August 20, 2024 - Alaska Trip
Seward
We walked from the northern end of Seward, where our hotel was, to the southern end, to have dinner.
Here's a nice view of Seward Boat Harbor looking east in the early evening.
The discovery of gold on Christmas day 1908 in the remote Iditarod country launched the last major gold rush in Alaska. Jujiro Wada (pictured here) and Alfred Lowell, in 1909, pioneered a dog sled route from Seward to the Iditarod country which was used by thousands of people and carried tons of mail, supplies, and gold.
This area was once a busy dock area serving commercial boats, ships and trains. The wharf included a railroad dock which enabled them to unload cargo directly from ships onto trains. The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1965 destroyed it all: warehouses, docks and intersecting rail tracks. As you can see, Seward never recovered. Now Seward's local economy is largely driven by the commercial fishing industry and seasonal tourism.
The Iditarod Trail, also known historically as the Seward-to-Nome Trail, is a thousand-plus mile historic and contemporary trail system in the US state of Alaska. The trail began as a composite of trails established by Alaskan native peoples. Its route crossed several mountain ranges and valleys and passed through numerous historical settlements en route from Seward to Nome. The discovery of gold around Nome brought thousands of people over this route beginning in 1908. Roadhouses for people and dog barns sprang up every 20 or so miles. By 1918 World War I and the lack of 'gold fever' resulted in far less travel. The trail might have been forgotten except for the 1925 diphtheria outbreak in Nome. In one of the final great feats of dog sleds, twenty drivers and teams carried the life-saving serum 674 miles in 127 hours. Today, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race serves to commemorate the part the trail and its dog sleds played in the development of Alaska, and the route and a series of connecting trails have been designated Iditarod National Historic Trail.
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod is an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of between 12 and 16 dogs, of which at least 5 must be on the towline at the finish line, cover the distance in 8–15 days or more. Teams often race through blizzards causing whiteout conditions, sub-zero temperatures and gale-force winds which can cause the wind chill to reach −100 °F (−73 °C). A ceremonial start occurs in the city of Anchorage and is followed by the official restart in Willow, a city 80 miles north of Anchorage.
Back on the north side of Seward.
In 1793, Alexander Baranov of the Shelikhov-Golikov company (precursor of the Russian-American Company) established a fur trade post on Resurrection Bay where Seward is today and had a three-masted vessel, the Phoenix, built at the post by James Shields, an English shipwright in Russian service.
The city is named for former United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, who orchestrated the United States' purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 while serving in this position as part of President Andrew Johnson's administration.
Seward was an important port for the military buildup in Alaska during World War II. Fort Raymond was established in Seward along the Resurrection River to protect the community. An Army airfield built in Seward during the war later became Walseth Air Force Base.
Seward has a population of approximately 2,700 people.
