Most people live in an area where food is bought from a shelf, clothing is found a rack, and heat comes from the basem*nt furnace. We might grow some vegetables in the back yard, or on a balcony, but that is more for novelty. So subsistence living, or gathering and storing food season to season, fascinates me, and keeps sending me into the deep end. How did people live, and what was their lifestyle like before readily available resources?
For example, in 1920 Nome, Alaska, how would homes be heated? By 1920, many homes in the lower 48 states had separate heating stoves, or furnaces, and cooking stoves. Also in the lower 48 coal was often used in furnaces, but World War I had created a shortage, so oil and natural gas became popular choices. But technology from the lower 48 was not guaranteed to be adopted as quickly in the northern reaches due to natural restrictions.
Alaska does not have the same infrastructure as the lower 48, with paved or even easily accessible dirt roads crisscrossing the countryside. Add in the complication of hard winters and long distances for delivery, logistics can be difficult now, let alone 100 years ago.
I can find no sources that clearly state how many people in Alaska had furnaces, maybe run on coal, and how many relied on electricity or wood for heat. However, if we make a guess that it was likely wood for the majority of Alaskans, it leads to a frustrating set of other questions that that Google does not have the answer to.
For example, if in Nome, Alaska, people relied on wood, where did they get it? Nome is surrounded by tundra, beach, and water. Heck, it’s a local joke in Nome, with a man-made “Nome National Forest.” So no local trees. Could they depend on enough drift wood washing up on shore? No, because a modern energy efficient house with insulation would require approximately four cords of wood to get through a winter. The average 1920s house was definitely not up to modern building standards, so they likely needed even more. There wouldn’t be enough drift wood to support the 800 residents.
I doubt it is likely they used wood based on the above, but if they did, how was it transported? Did they have trucks? Horses? Oxen? The same question could be asked for whatever the fuel source was.
Other interesting things to consider if they used wood to heat their homes: one 22 inch diameter tree is about equal to one cord. They would need at least five cords of wood. It takes 6 hours to chop a cord of wood by hand with a mauler, but that doesn’t include finding the tree, cutting it down, removing the branches, and transporting it. My guess is that it’d take at least 15 hours of hard constant work per cord. That’s 75 hours of work, or almost two weeks, dedicated to heating their home.
It makes me tired thinking about it.
Luckily, according to data, 92% of Nome residents currently use distillate fuel, meaning gas or diesel. I’ll assume residents use them to run generators. That probably saves many backs.
There were definitely residential generators available in the 1920s, but were they in Alaska? And back to the logistics question, how would the gas for the generator have been transported?
After reading up on this, I think I’ll make and educated guess and say that Nome residents in the 1920s used coal for heating. It was in short supply during WWI, but trees and natural gas just don’t seem as likely. Maybe it was burned in a small stove, or used to heat water in a boiler system.
How does all this help my story? I’m attempting to paint a portrait of a young girls daily life in Nome, Alaska, in 1920. How they stayed warm, or how much effort went into preparing for the winter, is an important component. The last thing I need is a Nome resident laughing and saying “Ha! She has no idea what she’s talking about. How unrealistic.” So, back into the weeds I go until it’s figured out.
Update [5/30/2021]:
I still cannot find any text that speaks directly to how residents of Nome heated their homes a hundred years ago, but in studying the above picture, I might have found an answer! The Lomen Brothers were photographers who lived in Nome, and documented life there fairly well. Sadly, most of their photos were lost in a fire, but some remain, including this one. On the right hand side you can see what looks like tall stacks of logs filling several lots. Firewood storage? Or lumber yard? Don’t know…
So it is possible the primary heating source was wood, but today I also found that a railroad to Fairbanks was built around 1918, and brought shipments of coal. Did coal travel from Fairbanks to Nome? No idea.
Also, I did learn that Inuit in Canada used seal oil lamps called qulliq for light and warmth. However, those lamps would not be able to heat a house, nor would there be enough oil from whales or seals to supply all that would be needed for Nome residents.
So my progress is little. It still could have been wood or coal, maybe both. I really need a Nome native to help with this. It’d be as easy as “I remember my grandparents saying…” and bang! question answered.
