We were prospecting for gold in today's Geo Quiz....and looking for the name of historic trail that early miners travelled as they went to and from Alaska's frozen landscape.
Kevin Keeler is the Trail Administrator for the Iditarod National Historic Trail (the answer to our quiz).
The Iditarod Trail crosses Alaska from Seward to Nome...it was the "superhighway" of the America's last great gold rush. It attracted fortune seekers from around the world. By the way, the original mail route from Seward to Nome was 938 miles. The total mileage for the historic trail system (including side and connecting trails) is approximately 2,300 miles.
Listen to our interview with Kevin Keeler.
Picture above: November 1910 - An ex-stagecoach driver from the Black Hills gold rush in South Dakota, Bob Griffis, is hired by the Miners and Merchants Bank in Iditarod to carry 700 pounds of gold (worth $10 million dollars at today‘s rates) from Iditarod to Seward for shipment to the Lower 48. Griffis successfully makes this trip and dozens others up to World War I without ever being held up. In 1916, he moves the largest recorded load by dogsled—3,400 pounds, with a team of 46 dogs . (photo courtesy Iditarod National Historic Trail)
America's Last Great Gold Rush
Legendary musher Jujiiro Wada
Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin's proclamation for Iditarod Gold Discovery Day
