NOME

city, western Alaska, U.S., port on the south Seward Peninsula shore of the Bering Sea. The discovery (September 1898) of gulch gold at nearby Anvil Creek resulted in a remarkable mining stampede. The miners' camp, known as Anvil City, had an estimated population of 20,000 in 1900, which by 1903 had greatly decreased and was 852 at the 1920 census. The settlement was renamed for Cape Nome, as given on a chart dated 1849 and said to be a British naval draftsman's misinterpretation of the query ?Name. Gold mining remained the chief occupation until the dredge fields were closed in 1962. Transportation, tourism, government construction, fishing, reindeer herding, and Eskimo handicrafts are now the economic mainstays. Nome is served by airlines, freight steamers (in summer), and roads radiating into the tundra. Inc. 1901. Pop. (1990) 3,500.