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May Board meeting The Alliance Board of Directors will be holding its spring meeting in Anchorage on May 28-29 at the BLM conference room at 4700 BLM road. New memberships At its February teleconference meeting the Board added three new Alliance membership categories: 1. Iditarod Trail Supporter (non-voting): an honorary membership given by the Alliance Board of Directors to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding stewardship of the Iditarod Historic Trail by doing such activities as trail clearing, trail marking, safety cabin construction and maintenance, etc. 2.
Junior membership (18 and under)…. $10 (1 vote) 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. 3.
School membership (any elementary, middle, high school)……. $20 (1 vote) Turnagain Times article There was a very good article on the Southern Trek of the Iditarod National Historic Trail in the March 6, 2014 issue of the Girdwood newspaper “Turnagain Times.” The issue is available for viewing at www.turnagaintimes.com Carlson Crossing outhouse The McGrath Trail Blazers have built and erected an outhouse at the Carlson Crossing safety cabin. According to Mike Tierney of McGrath it is the finest outhouse in the Kuskokwim Valley. Funds for the building materials were supplied by the Alliance. A reminder that… The 2014 Alaska Statewide Trails Conference will be held in Anchorage April 24-26.
The conference will largely be held at Alaska Pacific University and will bring together a diverse array of trail users from across the state to teach and learn the latest in Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance PO Box 2323, Seward AK 99664 IditarodHTA@gmail.com http://www.Iditarod100.org sustainable trail building and maintenance, trail advocacy and many other trail topics. For the full conference schedule and list a of speakers go to www.alaska-trails.org Mayor’s Cup Race canceled The Seward Iditarod Trail Blazers had to cancel this year’s Mayor’s Cup Race because of lack of snow. Both the Jr. Willlow 100 and the Tustumena 100 were also canceled because of lack of snow.
As a nation we are dedicated to keeping physically fit — and parking as close to the stadium as possible. ~Bill Vaughan From the past… “Seward Gateway” April 15, 1914 ROUTE OF THE INTERIOR MAIL After making the trip from Seward to the Iditarod and back again and making a careful study of conditions, Col. Revell has decided that in carrying the mail from here to the interior he will use horses where ever practical, and that will be at both ends of the trail. Mr. Revell stated yesterday that he would put on horses leaving Seward and take the mail as far as Mile 63 on the Alaska Northern Railway.
At Mile 63 the mail will be turned over to Joe Richards and Julius Schalk, who have agreed to land it at Old Knik on schedule time, at which point it will be placed in the hands of Oscar Gill, the well known Seward-Susitna mail carrier, who with three assistants and adequate dog teams will handle the mail as far as Mountain Climbers’ Cabin, 110 miles from Old Knik. At this point the mail will be turned over to John Richart, who has the run to Anderson’s road house, a distance of 50 miles. Vogle and French Joe have the next relay, that lands the mail at French Joe’s road house, a distance of 47 miles and from there on to Iditarod City the mail will be in charge of T. W. Boyd, who will operate a stage line from Iditarod City to French Joe’s road house, a distance of 200 miles. Mr.
Boyd is an old time Dawson and Fairbanks freighter and has a first class outfit of stock and valuable fund of experience in freighting and handling stage lines in Alaska to draw upon. With the above named corps of assistants, Mr. Revell does not anticipate any trouble in fulfilling his contract and in landing the mail on schedule time. He is going about the matter in a thorough business-like manner and by the time the contract goes into effect will have everything in shape to rush the mail through according to the schedule. The spring trip over the route was one of the best things that Mr. Revell could do as he now knows just what he will have to do to carry out the contract and he is in a position to guard against any possible trouble.
National Archives to move The Anchorage Branch of the National Archives is scheduled to be closed by the end of the fiscal year and the 12,000 cubic feet of historical records of the Territory of Alaska to be moved back to Seattle. When the branch opened in 1990, the records were moved from Seattle to Anchorage. The reason given for the closure is lack of money. The National Archives’ new budget is $10 million below last year. Local historians and researchers are speaking out against the move and the Alaska Historical Society has issued a statement denouncing the decision. Jay Bosanko, the Archives chief operating officer said the closure is an agency decision, not subject to outside review. He also said the records would be digitized, but gave no indication of when that might be.
Alaska State Library director Linda Thibodeau has told the Alaska Historical Commission that negotiations are under way to keep roughly one quarter of the archive’s 12,000 boxes of records, including 1,000 boxes of Alaska Railroad records. Negotiations are also under way for 2,000 boxes of territorial court records to be transferred to the state archives in Juneau. Arizona Trail guide book The Arizona Trail Association has published a complete guide to the Arizona Trail. It features: topographic maps, directions to trailheads, mountain bike notes, photographs, geology and botany along the Arizona Trail, profiles of Gateway Communities and a list of resources within each town.
The guidebook is available at the Association’s website: www.aztrail.org/guidebook.php Partnership agreement The Alliance and the Bureau of Land Management Partnership Agreement for 2010-2015 provides that they will work together to: ●Promote, coordinate and assist in the development, protection, management and use of the Iditarod National Historic Trail System, including the primary trail and connecting trails as defined in the Comprehensive Management Plan. ●Promote and assist the State of Alaska’s administration of the Iditarod Easement Project. ●Coordinate and assist with the installation of Iditarod National Historic Trail winter safety markers and interpretive community signs and kiosks. ●Partner with schools and other agencies to implement the Iditarod Trail to Every Classroom (iTREC!) program.