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The Iditarod is a celebration of the loyalty and
courage of the sled dog. Sled dogs have played a very important role in
the history and culture of Alaska and the North Country.
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| The village of White Mountain is
a checkpoint on the Iditarod Trail 77 miles from Nome. White
Mountain was also along the 1925 serum run route. |
Sled dogs have been used for thousands of years as a way to
travel in the winter time. Without the hard working sled dogs, the native
peoples of the north would not have been able to survive. The dogs allowed
the natives to move in search of food, trade with neighboring families, and
communicate with others.
As more and more people came to places like Alaska in search of
gold and riches, the sled dogs again played a very important role. Mail,
food, and gold were all delivered by dog team. People would move from
place to place with the dogs. The dog teams and their drivers became
symbols of the pioneer spirit in the northland.
In the winter of 1925, the town of Nome on the Bering Sea Coast
was hit with diphtheria epidemic. The children of Nome
were sick, and medicine was needed to save them and stop the disease from
spreading. The Bering Sea was frozen for the winter, airplanes couldn't
fly through the storms, and no roads or railroads came anywhere close to
Nome. The sled dogs saved the day. 18 teams and their mushers each
took a turn carrying the medicine a total of 674 miles to reach Nome. Balto
was the famous lead dog of the team that brought the medicine the last miles to
Nome. The sled dogs were heroes, and a statue of Balto was placed
in Central Park in New York City.
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| These children live in Grayling, a
village along the Yukon River. They love to watch the teams as they
pass through. |
As railroads, cars, airplanes, and snowmobiles arrived in
Alaska, the sled dogs began to be forgotten. An important part of the
native culture was disappearing with the dogs. This bothered people,
including a man named Joe Redington, Sr. Something had to be done to
preserve the tradition of the sled dogs. The Iditarod race was started
to preserve the sled dog culture.
Joe Redington, with help from a number of other dog mushers and
historians, including Dan Seavey (grandfather of Ultimate Iditarod's Tyrell
Seavey), decided to put on a race across Alaska from Anchorage to
Nome. The race would follow the old Iditarod Trail, which was a mail and
supply route used by the dog teams during the gold rush days. The race
would be known as the Iditarod.
Many people said that the dog teams would never make it to Nome
when the first Iditarod race was run in 1973. But these people were proven
wrong when Dick Wilmarth won the first Iditarod. It took him nearly three
weeks. In order to provide the $50,000 in prize money that Redington had
promised the finishers of the race, Joe took out a mortgage on his own home.
Now days, the winner of the race takes only nine days to finish
the race, and the prize money is more than half a million dollars every
year. However, the spirit that inspired Joe Redington to start the race is
still alive and well as the Iditarod and the sport of sled dog race enters the
21st century.
The Iditarod is the world's longest dog
sled race. The trail runs 1,151 miles from Anchorage to Nome along an old
mail route known as the Iditarod Trail.
The race starts in Anchorage on the first Saturday in March
every year. Between 55 and 75 mushers from Alaska, Canada, the Lower 48,
and other countries around the world compete in the race. The winner
usually takes nine days to finish the race. The last place team takes two
weeks or more. Click for more on
this topic.
The Iditarod places humans and dogs
together in a very challenging event that strengthens the bond between all
members of the team. Teamwork is the only way to get to the finish line.
 Sixteen
dogs and one musher (person who drives the sled) make up a team in the
Iditarod. No help is allowed the teams. The single musher in every
team must spend lots of his or her time caring for the dogs, feeding them, and
making sure they are always happy and healthy. The dogs must be full of
energy and be willing to work for the musher. The musher holds the dogs in
high respect. The dogs hold the musher in high respect. The
musher and dogs are a true team.
The Iditarod is a race where men and women,
young and old, all compete for the same prize. Everyone is an equal
competitor. "...common sense and good sportsmanship shall
prevail."
Unlike most sports, many dog sled races, including the Iditarod,
do not have separate divisions for men and women or professional and
amateur. Most mushers would say that the distinctions between men and
women and professional and amateur mushers do not matter on the Iditarod
Trail. Mushers help each other whenever needed. Every musher can
recall fond memories of times when the companionship of being on the trail was
far more important than the competition. As the rules say, "Common
sense and good sportsmanship shall prevail."
The history, challenge, teamwork, and sportsmanship that
come together to make the Iditarod create a unique event that deserves the title
The Last Great Race on EarthTM.
The Last Great Race on Earth is a
registered trademark of the Iditarod Trail Committee, Wasilla, Alaska.
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