New Iditarod burled arch on flight to Nome
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The newest edition of the famed burled arch that welcomes Iditarod teams each year on Nome’s Front Street is on its way to the finish.
The burled arch — which for years has hung over the finish line of the Last Great Race — has represented the end of a grueling experience for mushers and dogs each year.
It also provides a perfect Alaskan backdrop for photos taken of the winning team and each team behind them.
The previous arch that had stood since 2000 fell victim to wood rot last spring, necessitating the creation of a new one.
That’s where Ramey Smyth — an Iditarod veteran who has 27 race starts to his name, as well as 12 top-10 finishes — enters the story. Smyth was tasked with building the new arch for the race.
With plenty of experience working with log construction — he owns a log home-building business in Willow — Smyth got to work.
Now, the newest burled arch is ready to be proudly displayed at the finish line. The arch was trucked to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Monday, where it was delicately weighed and ready to be packed onto a plane to Nome.
“Thank goodness. That’s all I can say,” Smyth said when asked Monday night about finally shipping the arch to Nome. “The details were killing me. Wrap it up, crate it up, protect it, move it, keep the rain off it. It was getting to be a lot.
“I’m glad it’s moving on towards Nome.”
The arch is expected to be put on a plane to Nome on Wednesday morning.
The story of the burled arch goes back to 1974, a year after the inaugural running of the Iditarod, when musher Red “Fox” Olson decided the event needed a more impressive finish line marker.
Olson got to work constructing an arch from a burled tree that he felled in the Rosie Creek area near Fairbanks. According to the Iditarod, it took 500 hours of labor to construct the 5,000-pound arch.
That arch was damaged while being transported after the 1999 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, making room for a new one to be constructed in time for the 2000 edition of the race.
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