The Tripod, August 2017

Iditarod HistoricTrail Alliance August 2017 The Tripod PO Box 2323 Seward AK 99664 IditarodHTA@gmail.com http://www.Iditarod100.org The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance is an equal opportunity program provider and employer. AmazonSmile The Alliance is now a charity recognized on AmazonSmile. AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support the Alliance. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the Alliance. To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your computer or mobile device. On your first visit to smile.amazon.com, you need to select the Iditarod National Trail Alliance as your charitable organization before you begin shopping.

Seward Iditarod Trail Blazers on Facebook Seward Iditarod Trail Blazers member Kim Strehlow has created a Facebook page for the organization: https://www.facebook.com/Seward-Iditarod-TrailBlazers The Trail for all Seasons The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance promotes public awareness of the Iditarod Trail and its gold rush and AlaskaNative heritage by encouraging education programs and historical research, assisting in the protection, improvement, maintenance and marking of the trail and developing partnerships that foster stewardship commitments and support. iTREC! The summer Iditarod Trail to Every Classroom workshop was held on July 24-28 at the BP Energy Center in Anchorage. There are 13 teachers in the program this year.

National Trails Day® statistics Saturday, June 3, 2017, marked the 25th annual American Hiking Society's National Trails Day®: there were 1,492 sponsored events 122,829 people participated in these events 20,263 volunteers worked on improving trails 786 miles of trail were built or improved value of volunteer labor was $2.6 million The states with the most events: Connecticut - 252 Georgia - 86 Tennessee - 86 California- 65 Virginia - 61 at the bottom was Oklahoma with 2 Alaska had 18 events, one of which was the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Seward Bike Path, the first miles of the Iditarod National Historic Trail, sponsored by the Seward Iditarod Trail Blazers and the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance. 1 Iditarod HistoricTrail Alliance From the past… "Iditarod Pioneer" August 11, 1917 What happened to Dikeman?

The discoverers of gold in the Iditarod district in 1908 were John Beaton and W. A. Dikeman. While Beaton's history after the discovery is well known and he is buried in the Anchorage Memorial Cemetery, little is known of Dikeman after the discovery. One reason for that may be because he sold his claims in the Iditarod district. The Juneau Daily Alaska Dispatch of March 28, 1911, reported: IDITARIOD DISCOVERER SELLS FOR $250,000 On of the few times in the history of the Alaskan gold fields that a discoverer of a new camp has come to enjoy in a fair measure the returns of his pioneering, "Billy" Dikeman, August 2017 who with John Beaton, uncovered the first ounce of gold taken from the Iditarod digging, has just been given for his interests in Otter creek properties, a cool quarter of a million. Two years ago Dikeman was a typical prospector, rich only in hope.

Beaton, who is now "outside" enjoying his first vacation from wilderness toil he has had in 3 years, does not rejoice over the news of his partner's sale. "Billy's" ground is worth all of that and a lot more," Beaton declared, "and I believe he would have been made a millionaire by his Otter claims alone had he held them and mined the ground himself." George Riley and William Marston, two Fairbanks miners who went to the Iditarod soon after Beaton and Dikeman made their first discoveries, bought the mines. Alaskans give significance to their being the purchasers, since they must have gained the fortune represented by the purchase price in the new county, as neither had more than a few thousands when they joined the stampede from Fairbanks. One of the few items about Dikeman in an Alaska newspaper after the sale, was in the December 14, 1911 issue of the Daily Alaska Dispatch: Wm. A.

Dikeman, discoverer of the Iditarod, and Miss. Marguerite Rees married Nov. 22 at the home of the bride's parents in Seattle. Informative web sites Two good places to learn about trails in Alaska are: www.alaska-trails.org dnr.alaska.gov/parks and click on Alaska State Trails Part of the Iditarod National Historic Trail is in the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge, go to: www.fws.gov/refuge/innoko, click on About the Refuge and then on Iditarod National Historic Trail To learn about the Iditarod Sled Dog Race go to: iditarod.com A good place to earn about hiking in general: americanhiking.org 2