Alaska
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Enjoy the historic trail on the web or on the ground.To begin exploring Iditarod Trail history, select one of the subject areas below.
Alaska’s Enduring TrailThe Iditarod National Historic Trail (INHT) commemorates a 2,300 mile system of winter routes that first connected ancient Native villages and later opened up Alaska for America’s last great gold rush. When American explorers and prospectors arrived in the north, they quickly learned from Native Alaskans that sled dog teams were the only way to reliably move goods and people across the frozen landscape. Not by chance, the "Seward to Nome Trail" as the Iditarod was originally called, was first mapped and marked in 1908 by a four-person Alaska Road Commission crew supported by dog teams. Nine months after the route was surveyed, two prospectors made a ‘Christmas Day Strike’ in the Iditarod Mining District, and the last great rush was on. Between 1910 and 1912, 10,000 gold seekers came to Alaska’s “Inland Empire,” and in the following years worked $30 million of gold from the ground.
Roadhouses and Dog BarnsWith the rush, roadhouses and dog barns sprung up along the trail at a convenient day’s journey apart—about 20 miles—to shelter and feed trail users. Freight shippers, mail haulers, and well-to-do passengers relied on dogsleds. Less wealthy foot-travelers used snowshoes, skis, and the occasional bicycle. By 1918 the stampede reversed itself. New winter mail contracts bypassed the fading town of Iditarod in favor of more direct routes to Nome, and World War I drew young miners and workers away from the gold fields. Nome Serum Run Marks the Beginning of the End In the winter of 1925, a deadly outbreak of diphtheria struck fear in the hearts of Nome residents. Winter ice had closed the port city from the outside world without enough serum to inoculate its residents. Serum from Anchorage was rushed by train to Nenana and picked up by a sled dog relay. Twenty of Alaska’s best mushers and their teams carried the serum 674 miles from Nenana to Nome in less than 5½ days! This was to be one of the final great feats by sled dogs. Within a decade, air transport replaced the sled dog team as the preferred way to ship mail. With downturns in gold mining, most of the roadhouses closed, boom towns emptied, and the Iditarod Trail fell into disuse. A Partnership Effort Re-opens the Iditarod Trail
Forest and tundra reclaimed the Iditarod Trail for almost a half a century until Alaskans, led by Joe Redington, Sr., reopened the routes. To draw attention to the role dogs played in Alaska’s history, Joe and his friends created an epic sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome following the route of the historic Iditarod Trail. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race ultimately revived dog mushing in Alaska and around the world. And after years of dogged effort by Joe and the Alaska Congressional delegation, the Iditarod was designated as a National Historic Trail in 1978. Click here to view a detailed chronology of the Iditarod National Historic Trail.
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