Nome (Alaska)

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Nome is a city in the Arctic region of Alaska. It is a town of about 4,000 people, about half of whom are Alaska Natives. It is the transportation and commerce center for Northwest Alaska. It is also the western terminus of the Iditarod Trail. Nome's main claim to fame is a gold rush that happened at the turn to the twentieth century and caused the population to grow to over 20,000. There is still gold and mining, with the area being the home base for the reality TV series Bering Sea Gold, but the gold lying openly on the beaches is a thing of the past. It was the end point of the 1925 serum run to Nome from the port city of Seward to fight a diphtheria epidemic in town, an event which inspired the 1995 animated film Balto.