Page 125 - Vacation Country Travel Guide

Nome community enjoy a festive banquet halfway
through the race.
Then there’s the Iditarod Trail Invitational in
March when a select group of (fool)hardy souls
test themselves against Alaska’s winter elements,
traversing the famed trail by mountain bike, skis or
on foot. The 5K shoreline Gold Dust Dash offers up
a gold nugget to the winner, while the Poor Man’s
Beach Gold Panning Contest pits participants against
each other to see who can find gold first in their bag
of pay dirt.
Summerfest joyfully celebrates youth and art, while
shopping for unique, hand-made items is a breeze at
Nome’s arts and crafts fairs, the largest of which is held Nome Harbor
photo by:
during Iditarod Week in mid-March. The Nome Arts VC Travel Guide
Council hosts the two-day Alappaa Film Festival, and
biannual Open Mic events showcasing music, dance,
poetry and storytelling. The Salmonberry Jam Folk site recognized within the Qawiaraqmiut traditional 20 priests, nuns and other workers ran the facility,
Fest is three fun-filled days of local and guest music territory with a long history of use that continues which housed about 100 children annually, the first of
artists, workshops, dancing, crafts and community to the present. Honored as a very special place which primarily orphaned by the 1918 flu epidemic,
cookout. The Blueberry Festival features arts and where animals and edible plants were available followed by diphtheria and tuberculosis outbreaks.
crafts, music and delightful blueberry concoctions. for subsistence even in winter, the Native people Catholic priest Father Bellarmine LaFortune had
Check the Alaska.org website for more information or respectfully used the springs in times of need, begun relocating the mission at the village of Mary’s
contact the Nome Visitors Center to determine what’s enjoying healing hot water soaks surrounded by the Igloo to Pilgrim Hot Springs when the global Spanish
happening during your visit. beauty and spirituality of the area. Flu pandemic hit the Nome region. Over half the
Pilgrim Hot Springs During the Nome Gold Rush In the early 1900s, population of Mary’s Igloo passed away as a result.
Located 60 road miles from Nome off Kougarok miners were attracted to the site but disregarded Numbering between 60 and 70, the deceased were
Road, Pilgrim Hot Springs is a lush, treed oasis the traditional use rules. Claimed in 1905 under the transported by dog team for mass burial in a sandy
with a unique past. On the National Register of Homestead Act, the area changed ownership twice. area near the hot springs that was not frozen ground.
Historic Places, the 320-acre property is positioned A saloon, dance hall and roadhouse were built at the Geothermal heat was used for the buildings and
in the tundra between Hen and Chickens Hill and the site that burned in 1908. Subsequently, the property gardens were developed. Combined with the natural
Kigluaik Mountain range. Pilgrim Hot Springs was was deeded to Judge George Schofield, who in turn abundance of fish, wild plants and game, the mission
purchased in late 2009 from the Catholic Bishop of deeded it in 1917 to the Provincial of the Jesuit was largely self-supporting. After more than 20 years
Northern Alaska by a consortium of seven indigenous Province of California as a gift for a Catholic mission. of operation and the decline of orphans in need, the
organizations in the Bering Strait region who formed The Catholic Diocese of Nome acquired the Pilgrim mission closed down in 1941. A series of caretakers
Unaatuq, LLC. homestead, and Our Lady of Lourdes Orphanage looked after the Pilgrim Hot Springs property until
Uunaqtuq (it is warm or hot) was an important and 14 other structures were built. A staff of around it was purchased by Unaatuq. Many of the original

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