Where does the Dow number come from?

According to economics.about.com the Dow is the average of 30 stocks. I looked up the prices of those stocks on CNN Money, and none were above $300. How do you get a number like 17,000 from an average of 30 numbers, none of which are above 300?

Submitted January 05, 2015 at 03:51PM by Hashi856 http://ift.tt/1HB2byQ