Erik Lindblom
(1857- 1928)
Lindblom was oldest of the partners; also apparently the one with the least physical preparation for the arduous job of prospecting and mining. Lindblom, the son of a school teacher Olof P. Lindblom, probably also had the most difficult childhood. After the early death of his father, his mother (Brita, nee Olofson) existed practically as a beggar to maintain her family. At Stockholm, Lindblom learned to be a tailor, a portable trade that allowed him to escape the extreme poverty of his youth, and took him to St. Petersburg, Paris and Berlin. Lindblom's trek to the United States detoured through London, England, where he gained further formal education at the Y.M.C.A. Polytechnical School. Probably, he practiced his trade there, because he married Mary Ann Smith, the daughter of a tailor, in London on August 2, 1886. The young couple arrived in the United States in 1886 and began a westerly course.. Like Brynteson, Lindblom became an American citizen Ð in Montana in 1894. Lindblom, trained in a sedentary trade, yearned for the pioneer life, and was fascinated by the American west. As the Lindbloms moved across the United States, they met and were friendly with American Indians. Their son, Olof Henry, was born while the family lived on an Indian reservation near Pocatello, Idaho. A daughter, his mother's namesake Brita, was also born on the western trek.
Seemingly, Lindblom had lesser preparation in mining than either of his partners, but he may also have had some youthful contact with the industry, as he was born in one of Sweden's oldest mining regions. Undoubtedly, he picked up pioneering skills as he crossed the United States. Lindblom gained specialized knowledge when he took courses in mining while the family lived in San Francisco Bay area after 1893. Lindblom was still in the Bay area when gold fever struck and he took the opportunity to go north, upon the rumors of a rich discovery of gold at Kotzebue in 1897. Lindblom embarked as a sailor on the north bound sailing vessel Alaska on April 27, 1898. His next adventures are legendary in character, but they were written down only a few years later by H. S. Harrison, at a time when they could easily have been challenged. Learning that no gold had been found at Kotzebue, and nearly ice-bound at Grantley Harbor, near Teller, Lindblom jumped ship. Lindblom was with a group detailed to bring back freshwater. In the treeless country, Lindblom hid in a snow cavern excavated beneath the ice, climbed to the surface and walked for three days, bound for Golovin across the Seward Peninsula. A chance meeting with a prospector directed him back to the harbor---a cross-country hike to Golovin with a cargo of fur. Lindblom rode out of the harbor under the pelts, nearly suffocating in the process. Promarshuk stopped at the mouth of the Snake River, present day Nome, and Lindblom panned colors at the mouth of Dry Creek. (Lindblom reportedly panned gold on the Snake River on July 13, 1898; another account states that he panned gold in the Sinrock RiverÑSinukÑwest of Nome.)
Lindblom arrived at Dexter's trading post at Golovin on July 27, 1898 where he went to work prospecting for Hultberg, the gold-struck missionary. The site was the rich discovery at Ophir Creek, the discovery of the Council District. Lindblom met Brynteson, and with Hagelin prospected at Mystery Creek, also in the Council District. Shortly afterwards, Brynteson and Lindblom met Lindeberg, who had been prospecting on the Casadapaga and on the Niukluk. On September 15th, the new partners arrived at the mouth of the Snake in a boat chartered from the mission. The first major discoveries of the Nome district were made on September 22nd.
Regardless of his apparent lack of practical mining preparation, Lindblom took out $100,000 in gold from the Discovery claim on Anvil Creek in 1899Ñas well as his share of the gold recovered on Snow Gulch by the partners.
Lindblom continued as an active partner and Vice-President in Pioneer Mining Company for several years, then moved to Oakland, California where he bought and operated the Claremont Hotel. But to prove it no fluke, Lindblom also entered into successful mining operations in California and Nevada, and was the owner and president of the Parral Electric, Water and Telephone Company, Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Lindblom was a bit more of a gay blade than Brynteson and Lindeberg, and thoroughly enjoyed the easier life in California. In 1903, by now a very wealthy man, he divorced Mary Ann and married Hanna Sadie Ulrika Sparman. He made at least one trip back to Sweden, but with more mixed results then Brynteson. In 1915, Lindblom was knighted by King Gustav with the order of Vasa-Orden, but he was accused, probably unfairly, of failing to support his widowed mother and effectively ostracized near his home town. He returned to California where he was a well known and honored citizen until his death in 1928. He died in his residence at the Claremont Hotel, at home, but with a fortune much depleted.
SOURCES: THE NOME DISCOVERY
Ahwinona, Jacob, 1997, Reflections on my life, in Communities of Memory, Book of Nome, Alaska. Published at Nome, possibly available at Nome museum.
Brooks, A.H. 1908, The development of the mining industry, in The Gold Placers of Parts of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 328, p. 10-39. Including a letter to F. L. Hess from Jafet Lindeberg, footnote p. 16-18: also a statement from Dr. A. N. Kittleson, 1905, footnote, p. 21.
Cole, Terence M., 1983, A history of the Nome gold rush: The poor mans paradise: Ph.D. thesis, Universityof Washington, 267 p.
"First grains of gold discovered at Nome now in San Francisco", American Mine Reporter, San Francisco, v.1, no. 6, p. 1-2. The newspaper article was partly based on an interview with Erik Lindblom, but it extensively quotes a letter in the Healy, Alaska "Aurora Borealis" published on 1 March 1899, and an address by Judge William W. Morrow, U.S. Court of Appeals at the University of California, 19 November 1915 on Rex Beach's "The Spoilers".
Harrison, E.S. 1905, Nome and Seward Peninsula: History, description, biographies, and stories: Metropolitan Press, Seattle, 392 p. Especially pages 197-227 in Biographies.
Lindblom, Robert G. to Cussie (Reardon) Kauer, City of Nome, letter, 2 pages, 3 June 1997.
(Robert Lindblom is Erik Lindblom's grandson by the marriage to Mary Ann Smith.)
Olsson, Siw, 1989, Torparsonen Som Slev Guldking: Omslagstockning: Lars Lindqvist, Dalslanningens, 144p.
Smith, Howard L., 1997, Nome River water Control Structures: BLM Open File Report 62.
Spence, Clark C., 1996, The Northern Gold Fleet: University of Illinois Press, 302p.
Vorren, O., 1994, Saami, Reindeer and Gold: Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, Ill.
Wickersham, James, 1938, Old Yukon. Tails ÐTrailsÑTrials: Washington Law Book Company, espec. P.327-378