This website has been developed as a resource for teachers and students that are interested in exploring the history of the railroads of the Seward Peninsula near Nome, Alaska.  Here you will find a series lessons that integrate History, Geography and Technology.   

We have embedded GoogleEarth activities into a Geography/History Unit that teaches students about rich history of the RailRoads of the Seward Peninsula.  The content for this entire  unit will be presented via this website and includes written documentation, elder interview podcasts, historic maps, historic radio spot audio files, pictures and many web resources.   Documents have been gathered from the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum in Nome AK.  The Nome Nugget Newspaper, books and webpages.

By using GoogleEarth as an instructional tool students will be able to learn about history of these railroad lines,  also locate and view them as they appear today.   It is our believe that a student learning to use a new tool, such as GoogleEarth, will have much greater interest, success and retention if the use of the tool is seamlessly integrated into the classroom curriculum.  When given a reason to use the GoogleEarth skills aside from just “learning GoogleEarth” students will retain what they have learned and be able to cross that knowledge into other content areas.  Hence the content of the lesson becomes the vehicle for teaching the technological tool.

This website and GoogleEarth will provide a vehicle for exploring the railroads from area from any classroom in the world.   We have also include many photos of the area in an effort to offer some perspective on how amazing these railroad lines were for their day. We hope you enjoy the information offered here and find it useful in your classroom.

Each link above will lead you to a new lesson activity or resource. Please explore this site and contact us if you have any questions or comments.

                                                        Robin Johnson &  Justin Heinrich