
Gold Rush engine leads to passenger, mail and freight service on the Alsea River
John Ludeman was born in Germany in 1879 and moved to the Waldport area with his family in 1886. In 1900 he joined the Gold Rush in Nome, Alaska. The gold-seeking venture wasn’t successful, but he did come home with a small Fairbanks-Morse gas engine, the first in the area, which he installed on his launch named Nugget. On