The Iditarod Trail began in Seward during the gold rush days. It stretched
to Knik then on to the gold camp of Iditarod and eventually to Nome.
It's over a thousand miles from Anchorage to Nome via the presently used
Iditarod Trail race route. It crosses two mountain ranges, passes through
ice-locked wilderness areas, and winds over 200 miles along the mighty
Yukon River. The mushers leave civilization at Knik and there's only small
towns and villages to break the monotony of traveling in bone-chilling
cold until they reach the historic goldrush town of Nome, perched on the
shores of the Bering Sea.
The historic Iditarod Trail was established by its many travelers and
freighters. But having a sled dog race over the trail was initiated by
Dorothy Page, a history buff who lives in Wasilla. Back in 1964 Page
was serving as chairman of the Wasilla-Knik Centennial Committee and
also as secretary of the Aurora Dog Mushers Club.
As a spectacular centennial year project, Page talked to many people
about re-opening the Iditarod Trail, beginning at Knik, and having a
sled dog race to call attention to Alaska's past and the part the mushers
and their dog teams had played in opening up the Territory of Alaska.
Page could see that raising sled dogs and mushing were going downhill
due to the wide use of snowmachines. She felt mushing needed to be revived
before the dogs were "completely run down by snow machines." But
Page also knew she could talk on forever about a big new race unless
she could get a musher interested in her "weird idea. "
Dorothy's husband, Vondolee, was Superintendent of Schools in Wasilla
then and had kept a dog team for several years. But Von only had time
to train the dogs evenings and weekends. Sometimes he couldn't even manage
to find time enough for those shorter periods of training. Many of the
teachers new to Alaska got their first taste of dog mushing by helping
train the team, too. Von was also a member of the Aurora Dog Mushers
Club. He said he thought the idea of a race on the historic trail was
a good one, but that he'd have little time to help put such a race together.
Others expressed interest in the idea but backed off because they thought
it would take too much work.
About the time Dorothy had decided she couldn't stand it if one more
person gave her a strange look and asked: "Are you crazy?" Don't
you realize how much work that would be?" she met the right musher
to help her promote the race and put it together.
While attending the "Willow Winter Carnival" sled dog races
in 1966, Dorothy talked to Joe Redington Sr., and his wife Vi, who were
then living at Flat Horn Lake. Joe was a veteran musher who had traveled
over sections of the historic Iditarod Trail when he homesteaded adjacent
to Flat Horn Lake.
During a lull in the finish of the Willow race, Dorothy went up to Redington
and asked: "What do you think about having a race over the historic
Iditarod Trail?" We could begin re-opening the trail just out of
Knik. Then we could gradually extend the trail, until we reached Iditarod
and maybe even Nome some day."
Redington had grinned and replied: "I think that's a great idea!" Vi
agreed. With the Redingtons on her side, Page knew that many of the problems
connected with making believers out of the other mushers were solved.
But first they'd have to convince the twenty-three members of the Aurora
Dog Mushers Club that the race was feasible.
At the next meeting of the club, the proposed Iditarod Trail race was
the main topic of conversation. It was decided that the Wasilla-Knik
Centennial Committee and the Aurora Dog Mushers Club would co-sponsor
the race in I967, the year that marked the 100th anniversary of the purchase
of Alaska from Russia in 1867. The club unanimously endorsed the idea
of having an Iditarod Trail race. Ed Carney of Wasilla, then president
of the Aurora Dog Mushers Club, appointed an "Iditarod Trail Committee." Members
included Joe Redington, Al Hibbard, Dorothy Page, Vi Redington and Ed
Carney.
The first major problems the Iditarod committee faced were clearing
the old trail overgrown with brush and trees, and scheduling the race
between the season’s two big races, the World Championship race
in Anchorage and the North American Championship race in Fairbanks. They
finally picked the dates, February 11 and 12, the usual time for the
Aurora championship race.
Many people said the Iditarod Trail race wouldn't be a success because
it was bucking the two prestige races. But the members of the Iditarod
Trail committee kept working. They'd decided to Offer $25,000 in prize
money and there was no end to fundraising activities. Also, they decided
to call the race the "Iditarod Trail International Championship
Race," because they said someday it would attract mushers from all
sections of Alaska the smaller states and even foreign countries.
When the small group of Iditarod promoters signed up 58 mushers for
the 1967 race, the Iditarod critics changed their tune. Because fund
raising had taken time away from trail work, only nine miles of the Iditarod
Trail were reopened. The race covered 25 miles from Knik to Big Lake
on Saturday, and from Big Lake to Knik on Sunday, for a total of 50 miles.
Isaac Okleasik of Teller won the race. It took the committee the next
year to get out of debt.
Due to lack of snow in I968 the race was postponed. Snowmachine races
were sweeping the area then, and for the 1969 race the committee could
only raise $1,000. George Attla, then living in Huslia, won that year.
By 1970, snowmachine races were still attracting the attention of the
majority of Alaskans and interest in the Iditarod waned. But trail work
continued.
Members of the Iditarod Trail Committee knew that they couldn't hold
the interest of Alaskans by extending the trail a little further each
year towards Nome. Then, at a committee meeting in I972, Joe Redington
said: "Well, let's go all the way to Nome in 1973!" Redington
called Howard Farley in Nome and he started work on the Nome end of the
trail. But not many other people believed that mushers could travel over
1,000 miles by dog teams. Clearing the trail was a gigantic task. Fortunately,
because of scheduled training in an over-ground movement between Fort
Richardson and Nome, the U.S. Army opened portions of the Iditarod Trail.
They employed snowmachines for transportation. The 172nd Arctic Light
Infantry Brigade thus helped open and mark sections of the trail in advance
of the Iditarod race. Five civilians on snowmachines also helped mark
the trail.
On March 3, 1973, hundreds of people watched as 34 mushers left Anchorage
and headed to Nome. When Dick Wilmarth of Red Devil, Alaska, reached
Nome over the old winter trail mushers hadn't traveled for over 45 years,
the celebration was like a combination of Fourth of July and Christmas.
Since 1973 annual races have been held. With each race comes the repetitious
task of putting in the trail, raising prize money and staffing race headquarters
in Anchorage and Nome. Hundreds of Alaskans donate their time each year
to make the race a success.
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