Historic
Overview
The Iditarod Trail, a symbol of frontier travel and once main artery
of Alaska's winter commerce, served a string of mining camps, trading
posts, and other settlements founded between 1880 and 1920, during
Alaska's Gold Rush Era. The Alaska Gold Rush was an extension of the
Western mining frontier that dates from California gold discovery
in 1848. In each new territory, gold strikes had caused a surge in
population, the establishment of a territorial government, and the
development of a transportation system linking the goldfields with
the rest of the nation. Alaska, too, followed through these stages.
With the increase in gold production, the non-Native population boomed
from a recorded 430 in 1880 to some 36,400 in 1910. In 1912 President
Taft signed the act creating the Territory of Alaska. At that time,
transportation systems included steamship and steamboat lines, railroads,
and four major cross-country dogsled winter trails. Of the
later, the longest ran from Seward to nome, and was called the Iditarod.
The Iditarod
Trail was developed as a response to gold rush era needs. It antecedents
were the Native trails of the Tanaina and Ingalik Indians and the
Inupiaq and Yupik Eskimos. They knew the route and had developed
winter modes of travel -- the digsled and snowshoe. The peaceful
collaboration of Native groups with the newcomers made settlement
easier.
Our stereotyped
image of the parka-clad musher behind a sled and a string of dogs
reflects a mixture of Native technology and European adaptions.
The Native sled was built to carry all the owner's possessions from
camp to camp or from camp to village. The owner ran in front, guiding
his dog team along unimproved trails. The Russian, Lt. Zagoskin,
wrote in the 1840's that the Russians introduced the method of harnessing
the dogs single file or in pairs in front of the sled. The Russians
also introduced the lead dog or "leader" -- the best trained
dog that kept the others in line and recognized voice commands for
direction. During the Russian era, guide-poles and later handlebars
were attached to the rear of the sled to direct, push, and balance
the weight.
The Russians
also developed parts of the later Iditarod Trail as a route of supply
and provision for fur trading posts. The Russian American Company
sent fur trading expeditions across the Kaltag Portage to Nulato
on the Yukon River, along a section built later as part of the Iditarod
Trail. When the American fur trading companies took over the Russian
posts (after 1867), they continued using Kaltag Portage and extended
it as part of the Yukon River Trail, linking fur trading posts into
Canada. From there came French-Canadian traders and trappers, along
with their voice commands for dogsledding: Americanized as "gee"
for ye (go right), "haw" for cha (go left)
, and "mush" for marche (go ahead). Thus, the mode
of travel and an emerging pattern of transportation were developed,
aiding the movement north by the time of the first gold strikes.
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