Get Involved · Gateway communities
Cities, villages and towns along the historic Iditarod Trail, in the order the Alliance lists them, Seward to Nome.
Each excerpt below is the Alliance’s own text from its community pages. Parts of the Trail go back thousands of years to trade routes used by Alaska’s Native peoples.
With the discovery of gold in the Iditarod country in 1908, Seward became the winter port for the new gold fields. In 1978 the Iditarod was made a National Historic Trail with Seward as Mile “0”.
Read the full history of Seward (on the Alliance's current website)
The community was first named in 1912 as a station on the Alaska Railroad. The name is reportedly derived from a mail carrier's team of dogs that in 1903 had considerable trouble gaining the right-of-way from a moose.
Read the full history of Moose Pass (on the Alliance's current website)
The Town was originally named Glacier City and acted as a gold mining and railroad supply camp in the early 1900s. Today, the town economy is based on the ski resort and tourism.
Read the full history of Girdwood (on the Alliance's current website)
The Eagle River, Peters Creek, and Eklutna Lake areas were the hunting areas of the Athabascan Natives from the Eklutna and Matanuska villages.
Read the full history of Eagle River (on the Alliance's current website)
Eklutna is located at the head of the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet, at the mouth of the Eklutna River, 25 miles northeast of Anchorage.
Read the full history of Eklutna (on the Alliance's current website)
Knik is a Tanaina Indian village name meaning “fire,” which originally applied to several villages at the head of Cook Inlet. Knik developed during the 1898-1916 gold rush.
Read the full history of Knik (on the Alliance's current website)
Content needed The Alliance’s page for Skwentna says “no copy at this time”.
It goes on the content needs list: two or three paragraphs, a photograph, and how the community connects to the Trail today, written or approved by the Alliance and the community.
Tolovana was the first transfer point in the lifesaving “Serum Run to Nome” in 1925. Tolovana Roadhouse is the last remaining Roadhouse of that time on the Nenana-Nome mail trail.
Read the full history of Tolovana Roadhouse (on the Alliance's current website)
A portion of the Iditarod Trail, the Susitna-Rainy Pass stretch was a winter trail suitable for dog teams.
Read the full history of Rainy Pass (on the Alliance's current website)
In 1908, merchants in Bethel hired Arthur Berry to bring supplies up the Takotna River. The village was founded at the farthest point on the river Berry's small sternwheeler was able to reach.
Read the full history of Takotna (on the Alliance's current website)
Content needed The Alliance’s page for Iditarod says “no copy at this time”.
It goes on the content needs list: two or three paragraphs, a photograph, and how the community connects to the Trail today, written or approved by the Alliance and the community.
Kaltag is located in Koyukon Athabascan territory, and was used as a cemetery for surrounding villages. It was located on an old portage trail which led east through the mountains to Unalakleet.
Read the full history of Kaltag (on the Alliance's current website)
Content needed The Alliance’s page for Galena says “no copy at this time”.
It goes on the content needs list: two or three paragraphs, a photograph, and how the community connects to the Trail today, written or approved by the Alliance and the community.
Archaeologists have dated house remnants along the beach ridge from 200 B.C. to 300 A.D. Unalakleet has long been a major trade center as the terminus for the Kaltag Portage, an important winter travel route connecting to the Yukon River.
Read the full history of Unalakleet (on the Alliance's current website)
Around 1890, John Dexter established a trading post that became the center for prospecting information for the entire Seward Peninsula.
Read the full history of Golovin (on the Alliance's current website)
The gold rush during the summers of 1899 and 1900 brought thousands of people to the Solomon area.
Read the full history of Solomon (on the Alliance's current website)
It was a $1500-to-the-pan gold strike on tiny Anvil Creek in 1898 by three Scandinavians, Jafet Lindeberg, Erik Lindblom, and John Brynteson, that brought thousands of miners to the “Eldorado.”
Read the full history of Nome (on the Alliance's current website)
