In This Issue
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Hike the Hill The 17th annual Hike the Hill, February 912, organized by the American Hiking Society and the Partnership for the National Trail System is a week-long event that brings trail advocates from around the country together in Washington D. C. to discuss pertinent legislative issues affecting successful management of trails and public lands. Attendees truly do “Hike the Hill” when they climb Capitol Hill to meet with legislators and agency officials throughout the week to lobby for trail funding and support. During Hike the Hill, the Hiking Society will be holding its second annual briefing on the Economic benefits of Trails. The Annual Congressional Trails Reception will take place on February 11th, allowing staffers, members, agency staff and advocates to mingle together to celebrate the week’s accomplishments.
Alliance President Judy Bittner will represent the Iditarod National Historic Trail at the event. Winter on the Iditarod Trail The photograph at the right was taken February 8th at Mile 0.5 of the Historic Iditarod Trail as it winds through Seward. Warm weather and rain have left little or no snow in and around Seward. The Seward Iditarod Trail blazers have postponed the annual Mayor’s Cup Sled Dog Race, scheduled for February 15, due to lack of snow.
Old Sunrise The Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area, the Cook Inlet Historical Society and the Hope and Sunrise Historical Society partnered to re-publish Memories of old Sunrise, a first-person account of the Turnagain Arm Gold Rush of 1896, The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance mission is to bring people together to preserve, protect, maintain, enhance and enjoy the historic, educational, cultural and recreational values of the Iditarod National Historic Trail and to assist, support and coordinate the cooperative development, maintenance and operation of the Trail across multiple land ownerships and among multiple parties to provide a quality recreational experience and visitor enjoyment. The trail for all seasons.
Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance PO Box 2323, Seward AK 99664 IditarodHTA@gmail.com http://www.Iditarod100.org written by Albert Weldon Morgan, with an introduction by Dr. Rolfe Buzzell. The book is available at the Hope and Sunrise Historical and Mining Museum, the Anchorage Museum bookstore and at Amazon.com. This memoir offers insights into the day-to-day life in Sunrise during the gold rush. Springing up along the banks of Sixmile Creek in 1895, the town was organized and plated as Sunrise City in May 1896. During the peak of the gold rush the town’s population reached 2,000. Today all that remains of the community of Sunrise is an old cemetery. The site of the former town is now private property. In the winter months when Cook Inlet froze up, mail and supplies came into Resurrection Bay to be taken to Sunrise by dog sled.
The route these mushers used formed the first part of what became the Iditarod Trail on the Kenai Peninsula. maintained by local organizations, provincial authorities, national agencies and municipalities across Canada. Major corporations, foundations and all levels of government have contributed to the trail. The Government of Canada has provided over $35 Trans Canada Trail From the past… Initiated in 1972 as a project to celebrate Canada’s 125th year of confederation, the Trans Canada Trail is one of the world’s longest networks of multi-use recreational trails.
Once fully connected, it will stretch nearly 24,000 kilometers from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic Oceans, through every province and territory, linking nearly 1000 communities To date nearly 17,000 kilometers of the Trail are operational, which is about 72% of the proposed Editorial in February 26, 1914 “Iditarod Pioneer” Trans Canada Trail on Prince Edward Island route. The goal is to connect the Trail as a continuous route from coast to coast to coast by 2017, which will be Canada’s 150th anniversary of confederation. The Trans Canada Trail is a community based project. Trail sections are owned, operated and million in funding. More than 125,000 Canadians have helped build the Trail by donating to the development and promotion of the Trail. Donors and sponsors are recognized in the Trail’s 86 red-roofed pavilions.
THE MAIL CONTRACT The significance of the awarding of the SewardIditarod mail contract is beginning to be realized by our people. With mail service four times a month over the trail, the Seward route will become important as a means of communication between the coast and interior Alaska. It is reported that Colonel H. E. Revell, the contractor, will put the trail in first-class condition. He is said to be on his way to Iditarod to arrange details, and will prepare relay stations along the trail between this city and Seward. It will probably require as many as twenty dog teams to convey the mail. The colonel has completed his bond, which was oversubscribed by Seward business men, showing that the people of that thriving city appreciate the importance of the undertaking. To the businessmen and the people of this district generally, the change in the mail route will mean much.
The contract is for a term of four years, and it is quite probable that by that time rail communication will have been established between the coast and the Yukon. In the meantime travel will be made easier and safer over this trail, and much business will be transacted along the route. It will effect a saving of from two to three weeks in time for incoming and outgoing mail, thus facilitating business transactions to that extent. Colonel Revell can depend upon the hearty co-operation of our citizens in his undertaking.