Mellissa Owens |
2008 Seppala Grant Announced
The 2008 Seppala Heritage Grant recipient is Melissa Owens from Nome
Alaska. The 17 year old Alaskan musher has been a part of mushing
since she was a young child, and has been a part of the Jr Iditarod
since she was old enough to run in 2004. Melissa finished in first
place in 2005 at the age of 15. She has also completed the Jr Yukon
Quest, along with a number of short and mid distance races including
the Dow Bowers 200.
The Seppala Heritage Grant is specifically
designed to help fund the efforts of mushers who aspire to run the
"Last Great Race to Nome" for the first time. Applicants
have to demonstrate a commitment to work with, train and race sled
dogs, and show value traits of generosity of spirit, courage, integrity
and love for the dogs, land and people of Alaska.
Owens has already signed up to run the 2008
Iditarod trail Sled Dog Race. She will turn 18 just twelve days
before the start of the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. She is
the daughter of Mike and Pat Owens. Mike Owens is an official finisher
of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and a member of the Iditarod
Trail Committee Board of Directors.
The Seppala Heritage Grant was founded by the
Seppala Family with a $10,000 donation and a four-year commitment
of $10,000 per year per recipient. It is the hope of the Seppala
Family and the selection committee that other persons or organizations
will donate to this charitable grant with money or services, thereby
increasing the outreach potential of this grant. Grant funds are
administrated by Iditarod National Historic Trail, Inc., a private,
nonprofit organization with 501, C-3 federal tax status.
THE 2008 SEPPALA HERITAGE
GRANT
Time is running out - don't forget to apply for the 2008 Seppala
Heritage Grant.
Applicants must own their own dog team and operate their own kennel.
Persons eligible for the grant include any youth, junior musher
or rookie (a rookie is any person regardless of age who aspires
to run the Iditarod for the first time), and who demonstrates the
qualities outlined above. Financial need will also be considered.
Deadline is May, 18th, 2007. The Seppala Heritage Grant will be
awarded by June 1, 2006. The grant recipient will be chosen by the
Selection Committee whose judgment is final. The decision will be
announced at the Iditarod Annual Meeting and Volunteer Picnic in
June 2007.
Click
Here for application & details
(PDF)
National Trails Day - Celebrating 15 Years June 2, 2007 Click
here to see what's happening in your area!
What are National Trails? The Iditarod National Historic
Trail is one of a number of trails designated by Congress in recognition
of their significance as scenic, recreational or historic transportation
routes. The Iditarod was specifically designated for its historic
importance. The system was created to provide areas of hiking and
for meeting the outdoor recreation needs of an ever-expanding urban
population.
Who owns the Iditarod trail? Because the Iditarod is such
a complex trail system, stretching from Seward in the south, to
Nome (mile 926) on the Bering Sea, it crosses lands owned by several
Native corporations, municipal governments and the State of Alaska
as well as federal lands managed by the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Defense.
In all there are 10 institutional land managers and numerous private
owners.
JON KORTA AWARDED SEPPALA HERITAGE GRANT
UPDATE
DEC 2 2006
 INTERVIEW
WITH JON
(MP3 2.7MB)
For the past 9 years Jon Korta has lived in Galena,
AK with his wife, Tanya, and three children, Dylan, Kaleb and Kiana.
Collectively known as "TEAM KORTA," they own a small B&B
and small kennel of 26 dogs. They have mushed dogs recreationally
for 10 years but have only been into racing the last 3. Although they
love recreational mushing, racing has raised the daily quality of
care in the kennel and greatly improved their relationship and understanding
of sled dogs. Jon has competed in the Quest 250, the Tustemena, the
Beargrease Marathon and the Copper Basin 300. Jon has been training,
racing, and learning as much as possible in preparation for Iditarod
2007.
The grant has been established to
financially assist rookie mushers as well as honor the memory of a
great Alaskan.The grant has been seeded by Maja Ramsey, Leonhard Seppala’s
granddaughter, with a $10,000 donation and a four year commitment
of $10,000 per year. It is the hope of the Seppala family and the
selection committee that other persons and organizations will donate
to this charitable grant with money and services, thereby increasing
the outreach potential of this grant. Grant funds are administrated
by Iditarod National Historic Trail, Inc., a private, nonprofit organization
with 501C-3 federal tax status.
MILE 0 SEWARD
ALASKA |
Trail Blazer’s Form, receive
$25,000 Grant to Protect Iditarod National Historic Trail - PRESS
RELEASE AUG 2006
McGrath, Alaska 6/15/2006 community leaders form the “McGrath
Trail Blazer’s” joining elite volunteer trail groups from
Seward to Nome perpetuating the Iditarod National Historic Trail.
Some volunteers have work for more than 25 years preserving and protecting
this historic Trail in the Nome Kennel Club, the Kink and Seward Trail
Trailblazers.
Following the example of the long-standing
Seward Trail Blazers the McGrath Trail Blazers were formed and officers
chosen, Richard Strick, Mark Cox, and Mike Tierney. The ten member
founding group felt strongly that by their voluntary efforts helping
maintain the trail , by cutting brush, building cabins, was a way
of helping preserve the trail, said Richard Strick the newly elected
president.
Recently, “with two days notice
and the help of the INHT board member Richard Strick, Sr. of McGrath
and Mark Nordman of the Iditarod Trail Committee, a $25,000 challenge
cost share project was put together and submitted to Bureau of Land
Management’s State Office. The project was approved and will
provide support to the newly formed McGrath Trailblazers in terms
of funds for fuel purchase, the purchase of two utility snowmachines
and sleds and miscellaneous trail tools. The City of McGrath has
agreed to provide financial administration for the funding and may
also provide secure storage for the equipment. The Iditarod Trail
Committee is looking into stationing a drag groomer in McGrath for
the Trail Blazers to use next winter.” (INHT News June 2006)
Kevin Keeler Iditarod Trail Coordination for the Bureau of Land
Management provided critical support for the success of this effort.
Twenty seven years ago the US Congress
directed the Bureau of Land Management to investigate the Iditarod
Trail. In 1986 Congress created the “Iditarod National Historic
Trail” asking Alaskan residents to provide the long term management
of the trail. The Iditarod National Historic Trail, Inc. not for
profit provides overall stewardship assisting the local “trail
blazer” partners to do on the ground tasks.
Travel for the most part to and from
interior Alaska is by commuter or private planes. Once there, in
summer, travel happens primarily by four wheelers, hiking, and small
plane; in winter by snow machine, small plane, and sometimes dog
sled. The goal of trail improvements will not only preserve the
historic trail but make today’s travel safer. Attracting visitors
promotes community economic development while providing historic
education, conservation, and preservation.
The volunteer Trail Blazer
network preserves historic sites, erect “tripods” for
trail identification and act as directional signs. Standing with
two legs eight foot tall with the third ten to eleven, so fastened
together that the longest of the three sticks projects two or three
feet over the trail. The original series of tripods were placed
by Mr. Foreman Giddings and were in position during the first Iditarod
Trail survey by Col. Walter Goodwin in 1910-11. (July 1911, Alaska
Yukon Magazine) In modern day the tripod has become a trail icon
of the Iditarod. Tripods replacements will assist local residents
and visitors travel in summer on four wheelers and in winter on
snow machines over the 2,400 mile system.
Iditarod National Historic Trail, Inc. (INHT, Inc.) is the successor
of a National Trail Committee created by Congress approximately
25 years ago that supports Trail Blazer groups to do on the Trail
construction, maintenance, and operational duties and responsibilities.
INHT, Inc. works closely with the Iditarod Sled Dog Race Committee
preparing the trail for the race each year. At other times visitors,
miners, hunters, fisherman, and residents use the Trail summer and
winter between communities.
SAMPLE OF SINAGE |
Historic Iditarod Trail Legacy
Project Donates Educational Signs to Trail Towns
FEB. 23, 2006
Five
communities along the Iditarod National Historic Trail will soon
be home to a series of large, colorful educational signs that depict
the local history of the trail. Local board members of a statewide
advocacy group for the trail, Iditarod National Historic Trail Inc.,
are working with community officials to have the signs in place
by the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.
“The signs are a kick-off for
the historic Iditarod Trail Community Legacy Project,” said
Dan Seavey, president of historic Iditarod Inc. and patriarch of
three generations of Seward mushers. “With a little grant
money and the talents of some public agency folks, we’ve put
together some pretty handsome signs.”
The historic signs tell the story
of Joe Redington in Knik, the Nollner brothers of Galena who carried
diphtheria serum to Nome, and the birth of sled dog racing in Nome,
along with stories of McGrath and Unalakleet.
“Most people don’t know
that the Iditarod Trail has the prestige of being a National Historic
Trail, just like the Lewis and Clark Trail. We want to make the
history of Iditarod Trail familiar and accessible to everyone, and
these signs show one of the ways that it can be done.
“For the Legacy Project, we’ll
be reaching out to people along the historic Iditarod Trail, asking
if they’d like to tell more of their local story, who they’d
like to tell it to, and exploring how to tell it. We’ll also
be encouraging local government to join in.”
Designated by Congress in 1978, the
Iditarod National Historic Trail celebrates the vital role sled
dog transportation played in America’s last great Gold Rush.
The main route from Seward to Nome was first mapped and marked in
1908, with road houses springing up to shelter and feed two- and
four-legged users. Downturns in mining and the introduction of the
airplane for mail and freight service caused a decline of trail
use in the mid-20th century. After being reborn with the Iditarod
Trail Sled Dog Race, the trail today is home to three internationally
recognized long-distance winter races, and is used annually for
winter recreation, subsistence, and inter-village travel.
The community signs were developed
by historic Iditarod Inc. in cooperation with BLM’s Anchorage
Field Office and Chugach National Forest, both of which are federal
managers for the historic trail. Along with these agencies, other
partners of the Community Legacy Project include the State Historic
Preservation Office, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Iditarod
Trail Committee.
For more information on the historic
Iditarod Trail Community Legacy Project contact the BLM Iditarod
National Historic Trail Coordinator at 1-800-478-1263.
Preview new community signs along the INHT: (PDF)
| KNIK
| McGrath
|GALENA
| UNALAKLEET
| NOME
|
News from the Chugach National
Forest
Alaska Trails Initiative - The
Chugach National Forest was recently awarded $238,555 in Alaska Trails
Initiative funds to complete priority work along two segments of the
INHT. This grant will fund the reconstruction of 2.1 miles of trail
between the Bear Lake Trailhead and north Bear Lake, completing the
16-mile INHT connection from Bear Lake to Primrose Campground. The
funds will also be used to construct an initial 1.75 mile segment
of INHT in the Turnagain Pass area, providing trail access between
Mile 72 on the Seward Highway and Upper Ingram Creek. This segment
will eventually help connect the Johnson Pass Trail with Turnagain
Arm and the East Turnagain Pass Trailhead, providing year-round trail
opportunities through Turnagain Pass. Both projects will be completed
via contract and are expected to be finished by September 2007. The
Forest Service is excited to be a recipient of this grant and very
appreciative of the letter of support provided by INHT, Inc. for the
project.
Click
here for complete details (PDF)
WANTED: IDITAROD TRAIL STORIES
The U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and federal
managers for the Iditarod National Historic Trail are working to compile
educational and interpetive materials for teaching about this historically
significant trail.The groups are seeking stories, photographs and
any other interesting facts about life on the Iditarod Trail, when
it was used as a thoroughfare for travelers between Seward and Nome
and many points in between. The information will be considered for
use in educational brochures, signs and trail guides. To share stories
or photographs contact Annette Heckart with Chugach National Forest
at 907 743-9502 or e-mail aheckart@fs.fed.us
Triva:
Who participated in the 1925 life saving Serum Run
using the Iditarod trail system? Click
here for answer
The
Iditarod National Historic Trail
Seward to Nome
Steamboat "Reliance"
on the
Iditarod River, 1911 |
Iditarod is a magical
word not only in Alaska, but also in the Nation and in many other
parts of the world. It is a word that raises different images and
emotions in different people. To the oldest Alaskan Natives, it recalls
the approximate name of a 19th century Athabaskan Indian village on
a small river now also called Iditarod. To "Sourdoughs"
and others familiar with the State's history, IDITAROD refers to the
now-abandoned Gold Rush town of the 1910's and it's associated mining
district in South central Alaska. More technically, to the historian,
IDITAROD refers to the 1910 Seward-to-Nome mail trail surveyed by
the U.S. Army's Alaska Road Commission. Yet today the name IDITAROD,
above all in National recognition, symbolizes the dramatic, long distance
sled dog race between Anchorage and Nome held each March since 1973.
In November of 1978, IDITAROD took
on still another meaning when the National
Trails System Act was amended. At the urging of the public,
Congress created a new category of the National Trails when the
Lewis and Clark, the Oregon, the Mormon-Pioneer, and the Iditarod
were designated as National Historic Trails.
Traveling on the trail was
a challenge
for even the hardiest of pioneers. |
The Iditarod National Historic Trail
(Iditarod NHT) is composed of the federally administered areas of
the Gold Rush Trail network which connect Seward in southern Alaska
with Nome in northwestern Alaska via the Iditarod Mining District.
The 938-mile Trail, commonly known as the "Iditarod Trail"
during the Iditarod Gold Rush of the 1910's, was formally constructed
by the Alaska Road Commission under the direction of Walter L. Goodwin
during 1910-11. This constitutes the Iditarod NHT's "Primary
Route." Yet branching from the primary route are hundreds of
miles of land and water based routes and trails. They were important
not only during the 1910's, but also during the entire Gold Rush Period
in Interior Alaska from the 1880's into the 1920's, with some based
on even earlier Indian Trails.In addition to the trails used during
this period, other route used yearly in the IDITAROD TRAIL SLED DOG
RACE are also part of this Trail System. Collectively, these trail
segments and associated historic sites make up what is referred to
as the IDITAROD NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL SYSTEM. Though
the IDITAROD NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL SYSTEM currently includes only
the federally administered portions of the Gold Rush trail system,
the remainder of the network will be recognized officially as components
of the National Trail System once cooperative agreements between
the Secretary of the Interior and the non-federal land managers
are executed.
| Archeologists
for the Bureau of Land Management, examine the remains
of an old dog barn near Pioneer Roadhouse, Mile 330
on the Iditarod Trail. |
|
The Iditarod National Historic Trail
Comprehensive Management Plan, as mandated by Congress, represents
the cooperative efforts of the Bureau
of Land Management, the Forest Service, the Fish & Wildlife
Service, the National Park Service, the State of Alaska, the Iditarod
National Historic Trail Advisory Council, various local governments,
Native corporations, and interest groups, as well as hundreds of
individuals. Together, these agencies, groups, and individuals have
proposed a cooperative management philosophy.
This management philosophy, which
is based on the spirit of cooperation and on formal agreements,
seems particularly appropriate for Alaska. The entire Trail system
would be managed as a unit by a coalition of volunteer Trail organizations
in partnership with the local land managers who are ultimately responsible
for the various segments of the Trail.
Survey party of the Goodwin
expedition around 1911 |
The IDITAROD NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL
is unique in Alaskan and American history. It represents the last
vestiges of a truly remote and wild trail system which today remains
much the same as it was 75 years ago. We trust that as stewards
of this remarkable nonrenewable resource, we will work cooperatively
to preserve a prominent part of America's past for future generations
who will treasure this resource as much as or more than we do today.
Iditarod -- Millennium
Trails Program
Under the White House Millennium Program, Millennium
Trails is a national program that will celebrate, recognize and
be a catalyst for creating trails to "honor the past and imagine
the future" as part of America's legacy for the year 2000. From
the earliest routes of our ancestors, to new urban greenways, to itineraries
that tell the story of our nation, trails are an important part of
the American landscape, providing real connections between our people,
the land, our history and culture.The Iditarod trail is one of the
few trails listed as a Millennium Trail. The
Iditarod National Historic Trail is one of a number of
Trails designated by Congress in recognition of their significance
as scenic or historic transportation routes. The Iditarod was specifically
designated for its historic importance. The system was created to
provide areas for hiking and for meeting the outdoor recreation
needs of an ever expanding urban population.
Trail Ownership
Who owns the trail? Because the Iditarod
is such a complex trail system, stretching from Seward in the south,
to Nome on the Bering Sea, it crosses lands owned by several Native
Corporations, municipal governments and the State of Alaska as well
as federal lands managed by the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Department of Defense. In
all there are 10 institutional land managers and numerous private
owners.
Iditasport Race 1989 - ©
BLM photograph |
The Iditarod Trail Today
Unlike the Appalachian or Pacific Crest national trails which are
located near heavily populated areas, most of the Iditarod is located
in remote areas with sparse populations. The Iditarod evolved as a
winter access route to various mining districts. As a result, the
trail tended to follow features which required little to no construction.
Swamps, tundra bogs, lakes and unbridged rivers became pathways during
the long winter. Most current use occurs when the tundra and rivers
are frozen and easier to cross.
Today, only a small portion of the trail can be hiked during the summer
months due to the thick wet tundra vegetation and voracious mosquitoes
on much of the trail. However, short segments of the trail can be
hiked near Seward on the Chugach National Forest or near Anchorage
on Chugach State Park. Visitors to Nome can also follow the trail
east of town along the Bering Sea coast. Winter trail users include
dog mushers, skiers, snowmachiners and even mountain bikers.
Bison -- A wild self-sustaining herd
of American bison (Bison bison) is located near Farewell, Alaska.
North
American bison also known as Wood bison (Bison bison athabascae)
were once part of the native Alaska fauna. These bison became extinct
in Alaska only a few hundred years ago. The reason for this relatively
recent extinction is not known for certain. Some scientists have suggested
that it might have been caused by over hunting by early humans and/or
changes in the bison's habitat. Wood Bison can still be found in some
areas of Canada.
In addition to the Iditarod Trail Sled
Dog Race, other competitive events include the Iron
Dog -- Gold Rush Classic Snowmachine race (the World's longest)
which is run from near Anchorage to Nome and back, and the Iditasport
human endurance competition for skiers, runners, and mountain bikers.
|
