A legacy is something that is passed on from one generation to the next. It may be monetary or assets, or with the Martinson family, it is the contagious excitement of gold prospecting. For four generations, this family has invested money, hard work and a lot of ingenuity in getting the earth to give up this precious metal. Their story begins in 1960 and a chance encounter when buying dynamite. Elmer Martinson and his wife were loggers in Washington state when they met an individual at the local general store who was looking for someone to run his bucket-line dredge on a river 95 miles outside of Nome, Alaska. One of the oldest types of dredging, the large machinery consists of an endless chain of buckets that scoop the earth and then dump the contents over a tumbler at the top, which channels the mud to sluice boxes where the gold is separated from other minerals. The Martinson’s curiosity was piqued, and they headed to Nome to set eyes on this new venture. Getting to the site was almost an excursion reminiscent of the Oregon Trail, as it took days with no roads or trails and an endless amount of potholes and ruts to get stuck in. Despite the remoteness and obstacles, gold fever struck the Martinsons and Elmer decided to go into the prospecting business. It is prospecting when you are searching for gold and mining when you find it. At that time, many claim holders didn’t actually operate the dredges, but relied on operators to run the day-to-day mining. Many owners were happy with this arrangement, as they didn’t have to spend time in the tundra fighting off the mosquitos and bears. However, relationships could quickly turn sour if there was a season with no profits. The first summer of gold mining, Elmer leased the bucket-line dredge from the owner and the second year he acquired it for a very low cost and gave the owner a royalty. Mining for the Martinson family went on for several years until the late 60s when he leased the dredge to a group called the “whiskey syndicate.”
“Unfortunately, that group was more about drinking whiskey than mining. They must have gotten awfully thirsty because they left the dredge sitting in the river. Ice came down in the winter and broke it to pieces,” said Doug Martinson, son of Elmer. Uncles, aunts, cousins and nephews tried to repair the dredge, but it was never operational again.
In order to live in Nome and prospect for gold, it has been said that you better have a back-up plan because there are lean and not so lean times based on the fluctuation of gold prices. The family found projects and contract work, such as well drilling and runway building, which kept the family afloat as they saved money to attempt mining again. The late 1980s saw an increase in off-shore exploration and mining. In 1986, the largest bucket-line dredge in the world, called the Bima, was brought up to Nome from Malaysia. Used to mine for tin, the dredge was 14 stories tall and weighed 15,000 tons. Operating for four years from June to November, the Bima mined 130,000 ounces of gold from the bottom of the Bering Sea, and while that is a lot of gold, the Bima never made a profit and was sold for scrap metal.
After the Bima left, the claims were consolidated by just a few people and they subleased those claims. The late 90s saw new inventions in off-shore mining, such as suction dredges or what the Martinsons called “contraptions on rafts.” Small to medium size dredges were put on barrels welded together and some were even on leaking pontoons, “All sorts of things were being invented that never got patented. Everything was tried and if it didn’t work, it was scrapped and something different was tried until they found something that did work. Then, there was fighting over who was on what claim or if you got there first and didn’t sink, you could try to keep others away. It was definitely a pirate mentality in those days.”
In the early 2000s, the state of Alaska decided there was too much wealth out at sea and dissolved the monopoly of leases. Claims were auctioned off and this set off the second gold rush. About this same time was a re-birth of land mining as gold prices were rising and fuel wasn’t too expensive, “The equipment for land mining was fairly new, it being 30 years old, which was nicer than the 60-year-old equipment we had been using.” Acquiring both land and sea claims, the Martinson family built a 79 x 30 foot excavator barge from scratch, which they used for seven years. “There is no romance in sea mining,” says one Martinson family member. The draw of off-shore mining is the amount of gold that can be mined. The problem is the weather. “There is a lot of gold out there and it's not hard to find. What is hard to find is enough good days to go out and get it,” said Ryan Martinson, grandson of Elmer. “The weather on the ocean can change in a heartbeat. The wind picks up, the swells start, you start to get concerned for your life and have to head back to shore.” One memorable moment involved losing the steering on their skiff when traveling back to shore. Not wanting to drift to Russia, they duct taped a shovel to the top of the motor and made it back to land. “Everyone has an idea and you just take it to get the job done,” said Doug.
Today, the family is only prospecting and mining their land claims, along with owning three hotels, The Dredge #7 Inn, Gold House, Sluicebox Suites and a vehicle rental facility. While there are no limits on how you mine the land and there isn’t the interference with weather, there are more regulations. Everyone who has a claim must submit a reclamation plan to the state that details how they will restore the land. Also, in a little known fact, staking a claim still involves physically going to the land and driving a stake into each four corners of the ground. You cannot stake a claim on the internet.
The Martinson family now welcomes spouses and nine great grandchildren, who will grow-up and into the family legacy of gold prospecting. Patriarch Elmer Martinson may have come to Nome for the gold, but through the generations the family has chosen to make this tight-knit community, filled with like-minded, hard-working, salt-of the-earth kind of people, their home.
“In Nome you have the opportunity to live the kind of lifestyle that most people just dream about,” says Sari Martinson, granddaughter of Elmer. “It’s an adventure. You fail and succeed and make enough to do it again next year. A true gold miner never cashes out.”
For information on the Martinson hotel please visit: www.dredge7inn.com
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