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Prospectors Could Pick Gold Off The Ground In This Incredible Historical Gold Rush
Not the Gold Rush you are thinking about
When people think of gold rushes, they often think of California. After all, San Francisco's football team is still named after the 1849 gold rush that saw thousands of people stream west to the Pacific Ocean in search of fortunes. Many people didn’t find fortune in California. Most people found shanty towns and overpriced water. That was not the case in one particular gold rush just south of the Arctic Circle in 1899.
The Nome gold rush saw thousands of people stream west and then north. A long way north. To find a place where gold could literally be found lying on the ground. Such stories often accompanied gold rushes, but in this case, it was actually true.
A True Gold Rush
The Nome Gold Rush officially began in 1898 when three men discovered gold littering the bottom of Anvil Creek outside of Nome. The men, dubbed Three Lucky Swedes, were Jafet Lindeberg Erik Lindblom and John Brynteson. They founded the Nome Mining District and began exploiting their claim.
