Looking Back: The 1900 Nome Gold Rush

By Laura Samuelson, Director, Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum

For the last five weeks of Nome’s brief summer, the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum has been pleased to present excerpts from the diary of Wilfred A. McDaniel Sr. Wilfred and his brother Ed were two of the 20,000 Argonauts who streamed to the Nome Gold Rush in 1900. We are grateful to Wilfred’s daughter Irene McDaniel and her husband Robert Johnson as well as son Wilfred Jr. and Lois McDaniel who donated the photographs, writings, and artifacts collected between 1899 and 1907. The family preserved and protected Wilfred’s legacy for 93 years until the collection was donated to the people of Nome in 2001.

We conclude this series with a burning question: Should the boys stay in Nome or go south for the winter? Brother Ed voted with his gold nuggets and bought two tickets to San Francisco on the Senator. They had two days to close up camp and high tail it to Nome...

ALASKA BECKONS

By Wilfred A. McDaniel

On the morning of the 25th, the tent was taken down and with stove and cooking utensils, was cached with our other possessions. In the afternoon, carrying our luggage and blanket rolls, we mushed into Nome.

WHERE THE HECK ARE MY SEA LEGS?! - Returning to California on the

hurricane deck of the steamship Senator in November 1900 storm

in the North Pacific. “The grub is as follows. Breakfast: Mush – very poor,

with lumps as big as an egg in it, boiled potatoes and fried meat and belly

wash coffee. Dinner: Boiled potatoes. Mush is left out and stew substituted.

Supper: Just read the dinner menu backwards and you have it.” Caption & Photo

by Wilfred McDaniel from the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum Archives

The town was alive with the great influx of miners from the creeks and distant points, some making preparations for the long winter, others, like ourselves, arranging transportation to “The Outside.” Many were utterly discouraged, others in high spirits, according to the smiles of the Goddess Fortune!

On the evening of the 25th, from the heaving deck of the Senator, we saw the twinkling lights of Nome gradually fade away, as the Senator turned her bow southward, and it was with a feeling of regret that we saw the last gleam dim out, as the mists closed in.

Thoughts soon turn to the more comfortable prospects ahead in sunny California, and home, together with future plans for the coming spring, when the call of the North would lure us back to that desolate, but fascinating land!

SEE YOU NEXT SUMMER, HANDSOME! - Just like 2013, this Gibson gal bids adieu to her fair weather Nome

beau back in 1902. Photo by Wilfred McDaniel from the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum Archives

Alaska Bar Association Historians Luncheon – Wednesday, October 30

The Alaska Bar Association will host “The Legacy of Gideon: 50 Years in the 49th State,” a panel discussion at its annual Historians Luncheon on Wednesday, October 30, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage.

In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the Supreme Court ruled that in criminal cases courts must provide counsel to defendants who cannot afford to hire their own attorneys. The moderated panel discussion includes Quinlan Steiner, Public Defender, State of Alaska; Rich Curtner, Federal Public Defender for the District of Alaska; Karen Loeffler, U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska; and Larry Card, Superior Court Judge (Ret.).

Attendees must register at: https://www.alaskabar.org/servlet/clecalendaritem?id=738

Looking Back: The 1900 Nome Gold Rush

By Laura Samuelson, Director, Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum

With less and less hours of daylight, everything is freezing especially the Brothers McDaniel. Do we stay or go? Spend the winter in a tent at -20F or go home to sunny San Jose, California and return next June. Which would you choose?? ...

ALASKA BECKONS

By Wilfred A. McDaniel

“How cold is it?” Ed inquired, as I proceeded to get the breakfast, after a chilly night. I looked at the thermometer hanging outside, over the tent door. “Ten below zero,” I replied, “We can’t stand this much longer!”

TAKE ME HOME, SWEET VICTORIA – “Steamers were anchored in the roadstead,

and a number had already departed with miners returning to “the States.” The

passenger ship, Victoria, carried Nomeites south for the winter for almost forty

years. Photo Wilfred McDaniel, Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum Archives

After all of the outfit had been stacked, engine and pump bearings and moving parts sealed in heavy grease and canvassed, the respite from the strenuous labor of the season just finished, was indeed, a welcome relaxation! Many details still occupied our time, however, and there was still an important decision to be made. We must soon make permanent plans for the long winter, just beginning, or if we decide to go “Outside,” make reservations for the trip out. This was our final decision, for from experience gained, many changes in the pumping plant could be made, making necessary the selection and purchase of needed parts, which could best be done there.

Steamers were anchored in the roadstead, and a number had already departed with miners returning to “the States.” Navigation would soon close and all craft would be compelled to leave in a few days or risk the Arctic pack, which usually drifted in, early in November, effectually closing navigation until the following June.

“Well,” said Ed, one morning. “I’ll go to Nome and get a couple of steamer tickets, and you had better burn out that amalgam and fix it up, and we’ll take it out to ‘Frisco, to the mint.

GOLD FEVER REWARDS - “This I did, putting the mixture of gold and

quicksilver into the iron retort, heating it in the stove to a red heat,

recovering the quick’ in a pan of water...” Photo Wilfred McDaniel,

Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum Archives

This I did, putting the mixture of gold and quicksilver into the iron retort, heating it in the stove to a red heat, recovering the quick’ in a pan of water in which the small tube from the retort was placed. This done, weighing and packing it safely came next. The gold was weighed on the scales which we had purchased from the, now, defunct New York Company! The bullion tipped the balance at 125 ounces, not bad for a season of inexperience and handicaps. Expenses for labor and operating the plant, amounting to about fifteen hundred dollars, had required the sale of nearly another hundred ounces, and this had been sold to the banks in Nome.

Ed returned with the tickets. “The Senator sails on the 25th,” he said, “We’ve just two days left to get packed and get down to Nome!”

 

A FAMILY PORTRAIT - "Wife of Ah-ta-see-uk holding little Weeli-tuk. See-ya-uk, her son. Two King Island girls. Little Ootana and her mother, Ka-neel-uk (meaning reindeer)." Wilfred McDaniel made friends with the Penny River Eskimos, learned their language, and recorded their names when he took this photograph. Photo Wilfred McDaniel, Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum Archives

Continued the week of October 28.

Public Lectures in Anchorage and Fairbanks – Tuesday 10/22

Both Anchorageites and Fairbanksans have great events happening in their communities on Tuesday, October 22.

In Anchorage, check out a lecture by Alaska author and historian James Mackovjak:

Alaska State Library (ASL-P97-1233)

“Alaska Salmon Traps: Their History and Impact on Alaska Communities”

Tuesday, October 22

12:00 p.m.

Cooperative Extension Service

1675 C Street #100

Brown bag lunch, beverages provided, videoconferencing available.

Mackovjak was recently honored by AHS with the Pathfinder Award for his work on the histories of timber, freighting, and fish traps.

Folks in Fairbanks can head up to UAF for a lecture by Rose Speranza, assistant archivist:

“Seek and Perhaps Ye Shall Find: Religious Records and Resources for the Study of Alaskan History”

Tuesday, October 22

7:00 p.m.

UAF Rasmuson Library

The lecture will focus on written records from the archives and will feature the type of materials, where they are housed, and how they can be used in researching Alaskan history.

Looking Back: The 1900 Nome Gold Rush

By Laura Samuelson, Director, Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum

Last week Ed and Wilfred were mining fish as well as gold. The pump was sucking up tomcod and dumping them into the sluice box. This week their mining days are numbered...

ALASKA BECKONS

By Wilfred A. McDaniel

The short days of October passed quickly, with a noticeable decrease in daylight, from day to day. From the continuous day light of summer to the long, dark nights of winter, the change is rapid.

PREPARED FOR WINTER – “It was with no great reluctance that we

stacked the sluices, after making the last clean-up, and gave King

Winter undisputed sway!” Note the driftwood stacked against the tent

for insulation and protection from the wind. Photo by Wilfred

McDaniel from the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum Archives

Increasing cold came as the sun came southward, lowering slowly toward the horizon, as each day passed. Heavy freezes came during the longer nights and working hours were often shortened because of frost and ice in the pits. Thawing of the pump became necessary, and as the weather grew colder, to prevent damage, a complete draining of the water from pump and engine was required.

Owing to the fact that saltwater freezes at a lower temperature, mining on the beach continued for some time after the creek placers had shut down for the winter.

Our work went on during the shortening hours of sunshine, but the discomfort of working in the stinging cold, and accomplishing so little was disheartening. Even the gold lost its lure, and when icicles hung from the pump and sluice-boxes, and slush ice formed on the seepage water under foot, it was with no great reluctance that we stacked the sluices, after making the last clean-up, and gave King Winter undisputed sway!

A TIME FOR EVERY SEASON - “With lowering temperatures, living and sleeping

in the tent became an uncomfortable problem!” Photo by Wilfred

McDaniel from the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum Archives

October 15th marked the end of the mining season. A record kept showed that we had worked almost eighty days of actual mining, and under the conditions during which this was accomplished, it seemed a real achievement! The mining season over, removal and storage of engine and pump was undertaken at once. This was found to be much easier now, for the hard, frozen beach made an ideal pavement and by aid of planks from the wrecked lighter, with pinch bars and rollers, the various heavy parts were placed safely back on the bench and wrapped in canvas, soon to be buried under the deep snows of winter.

With lowering temperatures, living and sleeping in the tent became an uncomfortable problem! The heavy cast-iron stove was now useless. During the summer it had been set up in a shelter attached to the tent, but its bulk and poor heating capacity made it unfitted for present conditions, and a sheet iron Yukon stove replaced it. While fire remained in the Yukon stove the interior of the tent would be dry and comfortable, but at night, after we had rolled in the blankets, the fire soon died out. Water left on the stove at night would be ice in the morning, and our damp outer garments would be stiff with frost, but soon thawed after dressing!

Continued in the week of October 21.