A tale of a frozen family Tid bit Tuesday

Jan 22 2008

Tid bit Tuesday - Alaska Trivia

Published by Icequeen at 3:42 pm under Alaska

I figure since lots of folks are intrigued by Alaska, and I have folks reading this who actually aren’t FROM Alaska (who knew!) that I would dedicate one blog each week to something interesting about this beautiful state.

So… here is some boring trivia.

Alaska officially became the 49th state on January 3, 1959.
The state of Rhode Island could fit into Alaska 425 times.
Alaska’s most important revenue source is the oil and natural gas industry Alaska accounts for 25% of the oil produced in the United States.

Our latest claim to fame is our “hot Governor”. Her “hotness” has been the focus of many a national talk show host since her moving into office.

Here is our “hotty”

I have to say, I hold a special place in my heart for Governor Palin since she stopped me in the grocery store a couple of years back to tell me that she LOVED my glasses. She had my vote :) I mean obviously, she has GREAT taste!

Okay, enough of that. Let’s move on, shall we? Since the Iditarod is coming in the near future, and my father ran in the first Iditarod, lets focus on that, for the purposes of today’s blog.

The Iditarod

What does Iditarod mean? No one can seem to agree exactly on this. The three that have been quote the most are:

Iditarod means clear water and was named by the Shageluk Indians for the Iditarod River.

The word comes from the Ingalik Indian word HaIditarod which was the name for the river on which the town was built. It means distant place.

The name Iditarod came from an Ingalik and Holikachuk word hidedhod for the Iditarod River. This name means distant or distant place. This word is still known by elders in the villages of Shageluk, Anvik, Grayling and Holy Cross.

What IS the Iditarod?

The Iditarod is a 1150 mile dog sled race. It is considered “The Last Great Race on Earth”. Racing over some of the roughest, most beautiful terrain Mother Nature has to offer. She throws jagged mountain ranges, frozen river, dense forest, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast at the mushers and their dog teams. Add to that temperatures far below zero, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility, the hazards of overflow, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs and side hills, and you have the Iditarod. A race extraordinaire, a race only possible in Alaska. (from Iditarod.com)

The race runs from Anchorage, in south central Alaska, to Nome on the western Bering Sea coast, each team of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher cover over 1150 miles in 10 to 17 days.

Each year they give out the red lantern award, which my dad’s race partner won on the first race and STILL holds the record (which I doubt will ever be broken!) See the blog entitled “dad” for the details.

Here’s a couple of pictures from the race start and finish.

The winner of the Iditarod wins a cash prize (last year was $69,000) and a new Dodge pickup (valued at $40,000). Personally, I’m just not sure that even those winnings are worth enduring this kind of punishment!