Iditarod (Alaska)
| Iditarod | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 The port of Iditarod, around 1911 |
|||
| Location in Alaska | |||
|
|||
| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | June 1, 1910 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Alaska | ||
| Borough : | Unorganized Borough , Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area | ||
| Coordinates : | 62 ° 33 ′ N , 158 ° 6 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Alaska ( UTC − 9 / −8 ) | ||
| Residents : | 0 (as of 2010) | ||
| GNIS ID : | 1403697 | ||
 The Iditarod Trail with Iditarod and its neighboring towns |
|||
Iditarod is a ghost town in the Unorganized Borough in the US state of Alaska . It belongs to the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area .
geography
Iditarod is located on a horseshoe-shaped lake that was once a loop of the Iditarod River , which meanders here very strongly . The closest town is Flat , about 11 kilometers south-southeast.
history
Iditarod takes its name from the river of the same name. This in turn takes its name from the Athapaskan word Haidilatna , the name of an Ingalik village .
On Christmas Day 1908, the prospectors John Beaton and WA "Bill" Dikeman am found Otter Creek , a tributary of the Iditarod River Gold . The following summer, prospectors came up the Yukon and Iditarod and initially founded Flat.
Iditarod itself was founded on June 1st, 1910 when the steamship Tanana docked here. In the following years it was used as an orientation and starting point for the gold rush that followed . Several settlements emerged in the area, including Discovery , Otter , Dikeman and Willow Creek (Alaska) . Iditarod quickly became a real gold rush town with hotels, bars, brothels, three newspapers (only one survived a year), a bank, electricity, telephones, and even a railroad to Flat.
By 1930 the gold reserves in Iditarod were exhausted and the prospectors moved on, many of them to Flat. They took the houses with them, leaving only a single house and a few ruins in Iditarod. The bank's concrete vault is all that's left of the financial institution.
The Iditarod Trail and the Iditarod dog sled race take their names from Iditarod . Iditarod is on the south route of this most famous sled dog race.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Allan Curtis, "Iditarod's Newspapers: Optimist, Nugget, Pioneer" Alaska Journal 6 no.2 (Spring 1976) 78-83.
