Page 126 - Vacation Country Travel Guide

Nome's Treasure the Carrie McLain Museum
Exploring the exhibits at

By Suzanne Graber-Alvarez

Tacoma, Washington, Carrie made her way
back north to teach school in Teller and
Haycock, Alaska, and eventually became
Nome’s first female city clerk. Throughout
her life in Alaska, she collected bits and
pieces of Nome history: photographs,
miners’ clothing, household items, such
as opera glasses and doilies and items
made for tourists such as an ivory carved
cribbage board with reindeer and dogs.
This eclectic collection became the
backbone of Carrie’s traveling museum. Her
In 1905, 10-year-old Carrie McLain, along extensive knowledge of Nome made her
with her three sisters and one brother, a sought-after speaker for slideshows and
moved from Long Island, New York to presentations about the region by various
Nome, Alaska, a distance of 3,700 miles. clubs and organizations. As the collection
To a young girl, the gold rush town of Nome grew, so did the desire to find a permanent
must have been as foreign as moving to the
moon. Carrie’s father William had been in
Alaska the previous eight years as part of
the stampeders chasing dreams of gold in
the Yukon territory. William was not one of
the handful of men who struck it rich but
was part of the many who built wealth off
of the miners and visitors in the new boom
town of Nome. He helped tame the tent
city by establishing a wallpaper and painting
business, as churches, schools, restaurants,
and mercantile stores were quickly being
erected for the growing population.
It was in this environment where Carrie
grew up and flourished. In 1913 she
graduated salutatorian of her six person
high school class. Attending college in

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