By: Kara Fini

The Iditarod Race is an annual Alaskan sled dog race held early March. It starts in Anchorage and travails nearly 1,000 miles through the Alaskan terrain all the way to Nome, Alaska. Each team starts with 14-16 dogs, a musher and sled. A musher is the human who directs and helps the dogs throughout the race. There are 3 required stops, one 24 hour stop and two 8 hour stops. During these the dogs get medical care and a check to make sure they can keep going.

Before Alaska was settled by Russia, Native Alaskans found that sled dogs were the most efficient way to get to places because of the harsh climates and rough terrain. Russia settled in Alaska in the early 1800s and found native sled dog trails. They decided it would be a good place to set up a fur trading post.

When Alaska was bought by the US from Russia, most of inland Alaska had not been explored except by the Natives currently living there, but once gold was discovered, people came rushing in from all over in hopes to become rich off of their finds. The three major places where gold was found were in Hope, Nome and Iditarod.

As miners and traders spread across Alaska they realized that the Natives’ way of using sled dogs was the easiest way to transport mail and tools to the miners in the areas. They created a path leading from Skagway up to Nome that later changed to be Seward to Nome because many people reported it was less dangerous. Along the trail up to Nome there were road houses where mushers could sleep and get food for them and their dog.

In 1925 a diphtheria epidemic broke out in Nome causing many people to fall ill. Being a small secluded town, there was no serum to help there, but in Anchorage there was a serum. They needed to get it to Nome quickly. They were able to send it partially there by train but there was still quite a way to go, so they used mushers and sled dogs on the Iditarod trail to send it the rest of the way to Nome. It took only 5 days after departing Anchorage to arrive at Nome. This run is the most historic part of the Iditarod Trail.

Throughout the next several decades, the trail saw little to no use with the gold industry declining, and airplanes being able to deliver mail.

In 1973 a race along the Iditarod started to honor the history of the gold rush and bring awareness to the Iditarod Trail. This race has continued every year since then with tons of people coming every year.