Back in the Alaska gold rush era when dog sled teams played an important role in transporting freight and mail through the remote stretches of Alaska, mushers relied on a series of roadhouses between their village destinations. Word was sent ahead to the roadhouses that a musher and team were on the trail, and a kerosene lamp was lit and hung outside the roadhouse. This served as a signal that a team or teams were somewhere out on the trail. The lamp was not extinguished until the musher safely reached his destination. Beginning in 1986, the Iditarod honored that tradition by hanging a “Red Lantern,” on the burled arch in Nome. Each year the lantern is lit at the beginning of the race and remains lit while there are still teams on the trail. Once the last team crosses the line, that musher then extinguishes the lantern, signifying the official end of the race. Thus, the last musher in a race is called the “Red Lantern” musher.
Dr Ellen Halverson who practices psychiatry in Wasilla guided her team under the famed burled arch in Nome at 2:56 this morning and ceremoniously extinguished the red lantern. Lead dog Cosmo pulled Halverson across the finish line in 16 days, 11 hours and 56 minutes. This is the third time that Halverson has attempted the Iditarod, but the first time she has finished. Her finishing time was good enough for 58th place, but she was only 14 minutes behind 57th place finisher Donald Smidt. Had it not been for a broken sled Halverson suffered before reaching the Elim checkpoint, she may well have passed Smidt. She struggled into Elim 2 minutes after Donald Smidt but ended up spending 9 hours at the checkpoint repairing her sled.
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