| Nome River | |
| Map Size: | 300 |
| Pushpin Map: | USA Alaska |
| Pushpin Map Size: | 300 |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of the mouth of the Nome River in Alaska |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | United States |
| Subdivision Type2: | State |
| Subdivision Name2: | Alaska |
| Subdivision Type4: | District |
| Subdivision Name4: | Nome Census Area |
| Length: | 40miles[1] |
| Source1: | Seward Peninsula |
| Source1 Location: | 4.5miles west of Salmon Lake |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 64.885°N -165.2347°W |
| Source1 Elevation: | 781feet[2] |
| Mouth: | Norton Sound, Bering Sea |
| Mouth Location: | 4miles southeast of Nome |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 64.4828°N -165.305°W[3] |
| Mouth Elevation: | 7feet |
Nome River is a waterway on the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. It has its source in a narrow valley in the southern margin of the Kigluaik Mountains, west of Salmon Lake.
The point where Buffalo and Deep Canyon creeks join, which is regarded as its head, is 26miles north of Nome. Its valley is wide and is floored with a deep filling of gravels into which the river channel is incised to a depth ranging from 5feetto50feetft (toft). In several places between Osborn and Darling creeks the river flats reach a width of a mile without attaining an elevation more than 50 feet higher than the top of the river banks. North of Darling Creek the valley narrows decidedly and below Osborn Creek it enters the coastal plain.[4] It leaves this valley as a mountain torrent and debouches in a broad, gravel-filled valley, part of the depression already described, which extends along the southern margin of the Kigluaik Mountains. It flows south for 40miles to Norton Sound at the Bering Sea.[5] The mouth of the river is about 3miles southeast of Nome.[6] The elevation of Nome River at Dexter Creek is less than 50feet, which allows the river below that point an average grade of 4ft/mi. From Dexter Creek to Hobson Creek the river level rises 107 feet, or at the rate of 8 feet to the mile, and from Hobson Creek to the mouth of Deep Canyon Creek it rises 393 feet, or at the rate of 44 feet to the mile. The Nome River Valley has the same character as the Eldorado—that is, a broad upper basin, connected by a board pass with Kruzgamepa River waters, and below this basin a constricted valley, and nearer the sea a broad valley whose floor merges into the coastal plain.[7] Most of the mining developments in the coastal plain of the Nome mining district are west of Nome River, but at several localities, prospects have been opened up to the east of the river.[8]
Stevens and Washington gulches flow through the tundra from the hill south of Osborn Creek into Nome River.[8] Buster Creek, flowing from the northeast, enters Nom River a short distance below Dexter Creek; Lillian Creek is a tributary of Buster. Dewey Creek rises in the limestone hills north of the head of Lillian Creek and flows into Nome River about 4miles above Buster Creek.[9] Banner Creek is a small stream tributary to Nome River from the west, about 3miles above Dexter Creek. Basin Creek is an easterly tributary of Nom River, about 4miles below Hobson Creek. Hobson Creek joins Nome River about 10miles from the sea; it has a narrow valley and a southerly course. Dorothy Creek is a tributary to the upper part of Nome River; it flows through a small canyon having a general northerly course.[10]