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.