Volunteer checkers Dick and Audra Forsgren pose for a photo outside their cabin at the Ophir checkpoint during the 1991 Iditarod. © Jeff Schultz/SchultzPhoto.com

By Joanne Potts, Assistant to the Race Director

Audra and Dick Forsgren came to Alaska in 1956 with their two small children, Keith and Connie.  Dick was just out of the service and his first job was with the Civil Aeronautics Authority (a forerunner to the FAA) in Galena.  Audra says that when they landed in Galena, there was several feet of snow on the ground, the sun was brightly shining, and everything was sparkling.  She knew right then that she never wanted to leave Alaska.

Audra and Dick were working for the FAA and living in McGrath when the Iditarod started in 1973 having had their third child, Denise in 1969.  Earlier they had purchased land in Ophir with a one-room 16’ X 20’ cabin on it.  It was a 20-minute flight from McGrath and they loved going out there on weekends.  Besides their small cabin, there was another small out building and a sauna that they used for bathing.

When they first heard about the Iditarod, Audra said that she wanted to be at their Ophir cabin when the race went through.  She remembers Dick Mackey and Raymie Redington, who were in the race that year, coming up to the cabin after camping out overnight about five miles away from the cabin, they didn’t realize they were so close to a warm cabin with good food.  When they got there, the Forsgrens invited them in to get warm and fed them a hearty breakfast.  The two mushers were pretty cold and hungry and really appreciated the Forsgrens hospitality.

Ophir was not an official checkpoint that year because no one at the Iditarod knew about Ophir and the Forsgrens didn’t know anyone from the Iditarod.  But in 1974, Ophir became an official checkpoint.  During the 21 years that Audra was out there during the race, she housed mushers anywhere they could throw a sleeping bag and fed them too.  She always made sourdough pancakes for those who came through and mushers laid their sleeping bags on the shelves of their sauna, which was at least a little warm.

Audra notes that she was only 5 when the 1929 Wall Street Crash occurred.  Her dad immediately lost his job.  The family had no money and moved to a place in Colorado where her father had met some people who offered him a piece of land to live on if he would build his own house.  As Audra thinks back now, her father must have been really resourceful. He built the family a house out of rocks and used wet mud to hold the rocks together. They had no running water and no indoor plumbing, but Audra says that no one in her family ever complained. They were always happy. Today, she is grateful that she had that experience growing up.

Dick retired from the FAA in 1983 and he and Audra moved from McGrath to Willow. Dick passed away in March of 2010. Shortly before that, the Forsgrens had made the move from Willow to Wasilla, where Audra stayed until November of 2015, when she moved into the Pioneer Home in Palmer, Alaska. She will turn 91 in September and expressed, “I couldn’t ask for better than what I have right here (Pioneer Home).”

Audra says she didn’t want to give up the Ophir checkpoint because “no one could do it like I could.” But her son, Keith, took over the running of the checkpoint in 1995. And now, her grandson, Kyle, owns that property and runs the checkpoint. 

The Iditarod Trail Committee is eternally grateful for the Forsgrens unselfish generosity, hard work, and of course Audra’s delicious sourdough pancakes which have fueled mushers down the trail over the years.