The Iditarod Trail
Contributed by Helen Hegener, Northern Light Media
The Iditarod Trail has been featured in many books, from personal stories by sled dog drivers, long-distance runners, fat tire bikers, backpackers, snowmachine riders and many others who have traveled the trail and written to tell others what it was like. There are splendid photography books showcasing the majesty of the landscapes or intrepid racers steadily making their way over the trail across treacherous ice and through howling blizzards.
The trail has played an important role in books written about the travels of missionaries, miners, merchants, pioneers, scientists, doctors, homesteaders, explorers and more, some as memoirs, some as biographies, and some of the stories are inspiring, some are harrowing, and a few are tragic. The trail has been the subject of government reports and surveys, magazine and newspaper articles, radio and television broadcasts, and countless school essays and even a doctoral thesis or two.
Now a new book by local author and historian Helen Hegener traces the history of the Iditarod National Historic Trail, telling the stories of the first travelers who created the 2,400-mile network of trails; the trailblazers who officially surveyed and marked the route as the Seward-to-Nome Mail Trail; the gold seekers, roadhouse builders and freighters who frequented the trail in the early years of the twentieth century; and the re-opening of the route by the U.S. Army after decades of benign neglect.
The most well-known use of the Iditarod Trail is the annual 1,000-mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome, but many other sled dog races use portions of the trail as well, not only present-day races, but historic sled dog races from Anchorage, Iditarod and Nome. There are many more uses of the trail as well, such as the Iron Dog snowmachine race, the Iditarod Trail Invitational, an ultra-marathon for skiers, runners and mountain bikers, and the grueling Crow Pass Crossing over one of the most daunting sections of the route.
The book includes details on the network of groups which manage, maintain and advocate for the Iditarod Trail, including the Alaska Bureau of Land Management, the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance, the Iditarod Trail Committee Inc., the Iditarod Trail Blazers and many others.
From tidewater at Seward to tidewater at Nome, over multiple mountain ranges, across treacherous rivers and through temperatures reaching 50 below, travelers of the Iditarod Trail face challenges which make the route unique among our nation’s National Historic Trails, the only winter trail in the extensive National Trails System.
The Iditarod Trail: From Resurrection Bay to Norton Sound, by Helen Hegener, published in March 2026 by Northern Light Media. ISBN 9798252387352. It is 408 pages with over 200 photographs and maps, fully indexed. Included is a bibliography, annotated references and extensive online resources. $29.95 plus $6.00 shipping from Northern Light Media or your favorite bookseller.