More Iditarod facts....

Iditarod, what does it mean? This word comes from many different Alaskan Native Languages but they all have similar meanings that have to do with water and distant travel. Many of the names pertaining to the Iditarod River itself, which is a branch of the Kuskokwim River, the second largest river in Alaska and a mode of transportation from village to village. Looking at the map it appears in this day and age, if one is good at mazes, any river in the interior of the state connects somehow. So lets visit the town of Iditarod...many claim this is now a ghost town, history says other wise…It appears that the town of Iditarod was once a booming town where many congregated to trade their furs and bank their gold. Motels and Cafes allowed a reprieve from dried meet and hard tack while the miners and trappers where in town. Entertainment could be found in the brothels and bars, and supplies could be purchased from one of several mercantile. Nestled into the banks of the Iditarod River this was a gate way to the rest of the world via steam ship. Convenience like electricity and telephones allowed contact with the world out side of the isolated interior of Alaska. A settlement that was well established, established that is until Christmas of 1908, when a gold strike three hundred miles south on Otter Creek diverted the attention from the North to the unexplored mountains and tundras further south. In a mere few months the town of Iditarod was gone, the only remaining signs of the town are a cabin and a partial cement bank vault. The town was lifted, put on boats and moved south to the new boom town of Flat. What of Flats future…well Flat is the one of just a handful of towns in the US Census that contains just four people. Never officially a town, it sits on a mining camp and is considered an illegal town site. Until 2000 a US post office was one of the only remaining buildings in the town of four. So the next check point on the Iditarod trail for Lance is Kaltag...an interesting fact of Kaltag...Kaltag is the home of Virginia Kalland, widow of Edgar Kalland, one of the mushers that attempted to get the diphtheria serum up the Iditarod trail to Nome back in 1925.