Read the following text carefully
In the early 1920s, settlers came to Alaska looking for gold. They traveled by boat to the coastal
towns of Seward and Knik, and from there by land into the gold fields. The trail they used to travel inland
is known today as the Iditarod Trail, one of the National Historic Trails designated by the Congress of the
United States. The Iditarod Trail quickly became a major thoroughfare in Alaska, as the mail and supplies
were carried across this trail. People also used it to get from place to place, including the priests,
ministers, and judges who had to travel between villages. In the winter, the settlers’ only means of travel
down this trail was via a dog sled.
Once the gold rush ended, many gold-seekers went back to where they had come from, and
suddenly there was much less travel on the Iditarod Trail. The introduction of the airplane in the late
1920’s meant dog teams were no longer the standard mode of transportation, and of course with the
airplane carrying the mail and supplies, there was less need for land travel in general. The final blow to
the use of the dog teams was the appearance of snowmobiles.
By the mid 1960’s, most Alaskans didn’t even know the Iditarod Trail existed, or that dog teams
had played a crucial role in Alaska’s early settlements. Dorothy G. Page, a self-made historian,
recognized how few people knew about the former use of sled dogs as working animals and about the
Iditarod Trail’s role in Alaska’s colorful history. To raise awareness about this aspect of Alaskan history,
she came up with the idea to have a dog sled race over the Iditarod Trail. She presented her idea to an
enthusiastic musher, as dog sled drivers are known, named Joe Redington, Sr. Soon the Pages and the
Redingtons were working together to promote the idea of the Iditarod race.
Many people worked to make the first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race a reality in 1967. The Aurora
Dog Mushers Club, along with men from the Adult Camp in Sutton, helped clear years of overgrowth from
the first nine miles of the Iditarod Trail. To raise interest in the race, a $25,000 purse was offered, with
Joe Redington donated one acre of his land to help raise the funds. The short race, approximately 27
miles long was put on a second time in 1969.
After these first two successful races, the goal was to lengthen the race a little further to the ghost
town of Iditarod by 1973. However in 1972, the U.S. Army reopened the trail as a winter exercise, and so
in 1973, the decision was made to take the race all the way to the city of Nome—over 1,000 miles. There
were many who believed it could not be done and that it was crazy to send a bunch of mushers out into
the vast, uninhabited Alaskan wilderness. But the race went! 22 mushers finished that year, and to date
over 400 people have completed it
Quiz: Check Your understanding Level
Comprehension Questions
- What was the reason that settlers came to Alaska in the early 1920s?
- What is the Iditarod Trail and what was its significance during the early settlements of Alaska?
- How did the introduction of airplanes and snowmobiles affect the use of dog sleds in Alaska?
- Who was Dorothy G. Page and what was her contribution to the preservation of Alaskan history?
- Who was Joe Redington, Sr. and how did he contribute to the idea of the Iditarod race?
- How did the first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race come into existence and who were some of the people and organizations involved in making it a reality?
- What was the initial length of the Iditarod race and how did it evolve over time?
- What were some of the challenges that mushers faced during the Iditarod race?
- How many people have completed the Iditarod race to date?