Alaska News

Photos: Preparations and parties for Iditarod in Nome

It's a bit like a weeklong holiday when the Iditarod mushers reach Nome. Planes arrive full of visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race mushers as they arrive. Hotel rooms fill a year in advance.

Staff and volunteers prepare front street for the big finish, hoisting banners, unrolling fencing and testing loudspeakers. Calendars distributed around town list dozens of events that coincide with the crowning of a champion in the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and many return to Front Street to watch those mushers that follow.

And the city hosts dozens of events, both tame and rowdy, for residents and tourists. This year, that included a St. Patrick's Day parade.

Led appropriately enough by a single dog pulling a sled, a small parade of Nome residents marched about a mile through town in a light Tuesday snowfall to celebrate the holiday.

In addition to the husky named Heidi, the march featured several children in green plastic bowler hats, a man in a balaclava wearing a green Google Earth camera, a number of lively local characters and Irish standards pumped over the loudspeakers set up in anticipation of the Iditarod finish expected hours later.

Brothers Kevin and Trevor Green led their dog down the street at the front of the parade. The teens said they wanted to participate in the event as a way to celebrate their hometown.

"We just want everyone to have a very happy St. Patrick's Day," Kevin said.

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The parade lasted about 15 minutes and ran from the State Building to the burled arch on Front Street. Race organizers encouraged participants to wear green, and an announcement for the event said all comers were invited to attend.

"Swedes and leprechauns welcome too!" read the parade description in the local event calendar.

No Swedes or leprechauns identified themselves, although fans of the three Norwegian mushers in this year's Iditarod -- Thomas Waerner, Yvonne Dabakk and Joar Leifseth Ulsom -- did hang a large sign adjacent to the parade finish line.

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