Dog Sled Racing, Part 3: Iditarod History

As promised, let's start with the Iditarod trail. The Iditarod trail started as a way to send freight and mail to Alaskan miners, and was constructed by the Feds. It started around Seward and went to Nome, about 1,150 miles away. This all happened around 1910, but the trail was built upon a trail used for centuries by Native Americans and Russian fur traders. It was a very busy trail, with 120 teams travelling in a month, going about 50-70 miles at a time; the total round trip was more than three weeks.

What everyone tends to remember about the Iditarod trail was its' role in the 1925 Nome diptheria epidemic. They needed serum, and the closest place with it was Anchorage. Since an airplane flight was not possible, the next best thing was an assmbly of dog teams using the Iditarod trail. The best mushers of every town along the Iditarod trail (it was shipped from Anchorage to Nenana by the new AK railroad) were assembled and a relay of sorts was underway to get the serum to Nome as fast as possible.

The serum arrived in the nick of time, and hundreds of lives were saved. The entire country, who had been following the relay in the papers, were all very relieved. It was so memorable that a statue of Balto (Gunnar Kaasen's lead) stands in Central Park today, and Balto has his own Disney movie (ask any 5-10 year old who Balto is and they can tell you :) ).

Despite the glorious history of the Iditarod trail, it was forgotten until the 1960s when the chairman of the Wasilla-Knick Centennial, Dorothy G. Page, was looking for projects to celebrate AK's centennial year of 1967. She talked to Joe Redington Sr, who was a musher from the Knik area, who thought is was a super idea. After two short races in 1967 and 1969, in 1973 it went from Anchorage to Nome for the first time.

If you want more information, the pages listed are great for additional information. So..tomorrow let's talk about the race itself :)

UPDATE: Mom points out that I made a typo. I have fixed it. She also says one of her coworkers suggested Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry. If you like mysteries and are interested in Alaska, Sue Henry is definitely an author you should read.