On September 0th, 1915, The Cordova Daily Times broke the news that William Van Valin, a noted explorer, lecturer, and teacher, had discovered a “Lake of Oil” a mile inland from Smith Bay, approximately halfway between Wainwright and Utqiagvik (Point Barrow) Van Valin described and photographed streams of crude two feet thick flowing from the […]
This day, September 3rd, marks the day in 1941 that nine officers and 221 enlisted men arrived in Nome to protect the Marks Army Airfield, named after Major Jack S. Marks, a pilot from Ladd Army Airfield who died in the Aleutians. The field was completed and opened in July of that […]
It was on this day, September 1st, 1906, that Roald Amundsen arrived in Nome aboard the sailing vessel Gjoa. Amundsen had just completed a traverse of the Northwest Passage. It was the first such traverse recorded in history. His feat took three years, which began when he left Oslofjord on June […]
A representative from the US Government set out down the Yukon River to Nome to look at the feasibility of a Harbor in that coastal community on August 27th, 1915. The community and gold miners had to use the beach and the Snake River’s small inlet when landing in the area. This […]