Gold Mining and Pilgram

There is a gold mining camp just down the road from Nome. Unfortunately, you have to drive on the beach using a 4 wheeler or truck to get there because there are no

roads and you have to cross a river. The camp is by the mouth of the Penny River. GPAA is associated with this camp, which is a big gold mininging organziation. People all over the US come to mine here. It is a cute place in a beautiful location. The camp itself is modeled from the old west. As you can see from the picture, the saloon is a big common area for everyone. There is also a cafeteria, church, and trading post. The camp opens up to the public on Friday nights. They serve free spagetti to anyone who can get to the camp and the night ends with a night of karaokee in the saloon. It is pretty fun. I have been there twice. The campers also divide their gold that was found that week. It is interesting to see all of the gold they have gathered.

Another adventure that I recently had is my first trip to Pilgram Hot Springs. This little town is located about 90 miles away from Nome. It was created in the early 1900s to house children. During this time, many people were getting sick with the flu. They wanted to protect the children so they built an orphanage and a church near these hot springs. No one lives there now but it is a popular tourist destination. Walking into the church, the first floor is an annex and what can be assumed to be a kitchen and dinning area. The worship part of the church is on the second floor. Another house out in this abbandoned village is the old orphanage. This is a sad building to walk into. The building is empty except some small rooms and closets with school desks shoved into it. It is also condemed. The first half of the building is fine to walk into but the other half looks like it fell from the posts that it was standing on to protect it from permafrost. If you leave the little abandoned village, you come across a path that will take you to the springs. There is so much sulfer that it smells like rotten eggs. Apparently someone had the idea that these springs would make a great hot tub. Near the springs, they build large 3-4 foot deep tub and had the springs pour hot water into it. We tried to get in but the water was so hot that your foot would turn red after 5 second of being in the water. I'm sure the water would be wonderful in the fall.

The Little Things

There are a lot of little things about Alaska that I would love to remember. For example, muskox are very typical to see around here. You are not allowed to get close to them but there is a short hunting season for them. They are like the cows of the north. They just wonder around the tundra and eat grass. It is always fun to see them in the most random places you can think of. We've seen them everywhere from near White Alice (the weird radio thing on top of Anvil Mountain) to eating grass near the correctional center. I remember reading somewhere that these animals are the closest animals we have from before the Ice Age. There is a picture of muskox above... clearly I don't have a good zoom function.

Another aspect of Alaska that I love is the ability to walk out to the tundra and pick berries. It sounds silly but it is a lifestyle. Many people pick enough berries for the winter. Typically berries go into Eskimo Icecream, which consists of seal oil, crisco, berries, and maybe some other things. It sounds nasty but it is pretty good! I typically make jam out of the berries. Pancakes are another good use of the berries. Between Leah and I, we have enough to last all winter. There is something very peaceful about picking berries so we always try and find an excuse to pick more berries.

Fireweed is another thing that is big up here. It is a flower that grows just about everywhere. It is so pretty and brings a lot of life to this part of the world. This purple flower is used to make honey, wine, and jam. I haven't made wine but my attempts at the other two are pretty good!

My First Village Trip

This picture is of Sarah Palin and myself.

This past week was a nice steady week. I was very proud of myself because I was able to gain permission from a publishing company to use their book. Another big event this week was KNOM's 38th birthday.

Finally, I got to go on my first village trip. A village trip is invaluable to KNOM members. They help us learn more about our audience and their lifestyles. Since Nome is more of a city, it doesn't fully portray the lifestyle of these villages.

Friday was my first trip. I flew to Unalakleet, one of the larger fishing villages, to attend a bill signing. Sarah Palin flew into Unalakleet to sign this bill into a law. The bill was about the cost of oil for rural Alaska. The bill stated the cost to heat a home in Anchorage is approximately $2,200 and in Junaeu it costs about $4,440 but in rural Alaska, it costs about $6,600. The bill is going to put limits on the cost of fuel oil to heat homes so it will be more affordable.

Sarah came in and spoke for a while and had the mayor speak as well as the people who made the event possible.

The event still amazes me. The entire town helped make this possible. Everyone brought in their best salmon (mostly king salmon) or entre and make it a potluck. There was so much food. We had king crab, pink salmon, chum salmon, king salmon, salmon dip, fried bread, cheese and crackers, pasta salad, and even eskimo ice cream! Eskimo ice cream is a combination of seal oil or crisco, sugar, and wild berries. They used seal oil in the stuff i tried and it was amazing! This sweet old lady kind of adopted me because my coworker ran off to talk to other people. She kept throwing food on my plate and told me to put some meat on my bones.

The lady, who seemed to adopt me for the afternoon, introduced me to her entire family. She told me all about the IRA and how important it was to her. In addition she introduced me to half of Unalakleet's IRA. No village was recognized by the state of Alaska, in the time of the indian land act, unless it sent in a petition to the state to be a town. After they were approved, the town had to have a mayor and various other parts of a local government. The town maintained their old ways sort of a tribe leader through the IRA. The IRA and local government work together but some of the elders don't always respect the government because they believe that the IRA should run the village. In some villages, there is a huge rivalry, but there didn't seem to be anything to bad in Unalakleet.

After the wonderful Sarah Palin/Potluck event, I went to Summersize. That is a summer "camp" program for local children. Since this event is a Nome event, it was a big deal to have it in Unalakleet. I went to see if there was a story. There wasn't but I did get some children to record their youth dreams for a spot we have.

After this, I walked to me with Jessie and the mayor saw me and picked me up to take me to his work. The mayor is also the manager of the commercial fishing company in town. He showed me around the building and introduced some of his employees. He has people working for him from age 18 to 80. Jessie arrived and we interived him on building activity going on during the summer. After the interview Jessie and I relaxed and had a smoothie at "Peace on Earth" pizza parlor.

This is a picture of me next to my first bush plane flight. The flight wasn't that bad. There wasn't too much turbulance on the 9 passanger plane.

KNOM Update

So far, I am learning so much at the station. During the fourth of July, I got to do a remote with one of my coworkers. We went to the parade on Front Street and reported on air about what was going on during the parade. It was fun! John was the main person on the mic and I was assisting him, while learning how to use the equipment. We explained each float on the air and commented on it.

I am now running the station on Sundays by myself. It is kind of a scary thought but thank goodness there is a house full of KNOMers next door if anything happens.

KNOM will have FCC representatives here next week to check the station. We have had radio engineers working on the equipment for the last few weeks. Tom Busch works with the equipment and KNOM usually flys him out here when we are experience problems but if there is something that he doesn't understand, Less is the go to guy. Less and Tom will be here during the inspection. Since Less is here, I asked for him to explain more information about the transmitter, when he had time. He was able to take me out to the transmitter and show me around. The AM transmitter is in a field about 3 miles away from Nome. Less explained the purpose of the rings around the tower and how it is raised or lowered to get a higher or lower frequency. We walked along the gravel road to make sure all the wires were ok. We found 3 copper wires were broken and one copper strip. These wires surround the transmitter and are underground. Less let me help him weld the wires together. It was a lot of fun and suprizingly easy!

I almost have my second rotation done! I am so excited that I go my first month of work done a month before it airs. I don't think it is that bad for a newbie!

The pictures I have included in this entry are pictures of White Alice, the cold war equipment found on Anvil Mountain. I know it has nothing to do with the entry but I thought it would be fun.

Tree at last!

There hasn't been anything big going on this week at work except for a new project that I am taking on. I am assisting with an advertising campaign for Denali KidCare. This program seems pretty amazing. It pays for doctor bills for teens, kids, and pregnant women. It will even fly people to Anchorage to get the treatment they might need.

Outside of work, I was able to go on my first trip to Council. It is a big deal to go out there! There are only a few roads that lead outside of Nome and all of them don't go any further than about 120 miles. Council is about a 90 mile drive away from Nome. The road is a long dirt road that takes you up, down, and around all kinds of mountains. Driving on it, makes you feel like you should be in a truck commercial. Along the coast, most of the houses look the same as the first picture I have included in my blog. It starts getting different when you drive in the village called Safety. Safety is the last checkpoint in the Iditarod. One of the things that puts Safety on the map is the roadhouse. Just as it sounds, it is a roadhouse that has a rustic touch with walrus tusks decorating the walls along with autographed dollar bills from locals. In addition, people are known to come from all around and drink at the bar. With that in mind, the first picture in this blog is of the outside of the roadhouse with the old fashion face front. Notice the small blue plane in the parking lot. Apparently, it is common for people to fly to Safety Roadhouse.... only in Nome.

Further in the trip, we stopped at the "Train to No Where." This is the second picture in the blog. This train was built to easily transport gold to New York. Unfortunately, the builders forgot that they were in Bush Alaska and things like trains don't last. The area was flooded and the train got stuck.

After a long drive, we finally got to Council. This cute little village has about 15-20 houses and is a get away place for people in Nome. This village is unique for 2 reasons. First of all, there is no bridge to get to it so you either stop and walk across the river to get to your house or hope that your car can make it across. The water is about30 feet wide and 1-2 feet deep at the most so trucks can easily get across. The second aspect that makes Council unique is the trees. About 15 miles away from the city, we started seeing a few trees pop out. Since Nome is so far north, we don't get any trees, just tundra. It was interesting to suddenly see a line of trees pop up as if they suddently existed. The camping experience was great. It was kind of hot (70 degrees, which is hot for Northwest Alaska) with no wind so we had a lot of bugs. Despite all of the bug bites, we decided it was worth it to see trees again.

Over all, we saw 3 wild reindeer, a fox, a beaver dam, several rainbow trout, countless bunnies (over 30 just sitting in the road), and a heard of muskox from a distance.

I also got to visit Anvil Mountain. This mountain is right outside of Nome and is known for the abbandoned Cold War structures. There is always a large amount of wildlife at the top of it. Bywildlife, I mean muskox. I have never seen muskox up close but I have collected a lot of the kivia. Kivia is the fur muskox shed and is known to be worth alot of money.

Playing Catch up

Again, I've been bad at posting blogs. But I will catch you up on the highlights of the past week.

First of all, I went on an amazing hike last week. We walked about 5 miles in an area about 20 minute drive outside of the city. It was beautiful. You would never guess that we were near Nome, looking at the geography. We were surrounded by steep snow-topped mountains. We climbed over a hill to get this location and that was kind of rough. The tundra itself is very bumpy. It looks like a mountain range for ants. I realized why people thought my tenis shoes weren't a good idea walking in. A person can easily twist their ankles with this rough land. In addtion, there wild berries dye your shoes all kinds of shades of purple. Other than that, I have a new love for hiking. I wish I brought my camera to take pictures but I will try to go again sometime soon so I'll have pictures soon enough.

The Midnight Sun Festival was an interesting event. All kinds of things were going on that weekend, such as The Great Alaskan Bluegrass Band concert, and several Folk Fest mainstage events. Friday's big event was a concert at Airport Pizza. TLC didn't show up to that event but almost the whole town was there for open mic night. The night ended with the TGABB (The Great Alaskan Bluegrass Band) playing all kinds of classic bluegrass band songs. Saturday was the main Midnight Sun day. David and I walked in the Gold Dust Dash, which is a 4 mile walk or run along the beach. The winners got a gold nugget. We showed up late so we finished dead last. It was pretty funny because the local paper published all the contestants and their time. Of course my name was last. After the dash, I went to the town parade. There was some cute floats. I've included a picture of the King Island Dancers on their float. After the parade there was a mock bank robbery. People dressed in 1800 style clothing and robbed the local Wells Fargo. It was pretty amusing! There was some time for people to run home after the robbery and change. The next event was the Polar Bear Plunge in the Bering Sea. About 200 people wore swimsuits in 50 degree weather and jumped in the cold water. I jumped in but didn't get my hair wet. My coworkers yelled at me and told me I have to do it again. Carol, one of the ladies who works at Northwest Campus of University of Alaska Fairbanks, filmed me jumping into the water. She said she is going to put it online for me. I felt like a walking popcicle when I came out of the water. The medics measured the temperature and found that the shallow (ankle deep) water was 40 degrees but it got colder the further you went out. Later that night we watched the mainstage. This was where the locals had the opportunity of having 10 minutes to perform whatever they wanted on the stage. The night ended with people singing a song called Goodnight Irene where people came up with their own verse. After the 3 hour mainstage, the volunteers met with Wes and went out to dinner.

The last Midnight Sun event I went to was on Sunday. It was a river raft race. This is where people make a raft and row it 5 miles down the Nome River. I went to Laureli's house on my break. Her house was very nice. Her husband and her built it themselves. The plumbing is the only thing they had help with because they didn't want to mess that up. They are paying for their house out of pocket so it isn't complete yet. They have a latter for stairs and there is no insulation on the walls. Laureli said her family used to live in tents until the house became livable. Apparently alot of people do that up here. Most people build their houses or fix it up because they would rather do it themselves then borrow money.

Other than the festival, everything has been going great. I have been working with kids at Vacation Bible School for the past week. It was fun and a great way to get out and meet new people. The lady who did crafts is native and has made some beautiful jewerly out of seal skin. I told her that I would love her to make one for me and I will pay her. She told me she would teach me how to make one myself because she is starting a sewing class. I am looking forward to that.

Work has been great. I am starting to get the hang of life at the station. I have produced several spots and am almost done with my first rotation. This Sunday I will be taking over the Sunday duties which have me run the station by myself. It will have its challenges but it is nothing I can't overcome.

TLC is in town

I realize that I haven't been updating my blog recently. I have been so consumed in work and vacation bible school (this week's hobby) that I haven't had time to go online. There was a unique activity today that I had to take the time to shed some light on it and I will go back and update my blog tomorrow on the midnight sun events.

Television network, TLC, decided that Nome, Alaska is an ideal place for their next reality tv show. One of the most popular restaurants in town is a common tourist attraction. As previously mentioned, Airport Pizza is well-known around this area and delivers pizza to many villages. TLC is in Nome for the next 2 weeks to film Airport Pizza and various Nome activities. They filmed most of the Midnight Sun festivities. Tonight, they created an event that had the whole town talking.

Airport Pizza conducted a pizza eating contest. This contest took 2 starving people and gave them 30 minutes to consume a 26 inch pizza (yes I said 26 inches). It seemed like everyone in town came to watch or eat the "large" pizza. The contest was primarily used for TLC to have more to show on their Pilot episode of this new reality show. And of course, many people were happy to show the wacky side of Nome that we all know and love. A man who dresses up as Santa and has gone to Santa conventions around the world showed up in his usual red attire. A cute little old man who tends to talk alot and likes to sing old songs you would hear in a lounge came to do commentary for the show. There were the usual bar drinkers. And what would a Nome event be without Velvet Eyes, Nome's residental reindeer? Even Velvet participated in the pizza eating contest (as you see in the picture above). Lets just say that his partner was the luckiest person there because he knew Velvet would eat whatever he couldn't. Over all, about 5 people were able to complete the contest.