Pioneering Spirit: The Sisters of Providence in Alaska

Chapter Three
Gold Fever and
Health Care
The discovery of gold in the 1890s brought a
rush of miners to Alaska. Following news of a
major strike in the Klondike in 1896, thousands
of people streamed through Skagway, Alaska, to
Dawson in the Yukon Territory of Canada. Two
years later in 1898 news of the great Anvil Creek
strike by the "three lucky Swedes," one of w hom
was Norwegian, began to circulate, and by the
end of 1899 more than three thousand prospectors
had descended upon Nome. The discovery
of gold in the beach sand at Nome brought more
people, and by the sum m er of 1900 m ore than
twenty thousand miners worked the Bering Sea
shores of Alaska's Seward Peninsula.
The mining boom exposed the severe limitations
of Alaska's social and political structure. In
mining camps there were housing shortages,
inadequate sanitation, and weak and often corrupt
administration of law and order. Despite
m ining districts and other self-regulatory
m echanism s, little form alized governm ent
existed. Claim jum ping posed a continual threat
to miners. Shady officials com pounded an
already chronic problem by using their offices to
add to their p erso n al fo rtu n e s. A laska
experienced growth pangs.
Medical facilities for miners were woefully
inadequate. Few physicians followed the hordes
of gold seekers to the North, and m any of those
who claimed medical knowledge had only
marginal expertise. Remote prospectors fended
for themselves by utilizing hom e remedies, setting
their own broken bones, and sometimes
employing native healing techniques. Even w hen
patients had access to physicians, inadequate
treatment and convalescent facilities often limited
the effectiveness of professional medical care. At
the turn of the century, there was a crying need
for hospitals and medical care in Alaska.
The First Missionaries in Nome
Christian missionaries increased their activities
in Alaska during the gold rush years. Their
ministry in mining communities supplem ented
missionary efforts at both white settlements and
native outposts, which had been conducted since
the 1860s by representatives of the Russian
Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant faiths. O ne of
the more prom inent Protestant missionaries was
Dr. Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian minister w ho
was active in the establishment of mission schools
during the 1870s, and w ho later became General
Agent for Education in Alaska, stationed in
Washington, D.C. Missionaries from other Protestant
churches followed. A m ong them were
Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Moravians,
and Methodists.
In boomtowns like Nom e the com m unity
welcomed missionaries. The first missionary to
Nome was a Congregationalist minister, the
Reverend Loyal L. Wirt, w ho arrived during
August of the first full mining season of 1899.
After visiting some mining claims and gathering
subscriptions, Rev. Wirt left for the lower Forty-
Eight, where he gathered additional funds and
materials for Nome's first mission hospital. He
returned safely in the fall of 1899, but the steamship
carrying lum ber and provisions for his
hospital was not so fortunate—a wreck at sea
occasioned the loss of most of the cargo.
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