placer miner from Flat brought his family to Anchorage to take up residency in 1934. Nick Sopoff was born in Vladikvkaz, Russia in 1891 and immigrated to the United States in 1911. He came to Alaska in 1914, arriving in Seward, where he started his overland hike to Flat. It was an arduous trip, taking more than seventeen days. He found that staking a claim was almost impossible, as all of the good ground was taken. He worked for wages and did prospecting on the side, and it was not until 1923 that he and his partner were able to develop their own property. With partner, Harry Scott, Nick developed mining ventures in the Iditarod and Stuyahok areas as well as in Ft. Yukon.

In 1922 Nick married Matilda Peterson of Anvik Mission, and they made their home in Flat. Matilda operated a bathhouse and laundry while Nick worked in the placer mines. Nick and his partner sold their mining interests in the Stuyahok to Vance Hitt in 1930 and spent the next four years in Flat before moving to Anchorage.

Nick and Matilda had three children, Nina, Anita, and Marian. In 1938 Nick was working for a contractor in Anchorage laying pipe for a new sewer system when he was accidentally killed by a section of pipe which fell into the ditch and landed on him. Matilda Peterson Sopoff died in 1973, and she and Nick are both buried in Anchorage Memorial Park.