The point where Buffalo and Deep Canyon creeks join, which is regarded as its head, is 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. 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. 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 to Norton Sound at the Bering Sea. The mouth of the river is about southeast of Nome. The elevation of Nome River at Dexter Creek is less than, which allows the river below that point an average grade of. 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. 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.
Tributaries
Stevens and Washington gulches flow through the tundra from the hill south of Osborn Creek into Nome River. 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 above Buster Creek. Banner Creek is a small stream tributary to Nome River from the west, about above Dexter Creek. Basin Creek is an easterly tributary of Nom River, about below Hobson Creek. Hobson Creek joins Nome River about from the sea; it has a narrow valley and a southerly course. Dorothy Creek is tributary to the upper part of Nome River; it flows through a small canyon having a general northerly course.
