June 1, 2015
After landing in Nome, Alaska I took a road trip to an abandoned town of Council. The drive was beautiful and took me along the Bering Sea before turning inland toward the former city of Council.
I see these in Juneau often, but yet again another “end of the road” in Alaska
there still are buildings and even a B and B in Council, Many folks use it as their summer get away!
when you get to the end of the road you have to take a boat over to the town. I guess at times people have driven but it is not usually low enough to do that safely.
we walked to the river and looked over to the town of Council which is to the right.
Gold was found in a creek near Council in 1897 and in turn over 15,000 individuals lived in Council at that time. Within the next 20 years most of those individuals moved to Nome chasing the gold.
The road from Nome to Council is only open when there is no snow. However since Council has trees, many of Nome residents ride to Council to cut their Christmas trees.
first tree I saw i this area!
the closer we got to Council the more trees we saw.
Along the ride there are some treasures of the gold rush including the trains that the locals call the “Last Train to Nowhere”.
after driving south out of Nome about 20 miles, you turn inland, and as you turn these cliffs are seen to the south. I bet they are beautiful
at the highest point on the drive.
looking towards the SE, look at all those mountains
historic buildings from the Gold Rush days, I wonder how long they will remain standing?
During the height of the gold rush, thousands and thousands of stampeders headed N in search of gold. An investor from Chicago thought that a railroad would be the best way to transport the gold from all the mining camps that were popping up all over the interior.
Eventually 2 locomotives that were retired from New York arrived via badge in 1881 and another n 1886. By the early 1900’s there were 35 miles of rails for these trains. Sadly by 1906 the boom was over and the “Last Train(s) to Nowhere” have sat in the same location since.
timistravels 