What is Sea Glass?Sea glass begins as normal shards of broken glass that are then persistently tumbled and ground until the sharp edges are smoothed and rounded. In this process, the glass loses its slick surface but gains a frosted appearance over many years.
Naturally produced sea glass ("genuine sea glass") originates as pieces of glass from broken bottles, broken tableware, or even shipwrecks, which are rolled and tumbled in the ocean for years until all of their edges are rounded off, and the slickness of the glass has been worn to a frosted appearance. All of our sea glass is natural sea glass found on the beaches of Nome, AK. |
|
About Nome, AK
In the summer of 1898, the "Three Lucky Swedes": Norwegian-American Jafet Lindeberg, and two naturalized American citizens of Swedish birth, Erik Lindblom and John Brynteson, discovered gold on Anvil Creek. News of the discovery reached the outside world that winter. By 1899, Nome had a population of 10,000 and the area was organized as the Nome mining district. In that year, gold was found in the beach sands for dozens of miles along the coast at Nome, which spurred the stampede to new heights. Thousands more people poured into Nome during the spring of 1900 aboard steamships from the ports of Seattle and San Francisco. By 1900, a tent city on the beaches and on the treeless coast reached 48 km (30 mi), from Cape Rodney to Cape Nome. In June of that year, Nome averaged 1000 newcomers a day.
During the period from 1900−1909, estimates of Nome's population reached as high as 20,000. The highest recorded population of Nome, in the 1900 United States census, was 12,488. At this time, Nome was the largest city in the Alaska Territory. Early in this period, the U.S. Army policed the area, and expelled any inhabitant each autumn who did not have shelter (or the resources to pay for shelter) for the harsh winter.
By 1910 Nome's population had fallen to 2,600, and by 1934, to less than 1500.
(And yes, we "borrowed" from Wikipedia)
During the period from 1900−1909, estimates of Nome's population reached as high as 20,000. The highest recorded population of Nome, in the 1900 United States census, was 12,488. At this time, Nome was the largest city in the Alaska Territory. Early in this period, the U.S. Army policed the area, and expelled any inhabitant each autumn who did not have shelter (or the resources to pay for shelter) for the harsh winter.
By 1910 Nome's population had fallen to 2,600, and by 1934, to less than 1500.
(And yes, we "borrowed" from Wikipedia)
Why does Nome have so much sea glassThe reason we have a little history lesson about Nome is because during the early 1900's the trash from Nome was all dumped into the ocean. At the height of Nome's population, there were 20,000 people all dumping trash in the ocean. Fortunately this was before the days of plastic, which means every soda bottle, beer bottle, medicine container, and almost everything else we make out of plastic today was made out of glass back then. Additionally, glass manufacturing in the 1900's wasn't nearly as advanced as it is now. All of these bottles were several times thicker than today's glass bottles. Pictured on the right is the bottom corner of what was probably a glass bottle.
The most abundance colors found in Nome are brown, green, light green, and clear glass. The rarer colors are blue, light blue, red, yellow, pink, as well as pottery and china. |