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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. The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance promotes awareness of the Iditarod 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. Kenai National Heritage Area Photo Contest The deadline for the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm (KMTA) National Heritage Area photo contest is September 30.
Amateur and professional photographers are invited to submit images that capture the essence of the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area (KMTA), which includes the area’s trails, or speak to KMTA’s role in preserving, promoting and protecting the national heritage area. All photographs must be taken within the KMTA area which include the communities of Indian, Bird, Girdwood, Whittier, Hope/Sunrise, Moose Pass, Seward and Cooper Landing. For more info go to https://kmtacorridor.org/photo-contests/ Alaska Winter Challenge The Virtual Race Across Alaska Winter Challenge will be held again this winter. The Challenge will start on December 21st, the first day of winter and continue through March 20th. Turnagain Training did an amazing job launching it last year. For every racer that participates in the challenge, the Race will donate $10 to the Alaska Trails.
All donations will go towards supporting developing the Alaska Long Trail. For more information: https://runsignup.com/Race/Donate/AK/Anchorage/AlaskaChallenge From the past… “Iditarod Pioneer” November 25, 1911 SEWARD TRAIL WORK Walter L. Goodwin, superintendent of the Seward-Iditarod trail work for the Alaska Road Commission, says the post office department is anxious to make this a trunkline and eventually it will become the main trail of Alaska. That department will dispatch a couple up consignments of second-class matter over the route to the interior this winter, with a view to its final adoption in serving all Seward Peninsula and Kuskokwim points. This means that the lower Yukon, the Iditarod and the Innoko will also be served by this route over which will come the greater part of the mail destined to interior Alaska. A. E.
Light, road overseer of the Iditarod precinct, recently received a letter from Superintendent Goodwin telling of the work accomplished on the trail the past season. At the time the letter was written, October 9, work was still in progress, but it was the intention to close down soon. The road has been completed from Seward to Mile Seventy, 1 Walter L. Goodwin The Tripod September 2021 and will be available for both winter and summer travel. Before closing work for the season, it was expected to have the route available for four horse teams through Crow Creek Pass. The Happy River section will not be complete but will be in good condition for winter travel. A cutoff effected in that section shortens the distance twelve miles.
After closing down the work Superintendent Goodwin was to go to Valdez to submit his report to the Road Commission and do a little mapping, after which he goes outside for the winter. His family is now in Vancouver B. C. Mr. Goodwin says Seward is very dull, many going outside this fall, but he thinks well of the future. A series of earthquake shocks the past fall, caused a great deal of alarm in that region. On September 21 the first shock came at 7:10 p.m. and lasted 38 or 40 seconds. The populace of the town thought their time had come and rushed from the buildings into the streets. Other tremors were felt at 7:20 and 9:30 p.m. and the next morning at 1, 2;30, 4:30 and 9.
They continued intermittently until October 8, when there was a bad shock at 9:45 p. m. followed by others also severe the next morning at 12:30, 1 and 4, which was the day the letter was dated. 30 years ago… The “Seward Phoenix Log” of October 3, 1991, reported that on September 28, 1991, Dave Hilton in his last official act as Seward’s mayor, cut the ribbon marking the official opening of the Seward Bike Path. In November 1990 the City Council placed a request to the State Legislature for a $200,000 grant to construct a bike path along the waterfront and along Swetmann Avenue to the schools as a capital improvement project. In 1991 Seward received a $160,000 grant for the project and the City Council passed Resolution 1991-088 on July 22 for the construction of the bike path. The bike path is an example of what can be accomplished by the combined efforts of private and public sectors.
Afognak Logging contributed manpower and equipment, provided gravel and leveling the base matter for the trail from the bottom of Fourth Avenue to the Boat Harbor. The Seward Iditarod Trail Blazers was a major promoter for the bike path, raising money for and building two bridges on the path. Trailblazer President Dan Seavey was named Man of the Year in 1990 by the “Seward Phoenix Log” for his contributions toward building the bike path.
The segment of the original bike path from the end of Fourth Avenue to the Seward Boat Harbor and the extension of the path along the Seward Highway to Nash Road turn off are the first miles of the Iditarod National Historic Trail, which the city of Seward has agreed to protect for the continued public use in a manner that recognizes the historic values of the Iditarod National Historic Trail in a memorandum of understanding with the trail administrator, the Bureau of Land Management. Pandemic and trail use Across the country, trail use skyrocketed during the pandemic, up 79% between March and July 2020 according to data from Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. From local forest paths to national parks and large outdoor recreational destinations, trails volumes reached new heights in 2020. Consumers felt the pressure too, with outdoor recreation goods near-impossible to find.
Bike shops, for example, saw unprecedented demand in 2020 and the industry is still reeling from supply shortages and long waits. 2