Connecting trail · Interior/Rivers
Tolovana Roadhouse
A roadhouse on the Fairbanks-to-Nome mail trail and the first transfer point of the 1925 Serum Run to Nome.
History of Tolovana Roadhouse
The site was established in 1903 as a Roadhouse & trading post on the mail trail from Fairbanks & Nenana to Nome. Tolovana was the first transfer point in the lifesaving "Serum Run to Nome" in 1925. A relay of dog teams carried diphtheria antitoxin to halt the deadly diphtheria epidemic for the 675 miles in temperatures of -60 F and colder. We highly recommend the book "The Cruelest Miles" by Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury. An excellent telling of this incredible achievement. Tolovana Roadhouse is the last remaining Roadhouse of that time on the Nenana-Nome mail trail. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 after extensive restoration.
Interior/Rivers, Skwentna to Kaltag
- SkwentnaRiver crossing
The historic Alaska Road Commission shelter cabin at the Skwentna Crossing is one of the public shelter cabins between Knik and Kaltag, open in winter without a reservation.
- Rainy PassAlaska Range crossing
The trail’s way over the Alaska Range, between Puntilla Lake and the BLM’s Rohn shelter cabin.
- McGrathInterior hub
The largest community on the trail between the Alaska Range and Norton Sound, with regular flights from Anchorage, and the gateway to the ghost town of Iditarod.
- TakotnaRiver town
Founded at the farthest point a supply sternwheeler could reach on the Takotna River, and joined to the Ophir goldfields by old mining roads.
- IditarodGhost town
The boomtown that gave the trail its name: 2,000 people by August 1910 a few miles from the Christmas Day 1908 gold strike, abandoned now, on state public land.
- KaltagYukon River village
A Koyukon Athabascan village on the Yukon River at the head of the Kaltag Portage, the old trade route over the mountains to Unalakleet.
- GalenaConnecting trail · Yukon River town
A Yukon River town on the trail’s northern routes, where the community sold the Alliance’s trail products during the 2016 race to raise money for its Winter Carnival.
- Tolovana RoadhouseConnecting trail · Serum Run roadhouse
A roadhouse on the Fairbanks-to-Nome mail trail and the first transfer point of the 1925 Serum Run to Nome.