Nome

Nome (nōm), city (1990 pop. 3,500), W Alaska, on the southern side of Seward Peninsula, on Norton Sound; founded c.1898, when gold was discovered on the beach there. It is the commercial, government, and supply center for NW Alaska, with an airport. Major economic mainstays are mining, tourism, fishing, and government. The city is also a center of Eskimo handicrafts. Nome was a gold rush town from 1899 to 1903; it attracted some 20,000 prospectors, but many died or left because of the hardships. Dredging, which replaced older methods of mining, ceased in 1962, but was renewed in the 1980s. The city is the scene of an annual Midnight Sun Festival and is the terminus of the annual Iditarod dogsled race. Cape Nome lies to the southeast.

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Nome

Seaport (pop., 2000: 3,505), western Alaska, U.S., on the southern side of the Seward Peninsula. Founded as a mining camp called Anvil City after the discovery of gold at nearby Anvil Creek in 1898, it became a centre of the Alaskan gold rush of 1899–1903. Its population, estimated at 20,000 in 1900, had dwindled to 852 by 1920. Gold mining remained the chief occupation until the dredge fields were closed in 1962. The finish line for the Iditarod trail sled race, it also serves as a supply centre for northwestern Alaska.

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See GNOME.