Prospector operating a rocker, Nome, 1904

• Main Author: Nowell, Frank H.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Gold rushes; Gold miners; Gold mining Men > Employment; Nome; Alaska
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/imlsmohai/id/5234

In 1898, gold was found near Nome, Alaska, setting off a new stampede of fortune hunters. For the next decade or more, crowds of men, women, and children washed gravel and sand through rockers and other equipment, trying to find gold. Rockers were easily built and simple to operate. About $50 million in gold was removed from the Nome area in the first ten years. This photo shows a man operating a rocker in Nome, Alaska. It is a copy of a photo taken in 1904 by Frank H. Nowell, a Seattle photographer who spent several years in Nome. Caption on photo: Rocking out $10 per day on Front St., Nome, Alaska, Aug. 20, 1904. Original copy negative. Original photograph: Nowell, F.H., Aug. 20, 1904. Copied after 1947 by Webster & Stevens 1 negative : safety film, b&w; 8 x 10 in.