Iditarod Trail
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The Iditarod Trail, also known historically as the Seward-to-Nome Mail Trail, refers to a thousand-plus mile historic and contemporary trail system in the U.S. state of Alaska.
[edit] Historic Iditarod Trail
The Iditarod Trail was a trail that connected a point 80 km (50 miles) north of Seward, Alaska, where a forerunner of the Alaska Railroad ended, through Iditarod, Alaska and then to Nome. The trail was about 1,850 km (1,150 miles) long.
From its beginning, the trail wound along Turnagain Arm, over Crow Pass, down the Eagle River Valley and northward to the trading post of Knik River, the largest town on the Upper Cook Inlet until the railroad town of Anchorage was founded in 1915. The trail then passed west through the valleys of the Susitna River and Yentna River and over the Alaska Range and Rainy Pass. West of the Alaska Range, the trail crossed the Kuskokwim River Valley to the hills west of McGrath and entered the Innoko River mining district and the town of Ophir. After Ophir, the trail went southwest through the Kuskokwim Mountains to Iditarod.
The trail went northwest from Iditarod to the Yukon River, and then due north on the river to the village of Kaltag. The trail then followed the 145 km (90 mile) long Kaltag Portage, an old native trading trail, to Unalakleet, on the Norton Sound. From Unalakleet, the trail north and west around the shore of the Seward Peninsula, passing the villages of Shaktoolik, Koyuk, and Golovin. It then proceeded to its end on Front Street in Nome.
The trail was used during the winter by dog mushers with large freight sleds carrying up to 1/2 tonne (1,100 pounds) of freight.
[edit] Iditarod National Historic Trail
The modern Iditarod National Historic Trail is a network of trails used by pre-European inhabitants of Alaska and the gold rush supply trail mentioned above. The network includes 1,450 km (900 miles) of trail on the main route and 3,950 km (2,450 miles) of side trails. Most of the trails are usable only during Alaska's six-month winters when rivers and tundra are frozen.
[edit] Iditarod race route
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, named after the now-abandoned town of Iditarod, commemorates the last great goldrush in America to the Iditarod gold fields and the critical role that dogs played in the settlement and development of Alaska. That the Race commemorates a dogsled relay knownn as the "Serum Run" that carried a life-saving vaccine from Nenana to Nome in 1925 is a common myth. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was first established by Dorothy Paige and Joe Redington Sr. in the early 1970's for the reasons listed above, and to encourage the designation of the Iditarod Trail as a National Historic Trail. Today the race follows much of the Primary Route of the Iditarod National Historic Trail, with a segment alternating north or south, depending on the year. (These segments are also part of the Iditarod National Historic Trail). Every 'odd' year (ie., 2007) the Race travels south route from Ophir to Kaltag thru the ghost town of Iditarod. On even years, the Race travels north from Ophir thru Ruby and Galena to Kaltag. The 1925 Serum Run followed 500 miles of trail (now designated as the Iditarod National Historic Trail system) between Ruby and Nome. For more information on the Sled Dog Race, see http://www.iditarod.com For more info on the Serum Run, see http://www.serumrun.org
