"Like soldiers marching to the insistent beating of a drum, they set off with pounding hearts, mouthing pat slogans and often enough believing them..." So says Pierre Berton, of the Klondike News.

So started the Klondike Gold Rush. Word of the Bonanza Discovery spread fast, and soon thousands descended on Dawson, a shantytown hastily constructed at the meeting point between the Yukon and Klondike Rivers.

One hundred thousand adventurers, from all over the globe, set out for the Frozen North, Alaska. Swamped with requests were every steamship line, bought out to the rafters were every outfitter store, and history's greatest gold rush was under way. Alaska, a vast territory, it is over twice the size of Texas, which boasts a ten and a half million head count. Against the sheer backdrop of land-snow, our forty-ninth state is today only ninety nine percent inhabited by a mere three hundred thousand people.

Gold rushes were a major part of Alaska's history beginning in the 1880's. The strikes near Juneau in 1880, the Klondike in 1896, Nome in 1898, and Fairbanks in 1902 helped define Alaska's very character. In fact, they directly resulted in the founding of three of the state's largest cities (Fairbanks is second, Juneau third and Nome seventh).

However, these bonanzas were only the best known of more than 30 serious gold rushes in Alaska from 1880 to 1914. In fact, the last full-scale, old-fashioned, frontier-style gold rush in the United States roared into life in 1909 at Iditarod, 629 trail miles west of the future site of Anchorage and half way to Nome. By the next year, Iditarod eclipsed Nome and Fairbanks to briefly become the largest city in Alaska with 10,000 inhabitants. It boasted several banks and hotels and even a newspaper, all supplied by regular sternwheeler service up the Innoko and Iditarod Rivers, tributaries of the mighty Yukon River.

Steamboats, which plied the many rivers lacing the Alaska interior, could serve many gold districts in Alaska in the summer. Nome, on the coast, had regular, ocean going steamship service. Nonetheless, there was virtually no way to travel to any of these places when freeze up stopped the river and ocean traffic from October to May. By 1910, the needs for year-round mail and freight service to the miners in western Alaska led the Federal government to survey and construct a winter trail from Seward to Nome for use by dog sled teams.

The original Iditarod Trail started at Seward, about 50 miles north at the end of the under-construction Alaska Central Railroad, which later became the Alaska Railroad. From the end of the track, the trail wound along Turnagain Arm through what is now Girdwood. From there the trail continued on over Crow Pass, down the uninhabited Eagle River Valley and northward to the tiny trading post of Knik, the largest town on Upper Cook Inlet until the railroad town of Anchorage was founded in 1915. The trail from Knik then arrowed west through the wooded valleys of the Susitna and Yentna Rivers climbing tortuously over Rainy Pass through the massive Alaska Range. West of the Range, the trail drifted across the vast Kuskokwim Valley to the hills west of McGrath, to the Innoko River mining district and the town of Ophir, another classic boomtown ebbing even then from its glory days of 1907.

From Ophir, the trail rolled southwest through the ridge and valley country of the Kuskokwim Mountains to the bustling town of Iditarod. Swinging northwest from Iditarod, the trail pushed to the Yukon River, then due north up its frozen mile-wide expanse to the Koyukon Athabascan village of Kaltag.

At Kaltag, the trail angled back southwest along the 90-mile Kaltag Portage, known for centuries to Eskimos and Indians as a shortcut through the low coastal mountains to Norton Sound and the Bering Sea. The ancient Yup'ik Eskimo village of Unalakleet, whose name means, "place where the east wind blows", anchored the western end of the portage.

From Unalakleet, the trail swept north and then west around the rugged shore of the Seward Peninsula, passing through old Inupiat villages with names like Shaktoolik, Koyuk, and Golovin. Fifty miles before Nome, the trail dropped down onto the beaches that had caused the rush to Nome a decade before. After more than 1,150 miles, the Iditarod Trail opened onto Front Street in Nome, then the site of North America's most notorious saloon row, whose proprietors at one time included Wyatt Earp.

Next month: Our "Musher" article.

Fabulous Ski Tip:
Now is the height of the ski season in Alaska. I have been to Alyeska Ski Resort, outside of Anchorage, and Eaglecrest, outside of Juneau. While both offer a great ski experience, Alyeska is the best of both, offering a wide range of snow activities and accommodations that, while elegant, will fit most pocketbooks. Now's the time for you to surf the net to find your fabulous ski bargain packages.