Willow celebrates opportunity to host Iditarod restart

WILLOW— The 2019 Iditarod weekend is in full swing, bringing people from around the state and around the world to the vast area with a small population: Willow. Jim Houston, president of the Willow Chamber of Commerce said that the community is affected in many different ways.

“It’s a very big event that brings people together,” Houston said. “It’s quite remarkable that a small community with 1,500 people and spread over a large area can come together for this event and act as a team.”

Houston said that the local businesses all pick up extra business, not only from the viewers that come in but also there’s a lot of entertaining done by residents with cabins, hosting parties each year.

“There’s a lot of volunteers in the community to be able to host this event,” Houston said.

He said that the gas stations sell a lot of fuel for the snow machines and other vehicles that go down and around the trails. He said the numerous volunteers work to clear the way for people to watch the mushers start their journey.

“It’s a busy time for Willow,” Houston said.

Houston said that Willow has been dubbed the “mushing capitol of the world” and the whole Willow area seems to come to life in an otherwise quiet winter. He said that the lodges and restaurants slow down when the tourists leave at the end of summer. He said the restart weekend helps local businesses make it through the winter.

“A lot of businesses don’t have much business in the winter like our bed and breakfast will be empty throughout the winter except for the occasional. But this weekend, we’re full every year,” Houston said.

He said there have been about 80 different mushers that have participated in the Iditarod that are from Willow or live outside Alaska but are based there during the mushing season. He said that many people have moved to Willow just for the race.

“Every year there’s 10 or 12 different mushers from Willow,” Houston said. “The Willow names are significant in the race.”

He said that the abundant snow that typically falls over the area met with numerous training trails developed by mushers over the years makes Willow the ideal place to get ready for the ‘last great race.’

“On either side of the road there’s kennels, some of them a mile apart some of them 10 miles apart. They’ve connected their trails so they have good distance trails by sharing each other’s trail,” Houston said.

He said that it’s typical for people to hire guides to take them on sleds across the trails before and after the race to get that mushing experience. He said that this musher way of life is not limited to the official race weekend, that’s it’s year round for the people of Willow.

“Even throughout the whole summer, you’ll see people with four-wheelers being pulled by a team on the trails along the highway, even going right through downtown,” Houston said.

He said that if one ventured out to Willow on nice summer day, they’d be likely to see around four teams training and conditioning.

“I would say that the impact of the Iditarod goes far beyond the week that they leave here because it’s year round training and a way of life,” Houston said.

Houston said that the businesses are affected in numerous ways because of the Iditarod. He said that local gas stations, restaurants, and bars are affected the most by the Iditarod during the restart weekend. He said there’s currently three local bars. He said that some of these places like the Willow Trading Post Lodge have been around for many years, “from the gold mining days on.”

“Actually the Trading Post was built from buildings from the gold mines,” Houston said.

Each year, there’s about 20 to 25 different vendors that set up booths at the Willow Community Center for the restart, according to Houston. He said there’s typically a mix of local Willow booths with other businesses from outside but no matter who they are, they need to first get approved by the Iditarod Trail Committee and pay a fee.

“We have dozen people working in the kitchen alone at the community center. Events like this and the Willow Winter Carnival are some of the main ways of making money for keeping the community center heated and the electric and necessary costs,” Houston said.

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