Alkan wrote:
JerseyCaptain wrote:
The influenza epidemic in Nome, in 1918, was brought into the region by immigrants and migrants coming in by ship from the lower 48. Small pox also frequently spread that way. And the flu epidemic hit Nome very hard. Those steam ships were often crowded to the gunwales and then some...and several times in Nome's first year or so, steam ships bringing hopefuls who wanted to strike it rich in the gold fields often were quaranteened before reaching the Nome area. Sometimes, and this is documented, they actually put people ashore on small islands to be quaranteened until medical help could be rendered...effectively stranding them for quite a lengthy, and unpleasant, stay.
Those others from the Lower 48, (U.S.) were coming up from there because of the Gold Rush that only lasted several years. I didn't know they sent a disease too... It's kind of like the Spanish bringing Smallpox to the Aztecs in 1519!
Well the Nome gold rush only lasted a year actually...or just over it. From the end of 1899 through the beginning of 1901.
However, what most people don't realize is that there were rushes for silver and copper as well. Silver especially in that region. White Moutain and Council were both towns that went through that and the gold rush period (though the gold rush moved north and west, so those two towns experienced it before Nome did).
