Page 127 - Vacation Country Travel Guide

home. The museum was first constructed contemporary narratives as visitors can step
in 1967, but they faced problems with the inside a miner’s tent, operate a gold dredge,
limited space in the building where they see an Inupiat skin boat, listen to audio
stored the collection. Also, because of recordings in Nome’s first phone booth, and
its location in a floodplain and frequent watch a film on tales of Nome’s early days.
storms from the Bering Sea, the artifacts The museum blends historical collections
often needed to be relocated. Throughout with masterful storytelling and technology,
the years, the collection expanded as an positioning itself as an essential place to
effort was made to bring back artifacts to inform, engage, and inspire discussion.
Nome from the lower 48 states that were One of the more popular exhibits is
of historical relevance to the town. For “Fritz”, the preserved Siberian husky dog
Museum Director Cheryl Thompson, the who was musher Leonhard Seppala’s lead
intriguing and diverse collection really came dog during the 1925 Serum Run. The Serum
alive when she first saw a display of ivory Run transported diphtheria medicine by dog
labrets, which are facial jewelry often worn sled across 674 miles in just five and a half
by indigenous men in holes in the corner days, saving Nome and surrounding villages
of their mouths, “I saw that display and from the outbreak. People commemorate
then that winter I traveled to Mexico City the Serum Run every year with the Iditarod,
and saw Aztec labrets in the anthropology a dogsled race from Anchorage to Nome
museum. That was so amazing to me on the through some of the harshest, most
interconnection between cultures who are spectacular landscape mother nature offers.
vastly apart geographically.” Whether you are in Nome for the gold, the
Today, through a combination of private Iditarod or even their world class birding,
and state funding, the museum is now the landmark Carrie McLain Memorial
housed in the beautiful Richard Foster Museum should be on your list to see. This
Building, which also houses the Kegoayah museum was the collaborative work of many
Kozga Library, and the Katirvik Cultural people, however it started with one woman,
Center. The new museum space has a Carrie McLain, who had the foresight and
visiting research room, two galleries, love of Nome and Alaska, to collect artifacts
archival storage and a conservation lab for future generations. “Nome is a rough
which maintains the museum’s collection and tumble place. No one is going to be
numbering in the thousands. impressed with the town,” says Thompson.
The 3,200 square foot main gallery space “But the museum is first class.” The Carrie
displays the exhibit, “Nome: Hub of Cultures McLain Memorial Museum preserves the
and Communities Across the Bering Strait.” past, educates the present, and inspires the
This long-term exhibit collaborated with future for everyone.
over 50 community members who shared For hours of operation please visit
stories, artifacts and photographs around nomealaska.org
five major themes: subsistence in the Arctic To learn more fascinating details about
environment, mining, the built landscape, Carrie McLain teaching in rural Alaska,
transportation, and sustainability. you can check out her memoir “Pioneer
Immersive exhibits connect the past with Teacher” available on Amazon.

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