Winter travel and racing
The Iditarod Sled Dog Race starts ceremonially in Anchorage and restarts in Willow. The Iron Dog and the Iditarod Trail Invitational use the Trail too, and several Girdwood trails are winter ski trails.
Photo: J. Torres, 2018
America’s only winter National Trail
The Iditarod National Historic Trail
A system of trails from Seward to Nome. Some first connected Alaska Native villages; others opened Alaska to the gold rush. Together they celebrate Alaska’s history and dog-mushing legacy, and they are still vital for travel and recreation across Alaska today.
This is the INHT
A trail for all seasons, and one of the National Trails
- 2,400+ miles of trail connecting communities from Seward to Nome
- 1978 designated by Congress as a National Historic Trail
- Mile 0 in Seward, on Resurrection Bay
- 1999 the Alliance founded to advance knowledge, appreciation and enjoyment of the Trail
Design note: Attachment 1 asks that a visitor who only sees the homepage leaves with a basic understanding of five things: this is the INHT, locations and landscapes, multiple uses, history, and communities. The homepage is those five sections, in that order. Every figure here is from the Alliance’s own pages (the iTREC! page for 2,400 miles, About Us for 1978 and 1999).
Locations & landscapes
From the Gulf of Alaska to the Bering Sea
The Trail runs from the ice-free harbor at Seward, through the Chugach Mountains and the Cook Inlet country, over the Alaska Range at Rainy Pass, across the Kuskokwim and Yukon country, and along Norton Sound to Nome.
Much of it is a winter trail: on some sections temperatures regularly drop to −40°, and many sections are barely usable in summer, when villages travel by river instead. Sections in Chugach State Park, the Chugach National Forest, Girdwood and Eagle River make wonderful summer trails.
- Iditarod National Historic Trail (main routes)
- Communities on the Alliance’s list
Multiple uses of the INHT
Mushers, riders, skiers, walkers, and the villages in between
Summer walking and stewardship
Volunteers and partners have built and repaired trail at Crow Pass, on the Winner Creek Trail, and between Rocky Creek and Victor Creek near Moose Pass.
Learning on the Trail
iTREC! connects teachers along the Trail with place-based education, and the Junior Trailblazer booklet takes kids and adults through its history and modern use.
History
The last great American gold rush, on Native trails
- Thousands of yearsParts of the Trail follow trade routes used by Alaska’s Native peoples, who had developed the dogsled and snowshoe for winter travel.
- 1908Walter Goodwin and a crew of three blaze a route from Seward toward Nome for the Alaska Road Commission.
- 1910–1912Over 10,000 gold seekers come to Alaska’s “Inland Empire”; over $30 million of gold leaves Iditarod along the Trail.
- 1925The Serum Run carries diphtheria antitoxin to Nome by dog team, with Tolovana as the first transfer point.
- 1978Congress designates the Iditarod National Historic Trail.
Records & stories
Walk 350 miles with Arne Erickson
On 29 October 1920 Arne Erickson and his friend Oscar left Flat on foot for Anchorage. His diary records every day of the 21: burnt beans, days on snowshoes, a $150,000 gold shipment overtaken on the trail, and fruit in Anchorage at the end.
“Got pretty sick after eating burnt beans and went to bed under a tree. Snowing all day and night.”Arne Erickson, 31 October 1920
Design note: The Alliance’s Story Map of this diary stopped working when Esri retired Classic Story Maps; the page now shows a retirement notice. The diary, the editors’ notes, the stops and the route were still in the public ArcGIS item data, so this concept brings all of it back as an ordinary web page that no vendor can retire.
Communities
Seventeen communities, Seward to Nome
The Trail served a string of mining camps, trading posts and settlements, and it still links communities across Alaska.
Announcements
Newsletters and reportsFall 2026
The Tripod, fall issue
The member newsletter: news from the Alliance, updates on the trails, and a historic news article or photograph.
17 March 2025
The Alliance welcomes Executive Director Betsi Oliver
Betsi brings experience in nonprofit partnership with public lands, youth education and community engagement.
21 September 2023
Remembering Lee Poleske, 1937–2023
Longtime board member, Seward’s historian, and the producer of the Tripod for many years.
Design note: Announcements are dated entries, so the newest appears here on its own and older ones move to an archive. On the current site the Events page still lists 2019–2020 dates and the last blog post is from September 2023, while the Tripod is current: the Alliance is publishing, just not to the website. A short form for staff (title, date, one paragraph, link) fixes that.
Be part of America’s Last Great Gold Rush Trail
Members receive the Tripod and an invitation to the annual meeting, and dues support programs like iTREC! and trail safety projects. Memberships start at $20 and run January to December.