Trail Mail

“Under the Burled Arch in Nome” – 2025 Trail Mail Design Contest

  Annual Iditarod Education Department Trail Mail Design Contest Attention 5th – 12th Grade Artists,  Teachers, & Parents:  It’s time again for our student art contest to create the 2025 Iditarod Trail Mail envelope design. What is the Educational Trail Mail Project? To honor the Historic Iditarod Trail’s use as a mail trail, the Educational …

2024 Educational Trail Mail Design Winner Announcement

Just like the mushers of the Iditarod, Karlyn T. of WY showed perseverance and has been selected as the artist for the 2024 Trail Mail envelopes.  Karlyn entered last year’s Trail Mail design contest as well and was a top finalist. Meeting and exceeding the criteria of content and artistic aptitude, this 13 year old’s …

Connection Across the Miles

This morning, at the Willow Restart, I had the privilege of handing out the Trail Mail to each musher. Trail Mail is required gear. Mushers carry a small cachet of letters in their sled the entire length of the Trail, and present it in Nome to be postmarked and returned to original sender. It is …

2023 “Return to the Southern Route” Trail Mail Design Winner Announced

Over 50 entries were submitted for the 2023 Trail Mail Art Design contest.  There were many, many outstanding designs and choosing just one was difficult. The Education Department thanks our judges Jon and Jona Van Zyle as well as Wendy Brott for their continued support in this project. In the end they took into consideration …

Educational Trail Mail Sales are Open!

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 …

2022 Trail Mail is Filled!

A big thanks to all classrooms participating in the 2022 Trail Mail project. All spots are now filled.  How exciting it will be for your class to get your envelope returned from Nome after having traveled the Iditarod 50th Anniversary Trail!  If you’ve signed up, you will be getting next step instructions soon.  And if …