Cape Nome - Western Alaska - Cooks Inlet - Copper River Gold Diggings - 1900

(Alaska - Gold Mining) CAPE NOME. WESTERN ALASKA, COOKS INLET, AND COPPER RIVER GOLD DIGGINGS. Pacific Steam Whaling Co. Commercial Pub. Co. 1900. 6 pg. Double foldout, photos, distances from San Francisco, from Seattle, from Sitka, from Valdes Bay and from Homer to various destinations in Cape Nome, Western Alaska, Cooks Inlet and Copper River. The Pacific Steam Whaling Company was incorporated in 1883 and based out of San Francisco. Its ships were designed to withstand the ice floes that threatened and destroyed many earlier whaling ships operating in the Behring Sea region. When gold was discovered, its fleet carried many prospectors to Nome and other drop-off points along Alaska’s coast. The photos are of the Pacific Steam Whaling Company’s steamships “Jeanie” and “Valencia”. Also several panels of information concerning reasons why Cape Nome should be a gold miner’s destination point in Alaska; a promotional for the Pacific Steam Whaling Co. and details of the Company’s U.S. Mail Service contract routes. The Company claimed that their steamers “are specially constructed and adapted for breaking their way through the heavy ice floes of the Behring Sea and will doubtless be the first steamers to reach Cape Nome.” Their advice to potential gold-seekers was, “He who lands earliest on the beach at Nome stands the best chance of getting a claim, a day or two lost or gained may mean the winning or losing of thousands and possible hundreds of thousands of dollars.” The reverse is a 24” x 19” map titled, PACIFIC WHALING COMPANY'S MAP OF ALASKA. Markings indicate the Company’s steamer routes; locations of canneries and whaling stations; and gold and copper deposits and oil wells. Evidently the company issued several maps: 1897, 1900 and 1901; this one being the 1900 edition. All are rare, with this one being the scarcest. Minor splits along several of the panel fold lines; o/w in Near Fine condition. Bright and clean throughout.