Re: Nome Storm
T. Parsons said:
Ernie and everyone else,
Gold mining is still going strong here, several small operations and one large one. A friend last summer got a forty+ ounce nugget with a small suction dredge. Several people still work the beach placers and do quite well. As to the questions on the lend lease and the base the Carrie M. McClain Museum (907) 443- 6630 has a great amount of photos and information. I will ask if there is a web site and post it if it is available. There ARE LOTS of neat places to fly to, Hot Springs, Mining camps active and abandoned, and of course fishing holes. Nome has character and interesting history, not real eye, but good people and the country kind of grows on you.
As to the bluff you mentioned, flying in low fog around big rocks is bad for my health. T. Parsons
Knowing that bluff, I am still rolling on the flour laughing from your last comment. What a great way to say it but how true you are. Kind of like Franklin Bluff on the North Slope that an unnamed air carrier dropped a
C-130 on while trying to land and broke it's back. Story elsewhere.
Did you ever run into a Bob Strange, passably a VP for a dredge operation? He used to work for us at Prudhoe Bay with Wien.
Is the road open again east of town? I understood a bridge was lost. What ever happened to that Model T truck at one mining operation east of town before the road? As I recall, it looked new, the air was still in the tires and it cranked up on first try with new gas poured in the carb. So much history east of town. So much history all over the Nome area that most people never hear about and from the number of readers to this thread , they might be interested. Pass my request for info on to the Chamber of Commerce. After all, if you post it, it will go world wide here.
I try to read the Nome Nugget as often as I can.
I remember when I relieved Dale for his vacation from Wien for a month, I really had a good time. I lived upstairs over the terminal at the hanger but spent my time on front street. My good friend, Blueberry John, took me down to the beach to his special area to pan for gold. I probably got more gold in a couple of hours of panning than Wien paid me for all day. I just loved Wien and aviation more I guess. Of course the Blonde in the Breakers got to me too.
Thanks for the info, I for one appreciate the information. That info from the museum might really be great here if they have a web site. If not, maybe you could send me anything, I can upload it into the gallery and pass it on in this or another thread. Feel free to give them my address.
By the way, is that huge icky red color 4 wheel suction dredge still working off shore? Twelve foot high flotation tires?
Ernie