edge of the sea. Then a sound broke out,"WHOOPEE!" A mass of miners poured toward the sound to see how much gold had came out of a pan. Dr. Wirt went to see what was going on. As he looked at small groups of men sitting on the ground, they were playing with cards. The men were losing their gold faster then they could get it.
Later on, workers got together and built Dr. Wirt a hospital and filled boxes with medicines. He called the hospital St. Bernard. From the Eskimos Dr. Wirt also bought a fine team of huskies. With the sled he brought his patients in to the hospital. By doing this, it was the ambulance in Nome.
By spring the camp faced real hunger. They could only last till open water came again, but no longer. If the first ship came in with food the camp would be all right, but if it didn't, then it will be death for many. Dr. Wirt decided to get food for the camp. He got his dog team together and set off for food. Nobody really believed that Dr. Wirt would make it. Then, months later, as the snow and sea melted and began to wash against the gray sands of the beach, there was shout. A ship was in the horizon, and it was Dr. Wirt. He had reached Washington. He had food, aid, plans for schools and churches, and even a better hospital. Also, a shipment of lumber was on the way.
All around Alaska people were talking about the gold strike at Nome. More and more miners went to Nome until the town was another Skagway. But if it was not for Dr.Wirt, Nome would be a ghost town.