Nome National Forest sprouts on the sea ice in front of Nome
Christmas has come and gone, meaning it’s time for Nome’s typically treeless terrain to sprout its very own forest, on the sea ice.
The Nome National Forest is a decades old tradition started by Nomeites in the 1980s who thought it would be fun to trick Iditarod visitors with a forest on the sea ice made out of old Christmas trees.
According to Charlie Lean, who was one of the masterminds behind the prank, it only managed to fool a few but became a staple tradition in Nome enjoyed by tourists and Nomeites alike.
The late Nancy McGuire, former publisher and editor of The Nome Nugget, was the backbone of the forest for many years, Lean said. He recalled one year when McGuire took a photo of Arnie Ashenfelter in a jacket and hat that resembled a National
Parks uniform in front of the “Nome National Forest” sign and put it on the front page of the paper. A local National Park employee saw the photo and got angry, wanting to arrest Ashenfelter for impersonating a federal officer. Luckily, no a such action was taken.
Over the years, the forest has grown, and signs and cutouts sprinkled between the trees make it a fun place to visit. The trees are all bare of decorations so they don’t pollute the sea when breakup happens and the forest is “chopped down” for the year.
By then the signs have been retrieved but over the years, some have been lost to wind, Lean said.
One year a tree traveled as far North as Shishmaref, Lean said, people thought it was a seal on the ice but with a closer look realized it was a long-lost member of the Nome National Forest.