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Social Studies
When my son Andrew was a freshman in high school, he took a course called AP Human Geography that sounded really interesting to me. My curiosity was even more piqued when my next child took the same class. What is this human geography stuff, I wondered? I asked my kids about their assignments, and it …
The Iditarod Trail checkpoints are full of contrasting histories -some are villages inhabited by Alaska Native families who have lived there for generations while others are gold rush towns created by an influx of foreigners seeking their fortune. In the villages of Nikolai, Anvik, and Kaltag I witnessed the challenges and hardship of living off …
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is run along the Iditarod National Historic Trail. The Bureau of Land Management and other entities that own the land which the trail runs through all work in conjunction with the Iditarod Trail Committee to run the race each year. It is Alaska’s only winter National Trail and was …
We are so excited to announce that sales for the Educational Trail Mail Project are open! This is an amazing chance for your class to send a piece of mail down the trail in one of the 2023 student-designed cachets and help us raise funds for our education programs at the same time! It’s very …
Today is Indigenous People’s Day. This designation provides the opportunity to stop and reflect on the rich heritage of the people and cultures that inhabited North America prior to European exploration. The Iditarod Trail crosses the Indigenous lands of the Athabascan, Iñupiaq, and Yup’ik/Cup’ik people. The Iditarod Race interacts with these vibrant cultures at many …
The idea of awarding a red lantern to the final finisher in a dog race apparently got its start during the Fur Rendezvous races in 1953 as a joke. When the the Iditarod came into existence, the tradition continued. The award has come to represent the preservation and grit needed to finish the race. The …
Something that every Iditarod Rookie looks forward to is “earning his or her buckle.” Each Iditarod finisher is awarded a brass finisher’s belt buckle upon the completion of their first race signaling that they are a rookie no more! In the early days of the race, the Nome Kennel club wanted to do something to …
One of the iconic images of the Iditarod is the Burled Arch that stands at the end of the epic journey the teams take across the state of Alaska. But, did you know the current Burled Arch is actually the second arch in Iditarod History? Using the Source With Students: Display the historic photo above …
Primary sources are not just for Social Studies class! Here’s one that you could use as a math warmup that ties in to the ghost town of Iditarod which will play such an important role in this year’s Iditarod Race. Using the Source With Students: Display the object for your students and have …
With the Iditarod Trail Committee announcing the historic route for the 2021 Race, The Gold Trail, all attention this year will focus on the historic town and checkpoint of Iditarod. Iditarod came into existence after the Christmas Day, 1908 gold strike on Otter Creek, a tributary of the Iditarod River. By the summer of 1909 …