Travel Guide St. Michael

Opposite Nome in Norton Sound is St. Michael, populated by nearly 400 inhabitants, Yupik and descendants of former Russian traders. Gateway to the Klondike in Canada, via the Yukon River which flows into the Bering Sea, St. Michael reached 10,000 inhabitants during the gold rush in 1897. Steamboats from San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver travelled 2,400 km up the river to Dawson City. Jack London, suffering from scurvy, was brought back home to San Francisco by this route in 1898. Today, the village is rather decrepit, with a few metal carcasses reminding us of this not so distant epic.