Initially believed to be a cold, arid grassland, the stretch more resembled the modern-day Yukon-Kuskokwim floodplain.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the dog mushing relay that carried the diphtheria serum to Nome during a raging storm.

To many casual onlookers, the Iditarod is a weird curiosity. The famed sled-dog race, which begins this year on March 1, tasks mushers with trekking roughly 1,000 miles across the snowy Alaskan ...