2020 Iron Dog brings Big Lake together through commerce

BIG LAKE— Stepping out onto the frozen Big Lake Saturday, Feb. 22 was like entering another world, planet Iron Dog.

A huge crowd surrounded the finish line eagerly awaiting the arrival of the 2020 Iron Dog racers. Numerous facets of the Big Lake community set up booths around the race officials and visiting groups and companies.

Mat-Su Borough Assembly member Dan Mayfield is also the president of Big Lake Trails, Inc. He helped his fellow board members hand out free hot dogs to attendees. He said the group usually holds a Family Fun Run in conjunction with Iron Dog.

“With the Iron Dog coming back to Big Lake, we thought that was just a great opportunity to get out again and kind of promote Big Lake Trails as an entity,” Mayfield said.

The start and finish locations were reversed with an estimated 400 miles added to the course this year. Teams started out of Fairbanks and finished at Big Lake.

Mayfield said the community always benefits from hosting huge events like these. He said it’s always a boost to the local economy.

“It’s awesome,” Mayfield said. “Bringing back commerce to Big Lake, which is an awesome thing.”

The first Iron Dog started in Big Lake and followed the Northern Route of the Historic Iditarod Trail to Nome in 1984.

Many Big Lake residents show up during the Iron Dog and many still hold onto the pride of living where it all started.

“We were sorry that we lost it a few years ago, lost the start. But, you know, the organization decided to kind of turn around the race and now we’re the finish, which is good,” Mayfield said.

There’s been a lot of positive feedback from the Big Lake community regarding the reversal.

“The organizing committee had called me several weeks ago and asked me what I thought about them coming back to Big Lake and I answered enthusiastically that I wanted them to; and so they took that as good input and worked on it and here we are,” Mayfield said.

Big Lake Elementary students and staff set up a booth at the Iron Dog for the first time. They sold hot dogs to raise money for an annual field trip that takes fifth graders on an outdoor adventure.

Fifth grade teacher Heather Roberts said she didn’t know there would be so many free hot dogs going around.

“We had a lot of fun but we didn’t sell a lot of hot dogs,” Roberts said with a laugh.

Roberts said this year’s participation was sort of last minute and they’ll probably try selling something different next time if they go. She said they all wanted to come out and have fun anyway so it was time all well spent.

“The kids had a fabulous time. It was something new and exciting for them to see. Now we’re all talking about going out for the restart of the Iditarod in Willow,” Robertsa said.

Houston High School’s hockey team was also at the Iron Dog for the first time, according to head coach Lane Styers. He said that his players helped with parking during the event. He said assisting socializing with all these different people was good for the team; plus, all the activity stimulates the area.

“It’s good to get more people out here,” Styers said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com