Olaus Murie ran dog teams throughout Alaska in his 31 years as a federal wildlife biologist. He began in 1914, the glory days of the Iditarod and long-distance mushing, and continued through the twilight of the long-haul dog teams. In his book Journeys to the Far North, one chapter describes a mushing trip through Rainy Pass in early 1922 along the Iditarod Trail:
"Why do we look back to those days as something precious? Perhaps there was something there we do not yet understand. On those long dog trails, leading through miles of scrubby spruce forest, across lowland flats, over rolling hills, every traveler I met was a friend. We would maneuver our respective dogteams past each other in the narrow trail, plant a foot on the brake, and talk….Nothing weighty, these conversations. We were complete strangers, but in a sparsely settled land each person has more value. You're glad to see each other. When you release your brake and your dogs perk up and yank the sled loose, you wave a mittened hand to your departing acquaintance with the warm feeling of a few shared moments…."
~Murie, Olaus, "By Dogs Around Denali," from Journeys to the Far North, in Alaska: Reflections on Land and Spirit, eds. Robert Hedin and Gary Holthaus. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989
From Iditarod History by Don Bowers
