Welcome to Nome, Alaska on July 4, 1900! Talk about a tough city!  It was only about a dozen blocks deep but stretched along 20 miles of the Bering Sea coastline. The streets were frozen from October to April, mud until June and then dirt for July and August. Then it was back to mud and ice. The city had plank sidewalks, which you can see on the left of the photograph, and lots of air pollution which you can see in the background. Nome was famous for the gold on its beach.  You could not stake a claim because tidelands were federal property. But you could mine the beach – until the tide came in. Nome’s population in 1900 was about 13,000; ten years later it was down to 850.