Racing in the Footsteps of a Legend

Each winter, Anchorage, Alaska hosts the Fur Rendezvous World Championship and the Iditarod, and this site is the starting line for both races. The place is dedicated to all dog mushers and their heroic dogs, and to the memory of David Green, a pioneer Alaskan. Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, from a French term meaning to gather or meet by design, is rooted in an American tradition that combines elements of early gatherings of mountain men and Indians who tamed the wilderness. The World Championship Sled Dog Race, first run in 1949, became the cornerstone of the Fur Rendezvous and follows an urban course lined with people as well as a rural portion along the Chugach Mountains, with tight turns and close quarters that make it a fast, tough, old, and thrilling race. During the Rendezvous, friends, neighbors, and visitors gather in Anchorage to mark the beginning of the end of dark days, frigid weather, and cabin fever. The Iditarod Trail began as a mail and supply route from the coastal towns of Seward and Knik to the interior mining camps of Flat, Ophir, and Iditarod and to the west coast communities of Unalakleet, Elim, Golovin, White Mountain, and Nome, with mail and supplies going in and gold going out by dog sled. In 1925, part of the Iditarod Trail became a lifesaving highway when diphtheria threatened Nome and serum was brought in by dog mushers and their faithful huskies, saving the lives of hundreds of children. Wasilla historian Dorothy G. Page and Joe Redington, Sr. of Knik are regarded as the founders of the race, and in 1973 the first official Iditarod Sled Dog Race was held from Anchorage to Nome. Known as the Last Great Race, the Iditarod is the ultimate test of mushers and dogs in the Alaskan wilderness over mountain passes, down frozen rivers, and along the windswept icy coast to Nome.

Anchorage, Alaska · United States