When was first iditarod

Contestants from all over Alaska and even two contestants from Massachusetts entered that first Iditarod Race, but a newcomer, Isaac Okleasik, from Teller, Alaska, won the race with his team of large working dogs. The short race approximately 27 miles was put on again in The goal was to have the race go all the way to the ghost town of Iditarod in However, in , the US Army reopened the trail as a winter exercise and in , the decision was made to take the race the 1, plus miles to Nome.

There were many who believed it was crazy to send a bunch of mushers out into the vast uninhabited Alaskan wilderness. But the race went! Twenty-two mushers finished that year and to date, there have been over finishers. The late Dorothy G. We brought the sled dog back and increased the number of mushers. Gusts continued to batter the team as it hugged the coastline before meeting the next musher, Charlie Olson, who after 25 miles handed off the serum to Gunnar Kaasen for the scheduled second-to-last leg of the relay.

As Kaasen set off into a blizzard, the pelting snow grew so fierce that his squinting eyes could not see any of his team, let alone his trusted lead dog, Balto. Suddenly, a massive gust upwards of 80 miles per hour flipped the sled and launched the antidote into a snow bank. Kaasen arrived in Port Safety in the early morning hours of February 2, but when the next team was not ready to leave, the driver decided to forge on to Nome himself. The relay had taken five-and-a-half days, cutting the previous speed record nearly in half.

Four dogs died from exposure, giving their lives so that others could live. Three weeks after injecting the residents of Nome, Dr. Crosby lifted the quarantine. Although more than dogs and 20 drivers participated in the relay, it was the canine that led the final miles that became a media superstar. After the limelight faded, Balto lived out his final days at the Cleveland Zoo, and his body is on display at the Cleveland Natural History Museum.

Since , the memory of the serum run has lived on in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which is held each March and is run on some of the same trails beaten by Balto, Togo and dozens of other sled dogs in a furious race against time nearly 90 years ago. Joe Redington Sr. They also wanted to keep mushing and sled dog culture alive. The Iditarod Sled Dog Race is the product of their vision and persistence.

Activities pack the schedule — educational talks, sporting competitions pool, poker, golf, basketball arm wrestling , concerts, dances, and more. These days, technology makes it easy for everyone to track all the racers from checkpoint to checkpoint. The excitement grows to a fever pitch as the lead racers near Front Street, just as they did during the All Alaska Sweepstakes. McLain Memorial Museum.