For six thousand
years, sled dogs have served as the principal form of transportation
for the native peoples of the north. As white settlers, gold miners,
and fur trappers moved into what is today Alaska and the northern
territories of Canada, they, too, used the dog team for winter
transportation. When gold camps boomed in the interior, the call for
mail and supply delivery in the winter months was answered by the
hearty dogs and mushers. One of the major routes followed by the teams
was the Iditarod Trail, which crossed Alaska from Seward on the Kenai
Peninsula to Nome on the Bering Sea Coast.
