Alaskan Reindeer

 1900

 1914

Lomen reindeer calf, above, 1909.  Carl Lomen, destined to become the "Reindeer King" twenty years hence, moves to Nome with father, G. Lomen, to seek gold in 1900.   Population of Nome is estimated at 40,000. Influenza and measles sweep the peninsula. Wocksock and Charlie Antisarlook are among those lost. Charlie’s herd had been returned months earlier. A herd of 70 deer is landed on St. Lawrence Island. Of the 67 Lapp, Finn, and Norwegian families imported in 1898, 86 persons remain in Alaska. Of this number, many become miners, only eight remain as herders under government employment, and five exercise their contract right to receive a loan of deer for five years, the offspring therefrom to be their private property. Six missions now have herds. Deer population is now 3,323.