Alaska Gold Mining: The Golden Beaches Of Nome

The “golden beaches” of Nome have been described as the richest beaches in the world… And not without good reason! The lode gold deposits that were the origin of the gold that washed down onto Nome’s beaches must have been absolutely incredible judging by what was left behind.

I briefly described the unique nature of Nome’s beach gold in the video, but the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum described the significance of Nome’s beach deposits to the miners caught up in the gold rush quite well and in a manner that, I believe, better conveys the point. So, I shall share their short explanation below:

“The Anvil Creek strike was good, but it probably would not have outshone the Klondike gold fields, except that it led to an amazing discovery. Many of the stampeders who arrived too late to stake claims along the mouth of the Snake River set up tents on the beach, where they made an amazing discovery. There was gold on the beach. Miners swarming over the strike termed it a ‘poor man's paradise.’

For the average stampeder, the beaches had distinct advantages over the Klondike gold fields. They could be reached easily by ship travel, stampeders to this strike did not have to haul 2,000 pounds of goods over narrow snowy mountain passes. And most importantly, because the beach could not be staked, claims were open to everyone. All these men and women needed were shovels, buckets and a rocker to separate gold from sand. Stampeders from all over the United States joined those from Dawson and the rush was on again.”

Even today, there are large sections of beach around Nome where one may search for gold without having a claim. Just as those seeking their fortunes discovered during the gold rush, most of the land surrounding Nome is inaccessible (either privately owned or owned by the City of Nome). The private land is primarily owned by the Nome Gold Alaska Corporation and various ANCSA Corporations. And the offshore dredging that you see on Discovery’s “Bering Sea Gold” series? One cannot file claims offshore, but instead one must obtain leases to dredge within certain areas, much as the oil and gas industry does with drilling rights. However, in the same spirit that so inspired the miners of the past, large swathes of the “golden beaches” are still open to anyone.

One last point to clarify… You’ll recall the “ancient beaches” I mentioned that the gold miners profitably worked? Fine gold was flowing continuously off of lode deposits farther inland that were slowly being eroded away. However, large fluctuations in sea levels, particularly during the Pliocene and Pleistocene eras shifted the beaches as far inland as the base of the distant hills and as far as six miles out into where the present water level is. This is what caused those eleven distinct beaches where the churning waves tossed around so much gold. Some of the old beach deposits are so deeply buried (intervening auriferous glacial drift also helped bury the ancient beaches) that onshore beach deposits were actually drift mined in the early 1900s by gold miners running shafts down from the surface.

I didn’t purchase it, but I stumbled across a book online while researching Nome before our trip that looked interesting in case anyone would like to see and know more. The details are below:

Nome: City of the Golden Beaches (Alaska Geographic, Vol. 11, No. 1) Paperback – February 1, 1984

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Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them – nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.

These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever.

I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!

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