Iditarod Trail 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 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. The Iditarod Trail was a trail that connected a point north of Seward, Alaska, where a forerunner of the Alaska Railroad ended, through Iditarod, Alaska and then to Nome. The trail was about long. The Iditarod Trail's
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race differ by less than . The northern route first passes through Cripple, which is from Anchorage, and from Nome (ITC, "Northern"), making it the middlemost checkpoint. From Cripple, the route passes through Sulatna Crossing to Ruby, on the Yukon River. Ruby is another former gold-rush town which became an Athabaskan village. The southern route first passes through the ghost town of Iditarod, which is the alternate halfway mark, at from Anchorage, and from Nome (ITC, "Southern"). From Iditarod the route goes through the three neighboring Athabaskan villages of Shageluk, Anvik, Grayling, and then on to Eagle Island, Alaska. Ruby and