The Iditarod National Historic Trail is a 2,450-mile trail that traverses south-central Alaska, from Seward on the southern coast of Alaska, through Anchorage, and on to Nome on Alaska's west coast. It is best known today as the venue for the annual Iditarod race, which celebrates the 1925 "serum run" which brought life-saving diphtheria antitoxin to residents of Nome; however, its importance as a key transportation route predates the race considerably.
The Iditarod Trail has been in existence for some time. The trail was initially blazed by migrating wildlife and was later used as a route for hunting and trading by the inhabitants of the area. Following the arrival of the Russians in Alaska in 1741, the Iditarod Trail became an integral part of what developed into extensive fur trade between the Russians and the local population. With the discovery of gold in Alaska in 1896, the Iditarod Trail became a vital and busy transportation and supply route.
The most popular form of transportation along the Iditarod Trail was the dogsled, which consisted of teams of up to twenty-five dogs pulling a sled and musher across the snow. Dogsleds served a useful function in terms of transporting people and supplies, but they also came to be seen as a form of entertainment as mushers, in order to keep their dogs fit through the coldest winter months when the mines were of necessity closed down, began racing their teams. The All-Alaska Sweepstakes, a 408-mile race along a portion of the Iditarod Trail, began in 1908 to settle a bet among mushers who were training their teams in winter over which musher had the best dogsled team.
The most famous race along the Iditarod Trail was the Great Race of Mercy, or the serum run, to Nome. In January of 1925, in the dead of winter, two children succumbed to what was determined to be diphtheria. Diphtheria posed a significant threat in that an epidemic could conceivably kill thousands of people, particularly the native inhabitants who had little or no resistance to diseases from the outside world. Only a small amount of antitoxin was available in Nome, and the little that was available was of questionable efficacy because of its age. A million units of antitoxin serum were available in Anchorage, but there was no easy way to transport the antitoxin from Anchorage to Nome in the middle of the winter. Some railroads existed in Alaska at the time, but the railroad only went as far as Nenana, which was 500 miles from Nome. Some air travel existed, but it was considered too potentially dangerous at that time of year. Sea travel from Anchorage to Nome was impossible at that time of year because the Bering Sea was frozen over. The only land route at the time from the southern coast of Alaska to Nome was by means of the Iditarod Trail. The decision was made to transport the antitoxin serum by train to Nenana and from there to Nome by dogsled.
A 20-pound package of serum was prepared and was shipped by train to Nenana, where it arrived on January 27. Twenty volunteer mushers with their dogsled teams then transported the antitoxin 465 miles to Nome in only 72 hours, a trip that usually took around a week to complete. The serum arrived in Nome early in the morning on February 2 and was immediately put into use to cure those already stricken and to prevent further spread of the disease; from the time that the serum was received, no further deaths resulted from the diphtheria outbreak. A ceremony was held to award medals and certificates to the mushers who had taken part.
Over the next few decades, as other forms of transportation have come into use on the Iditarod Trail, the popularity of dogsled racing has remained strong. In 1967, as Alaska was making preparations for the centennial celebration of its purchase by the United States, a decision was made to hold a 56-mile dogsled race over a portion of the Iditarod Trail, with a purse of $25,000, as part of the celebration. Because of the popularity of the race during the centennial celebration, the Iditarod became an annual event. In 1973, the race was changed from a shorter event to a grueling 1,100-mile race all the way from Anchorage to Nome, and today the race is run from Anchorage to Nome every March.
