Photo by Ben Townsend/KNOM.
With this year’s Iditarod mushers already on their way down the trail, a Boeing 737 cargo jet delivered the race’s new arch to Nome just in time to welcome them at the finish line.
Longtime Iditarod musher Ramey Smyth has spent nearly the past year at his family’s woodworking shop crafting the 5,000-pound log of Sitka spruce into the iconic arch: sanded, varnished, and inscribed “End of Iditarod Sled Dog Race.”
This will be the third Burled Arch to mark the end of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. The first arch stood until 1999 and currently adorns the wall in Nome’s recreation center. The second arch replaced it in 2000 and collapsed shortly after last year’s Iditarod concluded.
Photo by Ben Townsend/KNOM.
