Show Alaska Romance Town No Now No Only Desolation I i I Nome me Fabled in Song and Story Once Boasted Population of NOME Alaska Sept 18 A AP AP Fire in the arctic up under the aurora borealis vir virtually u y destroyed the glamorous golden city of Nome a. a a city of shabby habby shacks that has meant romance to the world for decades Flames Flam s still today in inthe inthe inthe the heart of a land surrounded by snow and ice lee floes left lelL hundreds homeless at least two dead scores hurt by by- bythe the conflagration and the I dynamite by which they blasted their own homes Nome in 1898 had a population that amounted to little and its products prod were valued only at d an an- Then came the magic discovery ery cry of gold in the Seward peninsula The population leaped to as every adventurer who could make his way to the north swarmed to Nome The mineral output rose to in 1899 and by 1906 had risen to The city b became came a synonym for the romance of the great reat northland and all the legend of Alaska and the Yukon territory became associated loosely in the popular mind with Nome Golden nuggets Rex Beach Robert Robert Robert Rob Rob- ert W. W Service The he Cremation of Sam McGee the flaming northern lights reindeer Klondike Kate Balto the h husky sky dog that led a team of ot malamutes carrying diphtheria serum to save dying children Arctic explorers explorers all all these were clustered around the mystic name of Nome Yesterday Nome Name was a town of a thousand and some unimposing build ings Today It Is a smoking ruin with hundreds hundreds' homeless and children al already already already al- al ready feeling the bitter bl blasts of winter winter win win- ter with little shelter and less food at hand |