Nome, Alaska

Nome (/ˈnoʊm/; Inupiaq: Sitŋasuaq, pronounced [sitŋɐsuɑq], also Sitŋazuaq, Siqnazuaq) is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the US state of Alaska. The city is located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. It had a population of 3,699 in 2020, up from 3,598 in 2010. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901. It was once the most-populous city in Alaska. Nome lies within the region of the Bering Straits Native Corporation, which is headquartered in Nome.

Prior to being settled by non-indigenous people, the area around Nome was home to Iñupiat natives. The area came to world attention in 1898, when three Nordic-Americans discovered gold on the ocean shores of Nome, prompting the Nome Gold Rush. Within a year, the area became popular among miners of European descent, who built and incorporated the city. Nome quickly reached a population of 10,000 or greater. Gold mining supported this population into the early 1900s, but the city's numbers had fallen considerably by 1910.

A series of fires and violent storms destroyed most of Nome's Gold Rush era buildings between 1905 and 1974. In the winter of 1925, a diphtheria epidemic raged among Alaska Natives in the Nome area. Fierce territory-wide blizzard conditions prevented the delivery of a life-saving diphtheria antitoxin serum by airplane from Anchorage. A relay of dog sled teams was organized to deliver the serum, which was successfully led by Balto and Togo. Today, the Iditarod Dog Sled Race follows the same route they took, and ends in Nome.

In the 21st century, Nome's economy remains based around gold mining, which is now mostly carried out offshore. Nome claims to be home to the world's largest gold pan, although this claim has been disputed by the Canadian city of Quesnel, British Columbia.