Last updated: March 20, 2024
Place
Cape Nome Mining District Discovery Sites National Historic Landmark
Eric A. Hegg Collection, University of Washington
Quick Facts
Location:
Nome, Alaska
Significance:
The discovery of gold at Anvil Creek was the first large gold placer strike to be made in Alaska proper.
Designation:
National Historic Landmark designated on June 2, 1978
MANAGED BY:
Gold in the Sand
The Nome gold rush of 1900 was one of the last great mining stampedes in the American West. Discovery Claim on Anvil Creek, E.O. Lindbloom Placer Claim, No. 1 on Snow Creek and the Nome Beach make up the Cape Nome Mining District Discovery Sites.
The discovery of gold at Anvil Creek on September 20, 1898, was the first large gold placer strike to be made in Alaska proper. In 1899, miners discovered gold in the sand on Nome Beach. The Nome strikes near the northwestern tip of North America marked the end of the American gold rush trail. Upwards of 20,000 gold hunters came to Nome in 1900. It was the scene of Alaska’s largest gold rush. During the first ten years of intensive placer mining in northwestern Alaska, from 1898 to 1907, nearly 50 million dollars in gold was produced on the Seward Peninsula, and about 75% of the total came from the streams in the Nome region. Though the initial boom was over quickly, Nome remained for several years both the largest community in Alaska, and the center of the richest mining district in the north.
The Cape Nome Mining District Discovery Sites represent the culminating episode in the national gold rush phenomenon. The resulting rush to Nome in 1899-1900 was Alaska's greatest gold stampede, both in its yield of precious metals and in its influence in increasing the territory's population.
Additional Information
Alaska Goldrush National Historic Landmarks: The Stampede North
Historic Gold Rush Properties at Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
The Great Nome Gold Rush - Smithsonian National Postal Museum
Looking Back: The 1900 Nome Gold Rush - Alaska Historical Society
National Register of Historic Places - Official Nomination Form