Today on the radio I heard that the man who won the Iditarod was using a sled made in near where I live in New England. First I thought,
wow, what a great accomplishment, and all without using any gasoline! The
defending champion Lance Mackey won the Iditarod sled dog race today,
completing the grueling 1,850-kilometre trek across Alaska in less than 9.5 days. He ran most of the race on a sled built for him by Carl Brown of Whitefield, New Hampshire.

At one point there was no other way to get to Alaska in the winter, but by dog sled.

In
1925 Nome Alaska
ruled the headlines with a

deadly diphtheria epidemic that was threatening to
wipe out all the children of the small town. The country was on edge as a dog
sled relay was set up to get the serum to the town. The famous Balto was
the the lead dog of that sled team, and was instantly famous for
delivering the life saving serum to the sick people of Nome. Read more on the
story here.

Although our culture has evolved immensely since 1925, events like the
Iditarod can take us back to a different time period. It's interesting to look
back at how things were, and how much things have changed, and how those
changes may or may not have affected our environment, locally and globally.

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