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The Tripod Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance, PO Box 2323, Seward AK 99664 http://www.Iditarod100.org IditarodHTA@gmail.com The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance is an equal opportunity program provider and employer. May 2020 The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance promotes public awareness of the Iditarod Historic Trail and its gold rush and Alaska Native 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. 2020 Statewide Trails Conference As reported in last month’s newsletter the 2020 Statewide Trails Conference was a virtual conference. The presentations given at the virtual conference can be viewed on the Alaska Trails website: alaska_trails.
Presentation subjects: Leave No Trace project, Federal highway funds for trail projects, National crosscut and chainsaw program, Healing trails, Legislative update from Senator Murkowski, Health benefits of trails, Trails investment strategy, Trail towns, Advocacy issues in outdoor recreation. National Trails Day® update The health and safety of National Trails Day® hosts, volunteers and participants is the top priority of the American Hiking Society. Due to the CDC’s guidance regarding event gathering and parks and recreational facilities and preventing the continued spread of the pandemic COVID-19, the American Hiking Society will shift from promoting in-person events on National Trails Day® on June 6 to a digital activation.
The Society is organizing a digital campaign to inspire individuals to unite for the protection of trails and access to public lands during this time of social distancing. This digital campaign will also provide the opportunity for local trail organizations to connect with their communities. The American Hiking Society will leverage digital platforms to invite people in all 50 states to collectively celebrate and protect the outdoor places we love. In the coming weeks the Society will distribute a promotional toolkit to make it easy to connect with your community on ways to engage on National Trails Day®, even while in quarantine. The Society realizes the message and campaign will need to remain agile in order to adapt to changes in policy, guidelines and the outlook on the outbreak, so it will be updated as needed.
Go to: americanhiking.org and click on National Trails Day for current information. From the past… “Fairbanks Daily Times” June 18, 1912 RIVER IS LOW, SMALLER BOATS HAUL DREDGES Stupendous, almost, is the task that confronts the Guggenheim men in the Iditarod district, according to T. J. Nestor, who came up from the lower Tanana camp on the steamer White Seal. The giant gold digger that is to be installed on Flat creek is awaiting shipment from Dikeman to Iditarod, but because of the low water, the bulk of the machinery cannot be moved. A fleet of small vessels is engaged in freighting the parts up the river to Flat City, and of them the steamer Little Delta, Si Atwell, owner is doing the best work. The dredge weighs 700 tons and is to be transported to Iditarod by water. From there to Flat City. It will be carried over land by the tram company, who have a contract for the work.
Nestor reports that the day before he left the Iditarod, the syndicate’s two Keystone drills reached there from the Yukon and were to be set up immediately for use on Otter Creek. 1 The Tripod May 2020 Considerable gold is coming into Iditarod from the small operators who are continuing their work, despite the Guggenheim activity in the camp. The three largest outfits on Flat creek, Aitkin & Riley, Friend, Lawson & James and “Doc” Mading, did not start work this season at all. A number of small outfits on the benches and on other creeks in the district are adding to the output, and it is probable that if the Guggenheims get their dredge in operation by the time they look for, the output of the camp will be about the same as last year. George Riley is doing well on Otter creek, according to Nestor. He has taken out $50,000 in three cleanups.
Last season he did not get into shape for sluicing until September 1. It is believed that Riley's ground will be taken over by the Guggenheims, for their drills will start to prospect the claims within a short time. Researcher seeks photos of woods Trail users across Alaska can help with a study that will help wildfire responders get a better handle on the amount and types of fire fuel around the state. Read Chris Smith’s request letter below: I am a Graduate Student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks working on a project called Mapping Detection of Boreal Vegetation (MaDBoV). The goal of this project is to involve the community in the data collection process in return helping me produce more accurate fire fuel maps of the Alaskan boreal forest to help predict fire risk.
Anyone in Alaska can participate, and it is a great reason to get outdoors while actively participating in applicable research (in accordance with state social distancing policies). All participants have to do is get out in the woods behind their homes, on trails, or any naturally wooded area and take a geotagged photo on their smartphone and send it to mad.bov2020@gmail.com. Would you be willing to spread our flyer around and/or our Facebook page? www.facebook.com/mad.bov2020/ Thank you for the help! If you would like to help with the study, follow these steps: 1. Find a spot in the Alaska forest (anywhere outside with natural vegetation). 2. On your smartphone make sure location is turned on (this geotags the photo for analysis) and then snap a picture of the ground vegetation and tree trunks so we can identify plant species. 3. Send the geotagged pictures to mad.bov2020@gmai.com.
The goal is to keep this project running as long as possible because data and vegetation are constantly changing, so there is no deadline date. Last dog sled mail service There was an interesting article in the May issue of the Senior Voice, published by the Older Persons Action Group, Inc., Anchorage, about Chester Noongwook, the last official dog sled mail carrier in the United States. He carried the mail between Savoonga and Gambell on St. Lawrence Island from 1958 to 1963, in which time he never once let bad weather keep him from carrying the mail between the two towns. In 1963 he was presented with a large framed certificate for outstanding service as the last dog sled mail carrier.