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Lee Poleske
Lee Poleske

Lee Poleske was interviewed on November 3, 2021 by Karen Brewster at his home in Seward, Alaska. In this interview, Lee talks about getting involved with the Iditarod National Historic Trail Alliance through the local Seward Trail Blazers group. He discusses the group’s accomplishments of getting the Seward section of the trail recognized and a bike path constructed along the first part of the route, installing Mile 0 signs and interpretive panels, and creating commemorative statues to honor the early gold miners who walked the trail and trail pioneer Jujiro Wada. He also talks about their public education activities, including participating in the Alliance’s teacher training program (Iditarod Trail to Every Classroom - iTREC), producing a newsletter for both the Trail Blazers and the Alliance, receiving support from the local staff of the Chugach National Forest/U.S. Forest Service, and recognition of the southern portion of the Iditarod Trail and construction of a complete recreational trail along the historic route.

Digital Asset Information

Archive #: Oral History 2021-04-05

Project: Iditarod National Historic Trail
Date of Interview: Nov 3, 2021
Narrator(s): Lee Poleske
Interviewer(s): Karen Brewster
Transcriber: Ruth Sensenig
Location of Interview:
Funding Partners:
Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance
Alternate Transcripts
There is no alternate transcript for this interview.

After clicking play, click on a section to navigate the audio or video clip.

Sections

Personal background and coming to Alaska

Teaching social studies, history, and photography, and staying in Seward after retirement

Getting involved with the Iditarod National Historic Trail and the Resurrection Bay Historical Society

Start of the Seward Trail Blazers organization

Locating the original trail route from Seward to Girdwood

Working with the U.S. Forest Service and State of Alaska Department of Transportation to mark and connect the trail, and put up signs

Local trail groups and localized projects, like building shelter cabins

Public misunderstanding about the historic trail, the serum run, and the Iditarod Dog Sled Race

Statues and signs in Seward to mark Mile 0 and start of the Iditarod Trail, and use of the first miles of paved bike path

Figuring out the original trail route and starting point at the Seward waterfront

Alternative trail in the southern section from Seward to Girdwood, and trying to get a bridge named for Lowell Ferguson

Using knowledge of old-timers, and building trust

Partnership between Seward Trail Blazers and local U.S. Forest Service staff

Commemorative statues and Iditarod Trail to Every Classroom (iTREC) projects

Cooperation between Seward Trail Blazers, the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance, and the Iditarod Dog Sled Race

Cennential celebration in 2008 of the original survey of the Iditarod Trail, and history of the trail

Involvement of Seward Trail Blazers, Iditarod Race Committee, and Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance

Trail no longer being used, and acquiring easements to re-vitalize the trail

Obtaining easements on state and private land, and dealing with development corridors

Getting involved with historic research on the trail, and becoming a member of the board for the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance

Recruiting members to the Alliance

Support for the Iditarod Trail and possible economic opportunities

Alliance meetings and newsletter

Seward Trail Blazers' newsletter, membership, and meetings

Support from federal agencies, and getting local involvement

Public education efforts

Examples of school and local projects

History of naming of Seward

Lee and Dan Seavey's public presentation and the video about the Iditarod Trail

Distribution and sale of the video

Role of federal agencies and the Alliance in trail management

Board recruitment

Impact of possible development projects on the trail

Challenges of getting people involved, and importance of community-based projects like construction of shelter cabins

Importance of passionate and creative individuals

Importance of knowing history and caring about the Iditarod Trail

Use of the paved bike path trail in Seward

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After clicking play, click a section of the transcript to navigate the audio or video clip.

Transcript

KAREN BREWSTER: So this is Karen Brewster, and today is November 3, 2021, and I’m here with Lee Poleske in Seward, Alaska, and this is for the Iditarod National Historical Trail Project Jukebox project. So Lee, thank you for visiting with me today, or letting me visit you.

LEE POLESKE: Glad to have you.

KAREN BREWSTER: And um, before we get into the Iditarod Trail, just a little bit about you and where you came from and how you ended up in Seward.

LEE POLESKE: Well, I was born and grew up and went to college in Iowa. Graduated from University of Dubuque.

First job was a teacher. Why, that’s what I was trained for. In Dallas Center, Iowa. And to be quite honest, I didn’t like it. I just -- it just didn’t -- and uh, so they offered, you know, they offered me the next year, but I said no, I don’t want it.

And then, of course, I was eligible for the draft, and the army recruiter came looking, and he told me, "Well, you know you can sign up to be stationed in Europe." And I said, that sounds good.

And so, I did. I enlisted in the army, served three years in Heidelberg, Germany. It was headquarters to (inaudible). I was -- office job. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And enjoyed it, but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do forever.

So I came -- got back, went to live with my parents in Iowa, and I -- college where I graduated had, you know, a placement bureau, and I wrote them if there was anything.

And he said to me there were two looking for my areas. One in Audubon, Iowa, which was about 15 miles from where we lived, and one in Seward, Alaska.

And I thought, well, that sounds interesting. And I applied. And that was in January.

KAREN BREWSTER: Of what year? LEE POLESKE: ’64. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: And I hadn’t heard, and then -- I always remember, I was laying on the couch in my parents’ room. March. News flash: "Alaska has a huge earthquake. Seward in flames." And this famous picture. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And I thought, "Well, that’s that." ’Cause I hadn’t heard.

And my sister and her husband, who lived in a little town outside of Des Moines, had bought a house in Des Moines for rental and needed repairing. My sister, "Well now, why don’t you come up? And you know, you can live in our house, and we'll -- you do the painting, and you do that.

And I said, "Ok." And in July ’64, phone rang at the house. My brother-in-law answered, and he come running, and he said, "You got a call from Alaska!" And I went, and it was the principal. We were still an independent district at that time. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: He said, "You applied for a job up here." I said, "Yes." He said, "You still want it?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Fine. I’ll send the paperwork down."

He said, "I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’ve had some problems up here." I said, "I’ve heard." He said, "Well, that’s all right." And that was it. That was my job interview.

Papers came down, and I filled ’em out, and I came up. I figured, well, couple years, see what it’s like. And still here.

KAREN BREWSTER: Been here ever since. And you were teaching social studies. LEE POLESKE: Yeah, social studies. I did teach Spanish, too. And one of my favorite was photography. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, ok. LEE POLESKE: I really enjoyed that 'cause -- KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: You could actually -- the kids could see, you know, history. What’s the use of history? You’ve heard that, I’m sure. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But, you know, if you do this right -- Also, you had to do things in right --The old days of developing, you know. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: And if you didn’t do it in the right order, you didn’t get anything. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: So they saw that you had to follow directions, and if you did, there’s still a magic about watching a picture come up in the developer, isn’t it? KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, it is. Yes. LEE POLESKE: It’s something you just don’t get. KAREN BREWSTER: No, you’re right.

LEE POLESKE: Anyway, I did enjoy that. And then I had to teach an English class once. You know, it’s a small school. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Small high school.

KAREN BREWSTER: And then? LEE POLESKE: I taught there 26 years.

I figured out I needed 30 years for a livable retirement pay. And you could buy in military time and previous time, so I had one year Iowa teaching, three years in the army, so I bought that four years in. 26 years here, I retired.

KAREN BREWSTER: Great. LEE POLESKE: ’90. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: I’ve been retired longer than I taught.

KAREN BREWSTER: And you chose to stay in Seward? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Yeah, I never thought of not. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: There's some -- you -- We were talking about this. I, you know, I mentioned I had a talk to a group last night. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. Right.

LEE POLESKE: And I say -- and I’ve said this many times, you either love it or you hate it. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And the people who do, others have told me that, too. You know, I came and I just wanted to stay. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: It is a friendly place. It’s very -- they’ll leave you alone if you want to be left alone. They’ll invite you to this group or that group. It’s just a pleasant place. And beautiful.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, and beautiful. LEE POLESKE: Beautiful.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yes. And so, how did you end up getting involved with the Iditarod Historic Trail designation?

LEE POLESKE: Well, it actually first, it got started with the Resurrection Bay Historical Society. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: Which is our historical society here. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, one of the members invited me to a meeting. Said you might be interested, since I taught history. You know, world history and US history. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And I went to a meeting. That was in 1966. That's a date I remember. And I joined, and then we met at the basement there, City Hall, where the museum was.

And it was just getting started. They were just trying to get it started, and I thought, this is, you know, interesting. I helped.

Within a few years, I was the volunteer director of the museum, and I served -- was elected president of the society. And I was for many years.

And then, uh, Dan, I’m sure he’s told you, Dan Seavey entered the first Iditarod Sled Dog Race. And he was at a meeting of the historical society. He was a member.

And he told us about this idea they had of running the dog race from Seward to Nome. Not Seward, from Anchorage to Nome, over what was the old Iditarod Trail, which I admit I had never really heard of.

And my interest was Seward history, and I thought, what did -- Got to look into that. And I soon found out, Seward had a great deal to do with the Iditarod. And so, got interested. Course, he ran that first race.

And then, uh, Joe Redington, you know, really pushed for the trail being made a historic trail, and Dan was involved in that with them.

And he came up with the idea of a -- well, the original idea, I remember I went to a meeting, somewhere there, up at, oh god. Well, Joe Redington was there.

KAREN BREWSTER: In Knik? LEE POLESKE: No, in uh, the lady who was very involved with the Iditarod. KAREN BREWSTER: Dorothy Page. LEE POLESKE: Dorothy Page. Dorothy Page, thank you. Mother of the Iditarod. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: Joe was the father, she was the mother.

At her place. Joe Redington was there, and other people whose names I don’t all remember, talking about the idea.

And the idea was that they would do it like the Appalachian. There would be groups all along the trail that would take care of their portion of the trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: And become the idea: Seward Iditarod Trail Blazers. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: And as I said, I had the idea. In, uh, September 15, 1982, we had an organizational meeting down at the museum.

KAREN BREWSTER: This is for the Seward Trail Blazers?

LEE POLESKE: For the Seward Trail Blazers. Uh, they had -- they always met -- they always have met at the museum. And uh, Dan Seavey was elected president. Dorothy Knighten was vice president. Monty Hightower, secretary/treasurer. And I was elected as treasur -- as historian.

And as they say, the rest is history. It just kept going. Uh, Dan and I are still here. The others -- Dorothy has passed away. She was a -- also a very, very important part of this museum. Very important. Wonderful lady. Wonderful lady.

KAREN BREWSTER: And her husband was a pilot, right? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. No. Well -- KAREN BREWSTER: Keith. LEE POLESKE: Well, yeah. Keith was a pilot, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Also nice, I had one of her boys in school, too. Good -- KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: Two of 'em in school. Hightowers are still around. They’re over in Soldotna now.

KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. So what was your purpose for the Trail Blazers? Did you guys -- when you first met in ’82, was there a defined purpose? Do you have that in your -- ?

LEE POLESKE: Basically we’re, as we say -- I have a newsletter somewhere, but basically, we are responsible for location, maintenance, construction, maintenance of that part of the historic Iditarod Trail from Seward to Girdwood.

And I’m sure Dan explained to you that that trail no longer existed. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And that was one of our first initial goals, to find -- and this had been provided for in the original plan of the trail.

KAREN BREWSTER: For the -- the comprehensive plan for the historic trail? LEE POLESKE: Yeah, the comprehensive plan. That there would be an alternative trail between Seward and Girdwood. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: And, uh, Lowell Ferguson, who was a member, was instrumental. And he and Dan -- Uh, of old trails.

Actually, there was a lot ’cause they used to close navigation on Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm, in the winter. KAREN BREWSTER: Hm.

LEE POLESKE: And even when gold was discovered in Hope and Sunrise in the '90’s, 1890’s. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Mail and supplies for Hope came into Resurrection Bay. There was no town at that time.

And then taken by dog sled up to Hope and Sunrise. So those trails have been organized by dog mushers.

And then they discovered gold, and so miners came in. So there was a lot of old trails around.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right, because they didn’t have ship traffic to Hope and Sunrise. LEE POLESKE: No. KAREN BREWSTER: In the winter time? LEE POLESKE: No. They had to come in to Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: And so, there were a lot of trails. And strangely enough, a lot of people don’t realize, the Forest Service had a CCC group, Civilian Conservation (Corps), during the Depression. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: They built a lot of trails around on the Peninsula (Kenai). KAREN BREWSTER: Hm.

LEE POLESKE: So there were a lot of trails around. And so, Lowell Ferguson, Dan Seavey, and others who knew the area, located trails that could be connected, you know. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: So there’d be a continuous trail between Seward and Girdwood. And they outlined it.

We had maps made of a, you know, what we thought would be the best way. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: Well, you know, that’s -- costs a lot of money to actually make it. The real expense are bridges. KAREN BREWSTER: Yes.

LEE POLESKE: And this, as you notice, is a mountainous country. Lot of ravines. And that was something which was a challenge.

But all -- at that time, all that land was Forest Service, Chugach National Forest.

And we had a very helpful man here, Pat O’Leary, who was a recreational man for it. He got involved, and he and Dan did some grant writing.

And the Forest Service really got involved in the trail. They really did. And they started helping. And they had the money for bridges and so on, so they’ve -- over the years have done a great deal. And they still are. They still are continually doing work. Uh, especially through Turnagain Arm. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: And other places.

They built several bridges between here and Girdwood. There -- And two big gaps are scheduled to be filled. I’m sure Dan told you about the pedestrian bridge across -- hooked onto Snow River Bridge.

KAREN BREWSTER: No, we didn’t talk about that.

LEE POLESKE: Oh, ok. So you can walk from Mile 0 out to Mile 4 and then down Nash Road, and pick up and walk quite a ways up the trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: One place that is a problem getting across Snow -- there is a bridge across Snow River, but, you know, just for cars.

When the highway department finally chose a new Sterling Highway, it’s behind Cooper Landing, but it crosses the Resurrection Trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And in mitigation, the highway department agreed to build a pedestrian attachment to the Snow River Bridge. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: So you -- and there is a trail right across. There’s a trail up to the bridge, and there’s a trail past the bridge. So it’ll make it safer to --

KAREN BREWSTER: Right, than to go onto the road and -- ? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Yeah. So that is done.

The other big gap is Turnagain Arm. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: The trail -- they built a trail all the way through Turnagain Pass, down to Ingram Creek, where when you’re coming down the road. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: There’s that, you know, they’re redoing that whole highway down there. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: The highway department has agreed, and it is going to happen, to build a bike path all the way around on that road up to Winter Creek, down -- just before you get -- which leads up to Girdwood. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And connects with the trail from then on. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

LEE POLESKE: They would not let it be called an Iditarod Trail because if it’s a real, official trail, there are sort of -- KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: There are government rules and regulations.

It’s just a bike path that if you get on, you will happen to leave a part of the trail and come to another part, so we’re happy with that. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: And -- and that will -- with a few more bridges here -- and I’ve heard -- you’ve heard of the Long Trail Project? KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Yes. LEE POLESKE: Ok. From Seward to Fairbanks.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: They are interested in connecting. KAREN BREWSTER: Right, all these pieces. LEE POLESKE: All these pieces.

’Cause once you hit Girdwood, then, the trail goes up. KAREN BREWSTER: Go Crow Pass and over? LEE POLESKE: Yeah, goes to Crow Pass and up. Connects with others, and you can go quite a ways.

Uh, then they're gonna go along with the pipeline road, and anyway, it looks -- And they’re willing to get money and put it into our development, too.

KAREN BREWSTER: And so, for this new bike path along Turnagain -- LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: -- that goes on the part of the historic trail, you can’t put up a sign, but will you put up some interpretive panels? LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: To tell people that that’s what it is? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Well, at least at both points. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, okay.

LEE POLESKE: Where you get on and where you get off. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: I -- again, it’s, you know, you gotta compromise.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. And so if -- to put up panels like that, the Trail Blazers would pay for that? Or the Alliance pays for that, or --? LEE POLESKE: Hopefully, the Forest Service. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, the Forest Service, ok. LEE POLESKE: To be blunt. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: ’Cause they’re at both ends. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: They’re the Turnagain Pass people, and they’re also to Whittier and up leading --

Whittier has a very, very active trail group. They’re not a trail blazer group, but they are -- KAREN BREWSTER: A trail group. LEE POLESKE: A really active trail group. Very active. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. Cool.

LEE POLESKE: There’s -- that idea of having blazers, it never really worked out. There is one at McGrath, and they did a tremendous work on the shelter cabin up there. KAREN BREWSTER: The Carlson cabin? LEE POLESKE: I don’t remember what it’s named, but yeah, that could be it. But they did a lot of work on that.

And the Nome Kennel Club. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Is very big. They’ve -- doing work, too, on some shelters. At White Mountain going to build a whole new one. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: The Alliance is giving money for that. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: So.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, and the Nome Kennel Club has been around for a long time, right? LEE POLESKE: Oh, they -- they were -- they’re the ones who organized the All Alaska Sweepstakes, back there in the early 1910’s. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: Yeah, they’re very active.

Also, they’re planning for the upcoming anniversary in two years of the serum run, which was in 1925. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, ok. LEE POLESKE: 2025 is sneaking up on us.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. But as you say, the serum run -- LEE POLESKE: Had nothing to do with the race. The race was based on the All Alaska Sweepstakes. In fact, the first rules were based on the rules that were laid down for the All Alaska Sweepstakes. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Um, how it got mixed up. They blamed the British. There was something in the London paper about the Sweep -- well, the Sweepstakes is fairly well known, and it just got picked up. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And I -- we hear it all the time. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: I know when I was in the museum, we had an Iditarod room. People go, oh yeah. That was the, uh --

they’re not always sure what the disease was, but they knew there was a serum run. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: It might have been polio. It might have been small pox, you know, but they knew there was a run up there.

But we had very clearly stated, if they read, it wasn’t. It was the Sweepstakes.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, and I can see the confusion with the trail. There’s the historic trail. LEE POLESKE: Yeah, right.

KAREN BREWSTER: That was used for the, you know, mail and the gold miners and stuff. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: And then, the serum run used part of that trail from Ruby. LEE POLESKE: Only from Kaltag to Nome. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: We forget. There’s one thing a lot of people don’t realize, most of that was done by the railroad. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

LEE POLESKE: The original serum was at the hospital in Anchorage. KAREN BREWSTER: Right, and they got it to Nenana. LEE POLESKE: It was taken up to Nenana by rail. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And then from Nenana across -- from Kaltag to Nome, it was the Iditarod Trail.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. And then, the dog race was the next thing to use part of the trail. LEE POLESKE: Right, from Anchorage. KAREN BREWSTER: Anchorage or --

LEE POLESKE: Originally, it did start in -- really started in Anchorage. KAREN BREWSTER: Right, I know. I watched it when -- LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: -- it really started in downtown Anchorage. LEE POLESKE: And up to --

They originally were going to Iditarod, but there was nothing there. They said, "Why don’t we go to Nome?" KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: So they went to Nome. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. But --

LEE POLESKE: There was another -- I may interrupt, but being a Sewardite, they needed more serum, so they had it shipped up from Seattle. The ship Alameda landed here in Seward, of course. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And again, the railroad took that serum from Seward to Nenana, and then there was a second run across to Nome. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

But that one doesn’t get the publicity. LEE POLESKE: No, because it was -- KAREN BREWSTER: Was the second. LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

But Seward was involved in that one. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: We always -- KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

Well, again, before I started this project, I was not aware of, really, the historic trail coming from Seward to -- you know, over Crow Pass to Knik and out. LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Um, I think most Alaskans don’t know that.

LEE POLESKE: No. This is what -- this is one of our biggest -- I guess the Trail Blazers projects convinced people of that.

You know, we have the statues. We have signs. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Museum has -- the new museum also has an Iditarod section.

And we have the Mile 0 sign, which is very -- one of the most photographed things by tourists in town. The most photographed is the big anchor down in the small boat harbor. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right.

LEE POLESKE: But any time you’re walking along there, you'll see people. And, of course, the trail is the first mile, and we have -- you saw that sign. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: You took a picture of that little sign. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: We have those all the way out to Nash Road. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: We have those little signs.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right, and it’s now this bike path. That’s what the -- in town, what you’re talking about is the paved bike path along the water. LEE POLESKE: Yeah, but that is -- KAREN BREWSTER: That’s the trail.

LEE POLESKE: There is a memorandum of understanding between the Bureau of Land Management, which is the federal agency -- KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: -- in charge of the Iditarod Trail, and the City of Seward to preserve and protect the trail through the town of Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: So it is officially the Iditarod Trail.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. So how did you guys figure out that that’s the route that it -- the trail goes? LEE POLESKE: Oh, it just -- no one really knows. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: In fact, they would -- well, partly -- well, that was, uh -- they probably started downtown, to be honest. Even the original Iditarod Trail.

The railroad had gotten to Girdwood. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: When the trail was laid down. Goodwin, and they, you know, surveyed from Nome down. He actually -- the trail actually stopped at Girdwood. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: Because there was a railroad track.

KAREN BREWSTER: There was already a railroad? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. The railroad did go there, not Alaska Railroad.

And if -- where they could take the railroad. And not, just use the tracks for a trail, which they did. In those days, the railroad was pretty broke, and it didn’t run a lot. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: So they just used the tracks.

Uh, so where’s Mile 0? When Goodwin laid it down, he said Nome and Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: He didn’t say street number or anything. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: So, who knows? I have a theory. At that time, as I told you, the depot was at the end of Adams (Street). KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: That’s where people got on and off the trail. On and off the railroad. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: So I figure, maybe Goodwin got off there and said this is it. I don’t know.

Everybody’s got their -- the gold trains coming down, the sleds bringing the gold down, and, of course, much, great amount of money came down, they of course ended up at the bank. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: The old First National on Fourth Street.

Or Brown and Hawkins, who had a bank on Fourth Street. So they would’ve come in that way, across the lagoon and right down Fourth. Uh, which there was then.

So, you know, I don’t think anybody back then in 1910 was thinking about a historic trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: How do I get -- what’s the fastest way out of town? KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: What’s the easiest way into town? KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

And as you say, that they were deliver -- taking mail and supplies over to Hope and Sunrise.

Yeah, they would’ve gone from tidewater, where the ship brought all that stuff in? LEE POLESKE: Yeah, they -- Yeah. So they -- You know, that -- the ship -- the dock was right at the end of 4th Avenue. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: So it made sense to come up 4th. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: There was a -- at that time, too, Lowell Creek ran down what is now Jefferson Street. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, ok.

LEE POLESKE: But there were bridges across. Uh, it flooded a lot. But so, if they were trying to get downtown, they had to go across either 3rd or 4th Street.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, where the bridges were? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. And 4th was the main one. So they would’ve come down 4th Avenue. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: There’s no doubt of that.

KAREN BREWSTER: But you couldn’t put the -- LEE POLESKE: No. KAREN BREWSTER: -- the trail designation right down 4th Avenue? LEE POLESKE: No. You probably could’ve, but it wouldn’t have been practical. Uh, when this was laid out, we did -- this is going to be it. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: As we said, the original trail -- Both the highway and the park, and the train, railroad, were not prone to give us back the original route.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yes. Well, that -- Yeah, that -- And that’s why this southern section down here where the highway has covered so much. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Of what would’ve been trail originally, um, you guys have had to adjust to that.

LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Well, actually, you know, when you drive to Anchorage from Seward, the highway from Seward to Hope turnoff is pretty -- basically, I’m sure, was the dog trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: At that time. Yeah, well, that was, as I said, was put in the --

And this we owe a lot to Dan Seavey on that. The original agreement, the original plan. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: Was just to have a few signs up on the road. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And he pushed for an alternative trail. And that is in the agreement. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: That there will be an alternative trail from Seward to Girdwood.

KAREN BREWSTER: And so, for there to be an alternative trail means somebody has to go and mark a trail and build a trail -- LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: -- and decide where that trail is going?

LEE POLESKE: Right. It couldn’t be the original because the original was -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. So who has done that?

LEE POLESKE: The Trail Blazers. Actually, one of the main people was Lowell Ferguson. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: He was, uh, I don’t have it here. Uh, we --

I was trying to get some bridges officially named for him. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: They’ve been unofficial. This is Lowell. Somewhere here is Lowell.

KAREN BREWSTER: And he was a Seward -- LEE POLESKE: A Trail Blazer, yeah. He was a longtime man, did a lot of hunting, had tramped around all the woods here for years. (papers shuffling) Where did I put that?

And uh, was instrumental -- You never find things when you’re looking for them.

KAREN BREWSTER: You have great files on all this stuff.

LEE POLESKE: Well, this is what I’m going to send to the state for the naming. His picture’s in here somewhere. But anyway -- I may have taken it out 'cause I was re-doing these -- Yeah, I think I took it out. I was doing some revising.

But anyway, Lowell Ferguson was instrumental there. There’s some lakes on the trail by -- up from Bear Lake. We put a sign up years -- when he died in the '60’s, uh, Lowell Ferguson Lake. And uh, nobody’s ever contested it.

The bears tore ’em down a couple of times, but we put ’em back up. But we -- I’ve got the papers here, I’m going to submit to have them officially named. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: Lowell Ferguson Lakes.

And Dan also had done a lot of traveling. Hiking around and mountain climbing. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: Uh, and others. Fred Moore, who’s -- also did a lot of work. Have done a lot of tramping around the area.

We're -- And old timers who can remember, oh yeah, you know, it's -- People, I have to be honest with you, there's -- that was also the period when the Forest Service was burning cabins. KAREN BREWSTER: I don’t know about that.

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, in the '60’s. They wanted to get rid of the cabins in the forest. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And so, a lot of people who knew things wouldn’t talk to anybody. They were afraid. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But Lowell, who knew ’em, and they knew trusted him, and they could say, "Well, yeah, there is a trail there." They could point out some old trails.

So, uh, it was done. And as we said, they had a map, and it's -- basically that’s what the Forest Service had been working on, that trail. ’Cause it was the easiest way to go. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: We always pick the easiest way when it's -- KAREN BREWSTER: Yes.

LEE POLESKE: On a completely unrelated matter, I was reading a study, why do people and bears keep running into each other? Because they both tend to go the easiest way -- KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. EE POLESKE: -- there is to get some place.

KAREN BREWSTER: Of course. Of course. Well, you mentioned somebody in the local Forest Service office. LEE POLESKE: Pat O’Leary. KAREN BREWSTER: Pat O’Leary. And he was particularly --

LEE POLESKE: Oh, very helpful. Very supportive. But they still are. They’re all very supportive.

We just had a meeting with some of them. The -- one of them, and I don’t remember the name. He’s up in Anchorage. There’s some parking problems, the trail out of Bear Lake. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: In that area. And they’re planning -- I gave him -- they’re planning a -- KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, a -- LEE POLESKE: A parking area there. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: And we were meeting out there with them and residents of the area.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, I’m sure the people who live out there don’t --

LEE POLESKE: Well, there’s especially one gentleman, and I don’t blame him in the way that, you know, they block -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: -- his -- his way.

And anyway, they plow into the forest and set up a -- KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, so they’re setting up a parking area?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, there’s an area there, right off the trail. They’re going to have to cut a lot of trees. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: In fact, one of the people there at the meeting was a local Forest Service willing to do that. And so, there’s on-going -- that’s an on-going project, which the Trail Blazers will help with as much as they can.

And the Forest Service is dedicated. Once you get it down on paper. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Um, who -- they are really seriously dedicated to getting that done. And they have the plans.

KAREN BREWSTER: So they’ve been -- it’s been an important partnership for the Seward Trail Blazers? LEE POLESKE: Yes. KAREN BREWSTER: To have the Forest Service?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Oh, the Forest Service has been -- once they got hooked, let’s say, they have done tremendous amount of trail work, bridges.

And they, like many federal agencies, have plans. If any money comes along, it’s all ready to go, you know. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: They don’t have to -- they can be the first in line.

KAREN BREWSTER: So how did you get them hooked?

LEE POLESKE: Well, Pat O’Leary. Dan and Pat. Pat thought this was great, and he helped write the first grant to get some money to start on it.

And uh, they also -- they realized, this is a -- it’s a part of our job as Forest Service. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And they have changed. They have become more historically oriented, and they don’t burn cabins anymore.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. Well, and Pat you said was a recreation -- LEE POLESKE: Well, I can’t remember his exact title. KAREN BREWSTER: -- outdoor thing? LEE POLESKE: But he was the -- yeah.

He’s retired now, but he’s still active. In fact, he was at that meeting. And we had a meeting down here --

You know, as you mentioned, we were trying to -- we’re working on another project to get a statue of Alfred Lowell. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: Who was instrumental in work on the Iditarod Trail.

And the city and Pat -- Pat is still helping on that. So he’s still -- still actively interested in that. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: He’s retired, and he doesn’t live here continually anymore, but he’s always active. Once you get hooked on these things, you -- KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: -- you stay.

KAREN BREWSTER: It sounds like it. That your trail blazers group is really active.

LEE POLESKE: We -- one of the first big projects was the statue of the miner and his dog there about at the end of 4th Avenue.

KAREN BREWSTER: And why did you guys decide to do that?

LEE POLESKE: Because, as you mentioned, we constantly trying to convince or educate people that Seward is the start of the Iditarod Trail.

Uh, interesting -- I don’t know, have you heard of the iTREC project? KAREN BREWSTER: A little bit. Tell me more about it.

LEE POLESKE: Well, it’s involved, but it’s one of the best things I think the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance is doing. Iditarod Trail to Every Classroom. Judy Bittner. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And a lady from the Forest Service, whose name I don’t remember, were at one of those meetings in Washington.

A speaker from the Appalachian Trail was telling about a project they’re getting the schools involved, and they said, we’ve gotta do this.

So basically what it is, you -- now it’s being done virtually the last couple of years, but get teachers on schools along the trail to adapt -- to get, first of all, to get kids outside.

But to adapt -- to educate ’em about the trail, what their part of the trail.

And there was -- one of the first teachers were fr -- couple were Seward teachers. KAREN BREWSTER: Hm. LEE POLESKE: And they got involved in it.

They did clean-up of Scheffler Creek. Again, it doesn’t have to be the trail itself, but Scheffler Creek runs -- it’s where the little bridge is down there.

And they cleaned that up and had a meeting with people in the area to keep it clean. And it is a major fish -- that’s where the fish come in. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: That’s where the silvers are coming in to go up. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And there’s many other projects.

But when we came up with this idea for a statue, that teacher got a hold of Dan Seavey, said, "You got to involve the school on this." And we did.

The whole elementary school came down for the dedication. Down the Iditarod Trail. They walked down. KAREN BREWSTER: Hm. LEE POLESKE: From the school. And uh, we have that on -- I do have that on a -- I did a program on that, too. But they sang to start the dedication.

And by the way, it was completely an Alaska project. The stone he’s standing on, donated from a company across the bay. The bronze statue was made by Pat Garley up in Palmer. Bronze, fire -- iron -- fire bronze? Something like that, it's named. But anyway, Pat Garley made it, put it up.

Anyway, we had a dedication. The whole grade school was there. We had a very supportive music teacher at the time. And to open up, they sang "Alaska Flag." They knew the words, you know, very enthusiastic.

And then, uh, we had, you know, people introduce Pat and all that. And then at the end, they sang, "I Did The Iditarod." You know, Hobo's -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. Hobo Jim’s song. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. They sang -- Very enthusiastic. KAREN BREWSTER: Good.

LEE POLESKE: If we have some time later, I can -- I’ve got it somewhere here. Very enthusiastically sang that. And so, they were involved. That was --

Again, it growing out of the iTREC. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: They were involved.

Uh, and again, it was there to convince people that this -- ’cause everybody thinks it starts in Anchorage. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And one of the major -- not only the Trail Blazers, but of the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance, there’s the trail, and there’s the race. We’re not in competition. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: We work together.

But the trail is from Seward to Nome. The race, well, technically Anchorage to Nome. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And it keeps getting a little further north. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But, I mean, you know, we have given the Iditarod people a lot of money for trail work. Because the trail -- KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: -- is for both of us.

So we support them, and they have been very supportive, too, of helping us.

KAREN BREWSTER: Do you think having the dog race helped get the trail designated? LEE POLESKE: Oh, absolutely. Joe Redington, course, is well known for the race. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But he also was one of the driving forces between the designation as a trail, historic trail. As he said he wanted that there for his children and his grandchildren. The real trail.

So he was instrumental in getting that done. And it was the first National Historic Trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Uh.

KAREN BREWSTER: And was Dorothy Page involved? LEE POLESKE: Uh. KAREN BREWSTER: In the trail part? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Oh, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: I know she was in the race.

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, she -- she was involved. As I said, that's -- we had a meeting at her place, you know. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Talking about the trail. And this idea of having groups there.

Yeah, she was supportive in that, too. I think all the original were.

Well, they still are. I mean, the whole -- the whole -- all the race people. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Are very involved. And we understand each other.

But it is hard -- it’s very hard, to convince the two big -- the serum run, the race, and Seward sort of gets forgotten. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But we -- the original survey for the trail was done in 1908. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: January of 1908.

We had a centennial celebration here in January of 1908. Uh, 2008. Of course, it was a windy day, a little cold, but we had it down there at the Iditarod sign. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, Dan’s son, Mitch, uh -- Actually, he went -- well, anyway, he -- he set off with dogs from there. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: Just to, you know, to give the illusion of it. Governor Palin was down for it and spoke.

And we had a celebration, you know. We had talks about it. Uh, it was a celebration of the trail.

Anyway, that trail, the idea was a mail trail between Seward and Nome, because at that time, of course, as you know, everybody knows Nome is iced in all winter. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: The mail went up to Valdez, then taken up by the Richardson Trail to Fairbanks, then across from Fairbanks to Nome, which is a little -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Somebody said, you know, the old geometry principle, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: You could just go up from -- from Seward to Nome. Goodwin was involved in that, too, Walter Goodwin.

Uh, and he said, "You know, yeah, it’s feasible. The trail is feasible." But it wouldn’t be used much. It just isn’t worth the cost.

And then, on -- this one is an easy date to remember. Christmas Day, 19-oh-10. 8, I mean, I’m sorry. Christmas Day, 1908. John Beaton, William Dikeman, found gold on Otter Creek, in the Iditarod Country. KAREN BREWSTER: Ah.

LEE POLESKE: And then, a lot of people wanted to use it, get up there. And so, the trail was then.

Although it is a trail, went to Nome, most of the people, of course, were going -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: -- between Iditarod and Seward.

KAREN BREWSTER: And so, did Goodwin survey the whole trail? LEE POLESKE: Uh, he really didn’t do anything on the Peninsula because it was already here. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: You know, the trails and the railroad went to Girdwood. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: He surveyed from Nome to Girdwood. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: To be honest. Uh, they used the existing trails down here.

There were variations made over the years. And, as you know, trails constantly need -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: -- weeding and timber cut and realignment. So, you know, it was an ongoing project. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And then, of course, there were roadhouses. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: All along the trail. Uh, every 20, 25 miles. ’Cause a lot of people walked. KAREN BREWSTER: Really?

LEE POLESKE: Our miner, he’s setting out with his dog. A lot of people walked up. They could walk. That was nothing in those days, walk 20 miles. KAREN BREWSTER: Hm.

LEE POLESKE: I remember talking to people here in Seward. They walked up to Anchorage. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow. LEE POLESKE: Not all in one day, necessarily. KAREN BREWSTER: No.

LEE POLESKE: But they would stop here and there, visiting. They would walk. It was nothing. It was just the way you did things. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: You know?

Uh, but anyway, uh, the roadhouses were, of course, vital, and they had beds, more or less. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Some were better than others. Food.

Many of them had kennels for the dogs. And, you know, so you can walk 20 miles or so. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And the territory, at that, of course it was a territory, passed a law somewhere in there in 1911-12, that everybody had to sign in at a roadhouse. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

LEE POLESKE: Because, as happened, as everybody got -- things can happen on the trail. So they could say, "Ok, this -- we know he was here." KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right. LEE POLESKE: But he never signed in at the next trail house. So if we’re going to search, this is the area to search.

I was -- I’ve done a lot of -- one of the things the Trail Blazers did, they bought the microfilms of the Iditarod Pioneer newspaper for us. And so, I’ve gone through those.

I have a bunch of notebooks. I like paper, still. I usually print ’em out. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: People helped people. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: If someone was missing, a search party was sent out right away. They really did.

The Alaska spirit as we sometime -- but who knows. it could be me next time. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: So they really did search. And if they found a body, it was brought in for proper burial. I mean, it was a very coop --

I mean, when you got to the mining, maybe, it wasn’t as cooperative. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: ’Cause it’s amazing the amount of lawyers in Iditarod. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, really. LEE POLESKE: And there were, you know --

Anyway, but as far as helping people on the trail, everyone was always willing to help each other on the trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: So that -- that was one thing that really struck me, how that worked out.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Um, may I interrupt one -- ? LEE POLESKE: Yes. KAREN BREWSTER: Is, you’re tapping your hands on the table. If you could maybe try and avoid doing that? LEE POLESKE: I can avoid it.

KAREN BREWSTER: I’m sure it’s a habit you’re not even aware of. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: But it’s coming in on the microphone. So thank you.

Now, you have this document here in front of you. Is that the history of the Trail Blazers? LEE POLESKE: No, well. KAREN BREWSTER: From your PowerPoint presentation?

LEE POLESKE: What it is -- as I said, the title was, “Iditarod: Facts and a Fiction.” And it is the history of the Iditarod Trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: From the beginning.

The -- and the three groups that are with it, not necessarily their history, but what they do. The Trail -- the race committee, which really started it. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Started this whole thing. Got it interesting. The race committee, Iditarod Race Committee.

Then, the -- it was originally the Iditarod Historic Trail, Inc. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right. LEE POLESKE: Was the first name.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, it was the advisory council. LEE POLESKE: Well, the advisory council, but they had nothing to do with this. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: I mean, well, I mean, they -- they are the ones that agreed to have an alternative trail down here. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: But as Dan always said, about the only thing they ever did at a meeting was decide on when the next meeting was going to be. I’m sure he told you that.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. And so, I don’t want to get off subject here, so the three groups you’re talking about are -- ?

LEE POLESKE: And then the -- KAREN BREWSTER: Inc.? LEE POLESKE: Iditarod Trai -- Historic Iditarod Trail Alliance. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Now we changed our name. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And got a mission statement. That was one of Judy Bittner’s first things when she became president. Get that organized.

And then the Seward Trail Blazers. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: These are the three groups.

There are other groups, obviously, but for Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Which, of course, is the most important. That’s the three groups that we did.

And then, but, as -- why it, gold -- Well, let’s say, what killed the trail was the railroad and the airplane. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: As the railroad was built north, people took the railroad up. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Mail went up from -- up the railroad to Nenana and then across. Really, a new trail from -- a trail from Nenana to Iditarod.

And then, pretty soon, they wanted to come out. They took an airplane from Iditarod to Fairbanks, and rode the railroad down. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: So the trail between Seward, Iditarod, pretty well fell into disuse. The trail up in the north was continually used, still is today by people, from village to village. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: I mean, it’s an active --

KAREN BREWSTER: It’s their road between villages. LEE POLESKE: It’s their road. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: That’s why those shelter cabins are so vital up there. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: But the rest -- and, of course, Iditarod and Flat are ghost towns and disintegrating. Uh, so all that -- but anyway, that’s the -- that’s what the historic trail is involved in, trying to preserve the -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: -- the original trail.

Another very, very important project the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance did, way back -- Jim Palin, he was the governor’s father-in-law, by the way, Governor Palin’s son. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, came up with the idea -- you know, this is another thing most people don’t -- Most of the trail is on state land. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: It’s a federal trail, so a federal agency is in charge, which is the Bureau of Land Management, but they only own a couple of little chunks here and there.

And he -- using money -- we get money from the trail, the Bureau of Land Management, and to cooperate the state to set up an easement project to secure easements on the whole trail from Nome to Seward.

A lot had been done in the Seward area, and they were set up. The only area where there aren’t any easements in some places is down in the Matanuska Valley, which, you know, it’s grown so fast. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: That things which everybody assumed would always be there, aren’t, you know. Well, we always went that way. There was that big lawsuit a few years ago, uh, where the trail went through what was a homestead. KAREN BREWSTER: Mm. LEE POLESKE: And they had been doing it for years, and then the man died, and his daughters, who don’t even live here, they live in California, put up No Trespass signs.

Actually, it went to court. The state got involved, said, this is a part of the historic trail. And it went to court, and the state won. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

LEE POLESKE: They have the right. They didn’t want the land. That belongs to them. KAREN BREWSTER: They wanted the right to cross? LEE POLESKE: But the right of way. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And the court -- And it went to the State Supreme Court. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

LEE POLESKE: And they said, there is an historic easement. People have been using that long enough that they have established an easement on that trail.

KAREN BREWSTER: That’s a hard case to win. Those don’t -- LEE POLESKE: It is. KAREN BREWSTER: -- happen very often. LEE POLESKE: No, they -- but there was a lot of people in the area.

So I remember, we went on that trail in the, you know, '50’s. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: The '40’s, the '50’s.

Which was a -- it's a -- it’s a -- it's a, you know, a landmark case. And again, the state and their argument, this is an integral part of the Iditarod Trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow. LEE POLESKE: And they won.

The only thing the Supreme Court said, they thought some of the lawyer fees were a little high, but -- So they told ’em to go back and look over that. Because the losers also had to pay the court costs. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And they had the money. It’s unbelievable. The two girls, they --

KAREN BREWSTER: And so that, the state was able to win because the historic trail has been marked and identified on maps?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, well, basically they won because many people, mushers, could testify that that was a part of the Iditarod Trail. It had always been a part of the trail. We had been using that as a dog trail for years. We’ve always recognized it as a part.

So it was the memory -- and you do, if you go across an area for so many years, nobody stops you, you have a right of way.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. Yeah, but it’s very hard to prove. LEE POLESKE: Yes, it is, but they had still people who could prove it. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, right. LEE POLESKE: They had been there for years. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And they could testify that Joe Redington had said this, and you know. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: So they, yeah it is hard to prove. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow. LEE POLESKE: But they proved it, and they got the right of way.

KAREN BREWSTER: And so, this project from Jim Palin? LEE POLESKE: Yeah, well he started the idea. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: The state hired some people, and they -- when they started coming back, they reduced it, but there’s still money setting there in a pot to do it.

But as I said, they did everything. I think there was about 200 miles in the Matanuska Valley, which is just such a maze, you know, of new developments. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: That it’s very hard.

It’s interesting. I was just reading the Appalachian Trail is having problems, too. Some of the trails up there.

It was, as I said, it used to be a handshake. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And now, new owners say, you can’t go through my -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

So it’s a lot of with private land owners? LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: It’s getting an easement on private land? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. The right to go through there. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Again, you’re not taking their property.

Where there’s -- and most of it is on state land, so there’s no problem there. The state -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: So very little is on private land. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: But even the state, you know. KAREN BREWSTER: You have to formally -- LEE POLESKE: Formally say, this is it. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: It has to be formal. You gotta get things in writing. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: That’s like, even in Seward, we have it in writing, an agreement between the city, which they have to remind ’em every once in a while that they do have it.

We have a formal agreement that the City of Seward is committed to this trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: Through Seward to preserve and to protect the historic.

And, you know, these have been.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, well, also in management plans and things, that to say -- LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: -- you know, if somebody asks for a permit to do something, they can say, well no that -- LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: You can’t do it right there 'cause there’s a trail, historic trail.

LEE POLESKE: They tried, also, and there’s attempts to -- to have -- I think -- I can’t -- what they call ’em now, but so many feet from the trail preserved.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. Yeah, a corridor. Yeah. LEE POLESKE: Yeah, a corridor. That is not always possible. To be honest. It isn’t.

The Forest Service is very good about it, as much as they can. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, well, I think things like the bike path. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: You can’t do -- you can’t do things someplace. And even in town here, no one has ever suggested that. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But so there are -- You are right, there -- Once you got it in writing, then it’s amazing. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

So were you involved on the advisory council? When did you first -- ? LEE POLESKE: No, I had absolutely nothing to do with it.

KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. When did you first get involved?

LEE POLESKE: Well, I got involved in the Trail Blazers ’cause of Dan. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. In ’80? LEE POLESKE: And he got -- historical society, you know, we -- and then, I was interested because it was a new exhibit in the museum.

Uh, my main -- I’ll be honest, my main interest in those days was the museum. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But I -- You know, so I had nothing to do with tramping around and looking for a trail.

KAREN BREWSTER: But you did a lot of the historic research? LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah. Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: It’s fascinating. I -- I’ve -- a whole new area opened up to us. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, well, as I said, I had nothing to do with the advisory board. I remember Dan talking about it once in a while. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: But I had nothing to do with that.

But then when the, you know, the Historic Trail, Inc. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Was organized or going to be organized, I had a phone call from Greg Bill, who was the ad -- ad man for the race. You know, he got the sponsorships.

He was the man that raised money for the -- KAREN BREWSTER: For the sled dog race? LEE POLESKE: Sled dog race. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: The Alliance, as I -- well, I'll say the Alliance because that’s what it is now. Has one seat on the board is reserved for a person from the race committee. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: He was the man at that time. Called me up and said, "Dan Seavey suggested that you take the post."

The Alliance also, board seats are by area. There's -- One seat is reserved for a Kenai Peninsula person, you know. And Matanuska-Susitna, and so on, up the trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: That you take -- go be our representative for the Kenai Peninsula. I said, "What do I have to do?" He said, "Well, send us $20 for membership." And I did.

And I always remember, I -- Dan may have told you this about the first -- Dan somehow finagled them into that the official mailbox is here in Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: For the group.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, really. For the Alliance? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: Still is.

KAREN BREWSTER: How did that happen? LEE POLESKE: Dan. Dan Seavey. Some talked him into it, I guess. Uh, I pick it up, send up what we have to.

Anyway, so the original ballots and so on came here. And we were going to the first meeting, it was sometime in November, and he was just in his regular car, and we couldn’t make it up Mile 12 hill because of ice. KAREN BREWSTER: Mm.

LEE POLESKE: So we had to pull over. We had cell phones back then. We called Anchorage. They were meeting in some hotel, I don’t remember what, but anyway, he had a phone number.

Saying we might be a little late, we’re waiting for the sand truck. Which actually, I think about 20 minutes we sat there. Sand truck came, and we got there.

And I don’t remember the hotel, but we were in a room, uh, all strangers to me except Dan, of course. And then, that’s where I met Leo Rasmussen. He was presiding. Uh, Greg Bill was there, was introduced. And other people. Most aren't on the board.

Well, actually, the only two original people left on the board are Dan and myself. Uh, it’s been a while. But anyway.

Organized. Leo was president, was going to be president. I can’t remember. I just remember, they said -- well, asked if I wanted to be treasurer, and I said no, ’cause I’m very nervous around money, you know.

But anyway, we elected, and I guess -- I was -- I will have to be honest, I think the first three or so years was -- none of us really knew what to do. What were we doing? KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: What was the purpose?

And the Forest -- you know, we -- the Bureau of Land Management was our federal agency. They weren’t too sure of what was being done, either.

And they didn’t have -- they had a person, a very nice guy whose name I do not remember, but it was a part time deal with him, you know. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: But he was very helpful, as much as he could. He was really a very nice man.

And everybody on the board was, you know, wanted to do -- you know. Well, we knew the general purpose was to preserve and publicize the trail. But how do we do it? How do we -- well, how do we get money?

How do we get members? That was really the first -- one of the first things. How do we get members? Uh, and some people had mailing lists. Uh, came up with them.

I remember, I think it was the second meeting. It was -- nothing had been sent out. There was three or four of us, met up in Girdwood, and that came up. And I volunteered to help on that.

And they gave us the names, and we sent ’em out from here, you know.

KAREN BREWSTER: So people had mailing lists from other organizations? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Yeah, that they would use. The -- and I don’t blame ’em. The Iditarod race people will not give out their membership list. And I don’t blame ’em. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: I hate it when I get junk mail which I know came from some group I joined. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But others did, and so we did send out -- and I, you know, our membership’s been around a hundred, up and down. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: We keep fighting. We keep working at it. Keep working at it.

KAREN BREWSTER: And what’s the role of having members for the Alliance?

LEE POLESKE: Well, first -- well, support. The idea was -- they can be anywhere. They're -- A lot of them are, of course, are out of state. Own state. Uh, support for the trail. Interest in the trail. Publicity for the trail.

And I guess, too, you just know you’re not alone. There are people out there who care about the trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And that’s -- the iTREC project has brought a lot of people in.

KAREN BREWSTER: Do you ever call on the membership for an advocacy, like, call your congressperson for this issue or -- ?

LEE POLESKE: We do. We don’t really sell -- I do the newsletter. And if there’s something going, I always say, you know, this is before Congress or something, and you know.

I am somewhat skeptical sometimes of how much that works with -- KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: But our congressional delegation has been very supportive. ’Cause let’s face it --

One thing we keep bringing up -- and Seward has done this forever. I’ve brought this up. I had a meeting -- Last night I spoke to a group about the history of Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: Seward always has the ability to see a way to profit from things. I’ll be honest.

And they saw -- the Iditarod Trail, they -- very honestly, they sent out -- they advertise for it. "Go to the trail through Seward. You can just come to Seward. You don’t have to bring anything with you. Everything you need, you can buy in Seward." You know. "Come to Seward." They saw it as a way to make money.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, a tourist destination.

LEE POLESKE: The trail is still that. You know, you've heard of the Long Trail project? KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Is it being pushed as a tourist -- as an economic thing. Like the Appalachian Trail. It’ll bring people. People bring money. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: There’s a little spiel in the local newspaper at the time. They said, you know, this is a great thing. Money comes in, and it stays here. They pay us. You know, ’cause sometimes they stayed for a hotel. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: They said, you can -- Seward is a great place. If you can’t go right away, we have restaurants. We have a hospital. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: We have churches. You can go to church. Uh, and then, you know, go on.

So hopefully, they would stay a day or two. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: At a hotel. Buy something. Uh, hire a guide. You know, anyway, just -- it was a financial thing.

And then the mail -- uh, Seward saw themselves, too, as -- it never worked out, but as the center for the mail would go up -- KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right. LEE POLESKE: -- to Nome, and spread out all over. It never really worked there.

Again, eventually the airplanes killed a lot of that stuff. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: And the railroad. And the railroad.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. So you mentioned the congressional delegation. Did you -- LEE POLESKE: Has been very supportive.

KAREN BREWSTER: Did you ever go to Washington, D.C., and -- ? LEE POLESKE: No.

Uh, there have been, people. Judy, I know, has gone, and others have gone over the years. I’m not a -- not much of a traveler.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. And then what about -- so you didn’t go to any of the national meetings? LEE POLESKE: No. I -- KAREN BREWSTER: I forgot to ask Dan about that. Oh well.

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, I have not. I go -- We -- well, we didn’t meet last year, and again this year the local -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: The Alliance is a virtual meeting. Go to Anchorage. I’m willing to go to Anchorage. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Beyond that, I’m just not much into it.

KAREN BREWSTER: So tell me about the newsletter. That’s a newsletter you do for the Alliance?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, it was -- It came about, again, at that meeting where we didn’t know what -- nothing had been sent out. And I did a -- did a -- still do a newsletter for the Trail Blazers. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, just a minute here. And I said, "Well, I do it anyway."

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, I was wondering if you have two different newsletters? LEE POLESKE: Yeah, the Trail Blazers is my main one, of course.

’Cause I said, well, a lot of things are the same. Uh, oh, there’s Lowell. I knew I had one. Lowell Ferguson. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

LEE POLESKE: That’s an old one. But that’s the Trail Blazer newsletter. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: When he died, we put that in there, and we tried to -- we’re working on getting that named.

Anyway, this was -- it’s a -- just a -- on both -- this is the back. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Uh.

KAREN BREWSTER: I’m going to take a picture of this afterwards.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, take -- and back of it. Uh, somewhere I have a picture of Lowell. A color. Well, this is the black and white. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: Well, I just had a black and white printer at that time. Actually, I think I did this at the school. Before I had a -- I can’t remember. What’s the date on that? KAREN BREWSTER: It’s 2003. LEE POLESKE: Ok, that was mine. Yeah.

Uh, when I started this, I didn’t have a computer, but I could use one at school. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, and anyway, I was doing this one way back. I got my -- I didn’t start it. I think Hightower did -- did -- typed out one or two, and then someone else did it for a year or so, didn’t want to keep doing it.

And so Dan -- you notice, when I get into something, I always mention Dan Seavey. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Which is good.

He said, "You want to do it?" And I’ve been doing it ever since. Once a month.

Well, we don’t -- I don’t put it out in July and August. July, anyway.

KAREN BREWSTER: Um, and so ever since is -- do you have an idea of when you started doing it? LEE POLESKE: Well, it’d probably be in the '90’s. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: I have ’em stored away here.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, that’s good that someone has them archived. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Uh, it was -- well, why this is, uh, this way, we use this for the address, you know. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right. You have to fold, the tri-fold thing, yeah. LEE POLESKE: Yeah, fold.

But the post office -- and we just had a piece of tape on them. Post office told us we couldn’t do that anymore. So now, I put a whole page and put ’em in an envelope and -- KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: I still, ’cause I like -- KAREN BREWSTER: Paper. Yeah, you don’t do digitally? LEE POLESKE: No, but the Alliance --

Well, I used to send ’em out. I don’t really want to do this. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: But no one else wanted to do the newsletter, so we reached a compromise.

I do the newsletter. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: I print a copy and put a copy on a disk. I send it up to Anchorage, and we’ve had a -- we share a secretary with the Alaska Preservation Society up there, something like that. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: And they, then -- and the members have a choice, email or paper. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: I think most of them take paper. I take paper. I still like paper. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And they do all that. But they learned one thing, interesting enough. Membership response was very weak on email. KAREN BREWSTER: Hm.

LEE POLESKE: So membership reminder goes out to mail to everyone.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, well, not everybody has email. LEE POLESKE: That’s true. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But email -- but it was interesting, even those emailed need to -- but that’s all done in Anchorage. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: I just -- I send it up to Judy. She gives it to whoever it is, I don’t know. And they do it.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. But your Seward Trail Blazer one?

LEE POLESKE: That I do all. I run it off here, put it in envelopes, and send it off.

KAREN BREWSTER: And your Seward Trail Blazer membership, is that all Seward people, or -- ? LEE POLESKE: Oh, no. Well, mostly. No, not all. Mostly, but we have several in Anchorage.

Well, Judy Bittner is a member. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: And Kevin Keeler and others.

And there’s some Outside people who have moved Outside or uh, there’s a couple of people used to work for the Forest Service, got interested. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And they keep the interest.

And some people who are up here as -- oh, I gave you the brochure there. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: They see these brochures, there's a -- it says if you want to join. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right.

LEE POLESKE: And we do get -- we have about -- I think, I’ve sent ’em off -- I think there’s about a dozen out of state. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

LEE POLESKE: And probably about, we have -- I've sent out 60 now. Sixty. We have 60. KAREN BREWSTER: Sixty that you goes -- LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And how often do you do the Seward Trail Blazers? LEE POLESKE: Every month except July. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

So the Alliance and the Trail Blazers? LEE POLESKE: The Alliance is 12 months.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. But every month for both of those. That’s a lot. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Uh, the -- what was I -- I lost my train of thought there.

KAREN BREWSTER: What goes into the -- LEE POLESKE: Oh. Well, one thing I put in, I put it in both of ’em. Because I start -- I used to --

I got started in newsletters with the Resurrection Bay Historical Society. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: I don’t do that anymore.

I always would put in a section called, “From the Past,” a quote from an old newspaper. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Something of interest, you know.

And I do the same with these. With -- I did that with ours. I’d always have a quote from the Anchorage paper, and then when we got, um, the microfilms of the Iditarod paper, I did the same.

Like here, this one. Well, and I do that also in the Iditarod. I, here, you know, "From the Past, Seward Weekly Gateway". And it was a -- in 1909, “Iditarod Goldfields May Rival Klondike.” “Seward, the Gateway to the Iditarod.” KAREN BREWSTER: Hm, perfect.

LEE POLESKE: So -- And always have a thing from the past. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Then, if there’s anything, like you know, the governor first put money in the budget for for helping finance the Long Trail, and then he vetoed it, that goes in. The stories about the Long Trail, I pilfer a lot from -- you’ve heard of Alaska Trails, the statewide organization? KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: I always go through their newsletters. And anything of interest to us, I put in there.

Uh, I also, I get the Partnership for National Trails Alli -- National Trails. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: I get that newsletter, or their magazine. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And find things of interest there. Or just things of, trails other places.

I -- it had absolutely nothing to do with us, but I read an interesting article in the paper about, one of the problems on trails in Switzerland is there’s cows. The cattle are just turned loose in the summer. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, right.

LEE POLESKE: And they get very possessive. And people have actually been killed. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow. LEE POLESKE: By cows. They’re protecting their calves.

And so anyway, they have signs all around, "Beware of the cows." KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right. LEE POLESKE: We say, "Beware of the bears." KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: I mean, it has nothing to do with it, but it was interesting. I thought -- KAREN BREWSTER: It’s fun. LEE POLESKE: Yeah, it’s a fun thing. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: You know, so little news tidbits.

KAREN BREWSTER: So it’s more than just about the Iditarod Historic Trail? LEE POLESKE: Yeah, well, its -- mainly we’re pushing the Seward aspect. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And the things that we -- our meetings, and then, you know, what’s going on in the museum 'cause they have been doing a new exhibit.

And what the Iditarod Alliance is doing. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: You know, so it -- to keep 'em informed of what’s going on.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. So how often does your Trail Blazers group meet? LEE POLESKE: Well, we did. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Until last year, meet every month except during the summer. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: ’Cause everything stops in the summer. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Because we’re all busy.

Well, I’m not, but most people are busy making money. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: So we did not meet. But we did not meet at all last year. We had a couple of short meetings down at the pavilion I pointed out to you earlier. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. You could be outside.

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, to be outside. We did meet there for some important things that had to be settled. Uh, Dan is talking about getting going again this --

KAREN BREWSTER: So what’s so important for the Trail Blazers, something that has to be settled?

LEE POLESKE: Well, there was again, the Forest Service was asking about some alternative trails around the Turnagain -- around Ptarmigan. To coming down toward the Snow River.

There were two or three, and which one was the Trail Blazers, and if we would advise them on some of these things. And Dan and Fred Moore know those.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: We said, you know, you know what you’re talking about, don’t worry about it.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, it’s nice that they ask. LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah. Yeah. They again -- KAREN BREWSTER: That’s a good relationship.

LEE POLESKE: We cannot stress enough, the Forest Service have been extremely supportive. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And the Bureau of Land Management, Kevin Keeler has been very, very good. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, good.

LEE POLESKE: Very positive. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, I don’t know about the other parts of the trail, if they’ve had the same positive -- LEE POLESKE: I don’t -- Well again, I -- I admit, I’m a little provincial on that. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: I know the Nome Kennel Club has been extremely active, getting that state, all state land. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And there was a Knik Trail Blazers for a while, but that sort of died out. But that’s a very big dog mushing area. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: So they are interested.

Uh, Alaskans are not always joiners. KAREN BREWSTER: No. Um. LEE POLESKE: To be honest.

KAREN BREWSTER: But, you know, if it’s a part of the trail that you use, and it’s important to you, then they do speak up.

LEE POLESKE: Oh, yes. They are very vocal in the Valley. ’Cause they are having a lot of problems. I used to go this way, and now there’s a house there. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Right.

LEE POLESKE: Or they’re gonna build a road there. What’s that going to do to us?

KAREN BREWSTER: And so, do you think the Alliance has been successful in its public education efforts?

LEE POLESKE: No, not completely. I mean, this -- I -- it was very frus -- I sat at a museum desk for years. People walk in, walking in, "Oh yeah, that Idita -- that all started with that run -- that serum run."

It’s still -- or I stand down by the statue. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: Watching tourists. Someone, "Oh, I thought that all started in Anchorage." ’Cause the race is what they’re talking about. Not the trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: It’s an ongoing thing. It’s a never-ending thing. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: That’s why we put out that pamphlet. But I know -- which is very popular. The Chamber of Commerce told me it’s one of their most popular. In fact, I ran out this summer. This winter.

We’re getting a new one put out. I think I’ve said that already. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But the Chamber went through hotels. I had to -- I checked every week, and sometimes they were empty. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow. LEE POLESKE: And so, it is very popular.

There is a program, it might mention on there. If you have the thing handy. KAREN BREWSTER: The brochure, yeah. LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

They started this -- the Bureau of Land Management started it. There is a stamp, you know, the National Trails has that passport program?

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, that, yeah, the Park Service Passport thing? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. They’ve also started that for the trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, ok.

LEE POLESKE: And they could get -- that’s why there’s a blank here. They can get a stamp down at the Kenai Fjords building. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. LEE POLESKE: Saying Mile 0.

They go by the trail miles. This is where you get Mile 0. I think there’s 20 of them all the way up to Nome. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: So that’s a part of it. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, ok.

LEE POLESKE: I used -- when I always give them out, I say, "Now you gotta be honest. You gotta walk the trail." But I think most of them get the thing, go down -- KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: Say, would you stamp this? KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, cool.

LEE POLESKE: So that’s another little incentive.

KAREN BREWSTER: That’s a good way to get a little public attention. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Yeah. The iTREC program has helped, too.

But once something gets embedded in people’s minds, it’s very hard to un-embed it, you know.

Uh, the race people also, they know. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: That it was not the serum run, it was the All Alaska Sweepstakes. And they know that. And they keep saying that. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And I don’t know, have you seen the book, "The First Ten Years?" KAREN BREWSTER: No. LEE POLESKE: It’s a book put out by some of the original Iditaroders. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, ok.

LEE POLESKE: A nice, big, thick, beautiful book. And they have a whole section. It is based on the All Alaska Sweepstakes. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, ok.

LEE POLESKE: So I mean, it isn’t something that isn’t constantly -- They -- The race people keep saying it. We keep saying it. But, you know, things get stuck in people’s minds, and it’s hard to change it. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: That’s one of our -- we just keep plugging away.

KAREN BREWSTER: Um, are there things you think the Alliance has been successful at?

LEE POLESKE: Well, the easement project was good. And the iTREC. It’s kept going. They’re doing it viral (means virtual) now, and actually it -- they may -- they -- instead of a class, actual in-person classes, they’re doing webinars. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: So that can expand. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: You know, much further. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, although it was nice. They would -- they had three meetings together. First, they would meet in Anchorage to get organized. Then they met here in the fall, and Dan and I would always talk to them and took them around.

And then they had a meeting in the spring in Nome. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: You know, but that hasn’t happened for a couple years. So they would get an idea of the different --

Uh, there’ve been a lot of projects. In Anchorage, a lot of projects, not always with the trail, but, I mean, they revived -- one school, they revived a park that was sort of deserted. Uh, got that going and got that active.

Uh, one, was it Rod Perry, was an old musher, went to an elementary school there in Anchorage. How to build a tripod. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

LEE POLESKE: 'Cause they built it in, 19 -- I don’t know how he got the principal to go along with this one. You know, with all just tools from 1910. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, cool.

LEE POLESKE: And they built one and donated it to the, um, Iditarod Race headquarters, to put it out there. So I mean, there’s all kinds of projects.

And we had the Scheffler Creek project here to clean up the creek. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And get people along it to promise to keep it clean. And, uh, sign put up by the bridge over at Scheffler Creek. Why -- who is Scheffler? He was a homesteader here.

You know. And there are many others around. Uh, lot of them, they -- one really big project in Wasilla, they did a -- (siren in the background)

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, what’s that? LEE POLESKE: That is not the noon, or -- that -- they must --

KAREN BREWSTER: Is that an emergency alarm? Didn’t sound like a fire truck or anything. LEE POLESKE: No. Somebody must have made a mistake.

KAREN BREWSTER: It’s not the tsunami warning system? LEE POLESKE: They come on with a voice. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, in Wasilla, they built a miniature Iditarod Trail from -- it ends at their museum.

And all along, they have a sign, ok. At this point, you would be at mile so-and-so, at this point you would be -- so when you walk -- I think it’s a mile or so. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: But it’s a re-creation of the Iditarod Trail with signs along telling you where you would be. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: That was one of the -- that was an I --

KAREN BREWSTER: That was an iTREC project? LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, that’s cool. LEE POLESKE: And again, they stressed to get the community involved. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And a lot -- people donated shrubbery for the thing, you know, and people donated a sign. Money -- gave money to get the signs up. KAREN BREWSTER: Cool.

LEE POLESKE: So they do. And that’s what, you know, the -- here. They got the grade school down. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: That was an iTREC teacher's. You gotta get the kids involved. That’s our purpose, and they will learn.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, that -- that one in Wasilla you just said reminds me of those walks people do with the solar system. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: And they put up where the different planets would be. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: And it’s the mileage equivalent of billions of things, and -- LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: That’s a great idea for the Iditarod.

LEE POLESKE: Yeah. No, it is. Uh, so, I mean, there are -- And then, of course, now here, you know, we have our statues.

But each statue has an interpretive sign, and if people take time to read it. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Says the history, you know. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Both the pioneer, and then the Wada one, Alfred, if we get that up, will be the same.

Uh, so we keep -- and we have the pamphlet. And the Alliance, we keep -- All you can do is just keep trying. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And I think we’ve convinced some people anyways, along the line.

KAREN BREWSTER: Are there things that you would like to see the Alliance do in the future, or that you wished they have done and haven’t?

LEE POLESKE: I’ll be honest, I -- as I said, I think that easement project and the iTREC project have been very positive. I think the -- we also --

Another little project that’s coming, it will be out soon, is a children’s book. You know, the Forest Service has a child guide. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: Child ranger.

KAREN BREWSTER: Like, Junior Ranger? LEE POLESKE: Junior Ranger. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, yeah.

LEE POLESKE: They’re going to do the same thing for the Iditarod. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: We’ve hired a woman. We’ve gone through it several times with criticism and so on. That should be out soon.

KAREN BREWSTER: And that’s an Alliance project? LEE POLESKE: That’s an Alliance project. So there’ll be a Junior -- I’m not sure what they’re going to call them, but a Junior Iditaroder or something. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And it’s being well done. It’s a lady who has been involved in that sort of thing Outside, and she has -- is as well. We -- And they did -- they sent it -- they’ve sent it to us, all the Alliance, and see if we can make corrections. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: Which, I could. KAREN BREWSTER: Yes.

LEE POLESKE: Kinda tell them some of the things about Seward. It always bugs me. The -- they -- you were talking about how it got started, you know, the railroad.

Ballaine chose Seward as it was trying to win the -- well, he didn’t choose Seward. There was no Seward here. KAREN BREWSTER: Ah. LEE POLESKE: He chose Resurrection Bay. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: As the start for the railroad, and he founded the City of Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And ran into one problem. When he asked for a post office, they wouldn’t give him one because there was a Seward down in Southeast, and one over in Bristol Bay. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: A mining camp and a fish camp. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Ballaine was a big in Republican politics down in Washington state. He contacted President Theodore Roosevelt and said, "This city I’m founding is going to be the metropolis of the Pacific. It deserves the name."

And Roosevelt said, put that in writing and bring it back. And he did. Roosevelt wrote on it, I agree with Mr. Ballaine, TR. He said, take this to the post office. He took it to the post office, and he had the Seward Post Office.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, it was a good thing he named it Seward, that he didn’t want to call it Ballaine, after himself.

LEE POLESKE: Oh no, he never -- It was a professor, I think, down in Seattle that came. One name you -- it was, oh god, I can’t think of it now. It was a sort of a combination of Alaska and it was some weird names.

But it was a professor down in Seattle who said, name it in honor of William H. Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: And he did.

There is a bust of Seward there by the First National Bank. That was another centennial project. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. LEE POLESKE: Seward centennial project in 2003.

KAREN BREWSTER: Now, Dan mentioned that you and he have given this sort of presentation around. He called it the "dog and pony show." LEE POLESKE: Yeah, I know.

KAREN BREWSTER: Can you talk -- LEE POLESKE: No, we have. KAREN BREWSTER: -- about that? LEE POLESKE: Well, basically, we did it, you know, for iTREC, and we did -- we did, I know, Hope, Girdwood, others, up in Anchorage once, too.

I have a -- at that time, shows when it just got started. It was a slide show. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: You remember slide shows? KAREN BREWSTER: Yes, I remember slide shows.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, of the history of the Iditarod Trail. About a half an hour. And then, Dan would talk about the race. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And uh, we would answer questions about it and promote the -- both our own and the Alliance. And at most of the places, we also pushed that they -- it would be nice if at like Girdwood, would organize a trail blazer, and so on.

So we -- and we always did it for the iTREC meeting up in Anchorage, the first one. Eventually, it became a PowerPoint. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: I do keep up with some things.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, I was going to say, yes, you do have a computer and --

LEE POLESKE: And one, oh, another good thing we had, and educational. Dan suggested it. And it came out of our Seward centennial. We hired someone to do a video of the history of Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: Did an excellent job. Excellent job. Dan said, "Why don’t we hire him to do a history of the Iditarod Trail? A video." KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And they agreed. And we did. To sell, and here in Seward. Last summer not, but every -- this summer and past summers, they show it at the library. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: The library association put together one on the earthquake. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: So they’re both shown. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: The Iditarod, history of the Iditarod Trail, which is basically what we had done. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And the history of the earthquake. Because it’s city property -- the library is city property now, and the people in the library are city employees, city ordinance say that if there is a money-raising project in a city building by city employees, all the money goes into the general fund.

So, but they have been willing to turn a blind eye if we ask for donations. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: So we ask for donations.

And it is split between -- Well, during the week, the library shows it. So the library gets a third of the money, we get a -- the Alliance gets a third of the money, and the library association gets a third of the money. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: ’Cause they own the rights to the earthquake one. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Sunday, the Resurrection Bay Historical Society shows it. And again, it’s split. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But instead of the library association, it’s -- no, instead of the library, the historical society gets that third. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Uh, we have done it -- even this year, we made a little over, I think around $1200. Our cut. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Usually, it’s been more than that. KAREN BREWSTER: That’s not bad.

LEE POLESKE: So that's -- that is something which is seen by a lot of people. They do keep track. I don’t have the figures here. They do keep track of how many. It’s several thousand every year.

So those people at least get the information. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: That this -- the history of the trail.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, I’ve seen that video. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: And you’re in it. LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And I’ve seen that, and I wondered who the audience was for that video and the distribution of it.

LEE POLESKE: Well, it is sold. We sell it at the museum. And the Alliance, as they call ’em, pop-up meetings. Anything like the send-off for the race, you know, at Wasilla. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: They have tables. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: People are sell -- we peddle it there. We -- we have it on our website to buy. We sold ’em at the -- when we had our Trail Days meetings at the pavilion. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: We sold ’em here in Seward. People -- Uh, so, I mean, any -- we’ve -- I don’t know how many we have left. I don’t have any left here. KAREN BREWSTER: Hm.

LEE POLESKE: I sold the last of them to the Resurrection Bay Historical Society to sell at the museum. But, I mean, I know there’s still many up in Anchorage or something. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Ok. LEE POLESKE: But it’s sold and given away, too.

KAREN BREWSTER: So you feel that was a good project?

LEE POLESKE: Oh, it was. It was. I think it was an excellent project. It has gotten, you know -- I mean just here in Seward, just in Seward, I can’t remember how many years we’ve been showing it, but literally thousands of people have seen it. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And hopefully have learned something about it. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: It is very popular. Very popular. I have been stopped on the trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: Say, "Weren’t you in that?" KAREN BREWSTER: Ah, right. Well, you’re famous now. Yeah.

Um, I’m just looking through my questions here, if there’s anything else that I specifically wanted to ask you.

A lot of it’s about the council, which you weren’t involved in. LEE POLESKE: No, I had nothing to do with that.

KAREN BREWSTER: Um, and the Alliance doesn’t -- does the Alliance have anything to do with decisions about how the trail is managed? Like, what BLM does in terms of giving permits or things like that?

LEE POLESKE: No, not really. No. It is -- the BLM is the federal government in charge. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: The federal agency that is in charge.

As I said, we have given them money. Well, we haven’t given them money. Uh, we’ve given money to the race people to do work.

And sometimes there are things that the federal government cannot do, but if they give the Alliance money, the Alliance can do it. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: You know. So we work well together. We do. We really have over the years, developed a good relationship there. Uh, between all three of the groups, really. KAREN BREWSTER: Hm. LEE POLESKE: The Bureau of Land Management, the Alliance, and the race people.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. And have you been involved in any of those part -- creating partnerships?

LEE POLESKE: No. To be honest, no. I mean, I went to the board meetings where we talked with the management.

But first of all, we have no say in the Bureau of Land Management. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: They decide what they’re going to do, and that’s it. I mean, you can suggest, but you can’t -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: -- you know.

Uh, they’re always open to suggestions. They have -- were very cooperative. I have no complaint whatsoever about ’em. KAREN BREWSTER: Good.

LEE POLESKE: I know, it’s -- all Alaskans like to complain about the federal government. It’s sort of a standard thing. But they have done an excellent job. I have no complaints.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, good. Um, there was something else I was just going to -- I just saw here. I was going to ask you about. Uh.

LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah, I just thought of something. KAREN BREWSTER: Go ahead.

LEE POLESKE: You know, when they have -- in Anchorage, they always have a thing at the science center, when the -- The race people. they -- they have a -- they start -- you know, the race still has that symbolic start downtown. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right. Right. LEE POLESKE: And they end up there at the center, and they always -- KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, Campbell Creek? LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Is that what you’re talking about?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah. And they have, uh, refreshments and so on. We always have a table there.

The Bureau of Land Management cannot buy refreshments. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: The Alliance buys the refreshments that are out there. So it’s things like that.

It sounds, you know, maybe a little silly, but it’s just one example. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Of, we do what the other one can’t do.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. Um, I just had --

Oh, I know. So you’re -- are you a bit of a liaison between the Seward Trail Blazers and the Alliance? Because you’re in both groups? LEE POLESKE: Well, so is Dan. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, yeah.

LEE POLESKE: So we both are. And we have a third member down here, Jon Sewell, who is vice president. Lives in Seward.

KAREN BREWSTER: Vice president of? LEE POLESKE: Of the Alliance. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: So we have three members. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow, that’s a lot from Seward.

LEE POLESKE: Well, one has to be. There is a Kenai representative. And then there’s an at-large. And those two are at-large members. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

LEE POLESKE: And at-large members can come from anywhere. That was brought up, but we said, you know, "Why not?"

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. And to be members of the Alliance, do you have to be from a community along the trail? LEE POLESKE: Oh, no, no, no, no.

KAREN BREWSTER: So somebody from Fairbanks. LEE POLESKE: Anyone can join.

KAREN BREWSTER: No, be -- to -- yeah, to be a member, but to be on the board? LEE POLESKE: Yeah, no, there are -- no, there’s, as I said, there are at-large seats. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: So anyone -- Skagway could have a member on it. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: You know, Juneau could have a member on it. An at-large membership.

KAREN BREWSTER: And so how do you get onto the board? I mean, you were approached.

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, well, this is still -- we say, is there anybody -- ? If someone’s leaving -- like Jonathan got on. Someone had left the state. They needed a person. They said, well, Jon’s going to be a good one. We nominated him.

And actually, there was an election. Leo Rasmussen nominated somebody from up in the Fairbanks area. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. LEE POLESKE: And Jonathan won. I don’t know why, but Jonathan won, and that was it.

So, when there’s a vacancy, you ask. It is sometimes a problem in the villages up north, because -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: In Kaltag, we’ve been having some problems of finding people.

That’s a -- that’s a problem of all state-wide groups. It’s a big state. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: It’s a big state. And it isn’t always easy to get from one place to another.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. And so, that creates a problem for getting people involved?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, we do have now virtual meet -- well, we always had that. We always had a monthly virtual meeting. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: You know, on telephone and so on. Uh, so people could always stay in contact.

We did have an annual meeting. Most people could get down once a year. KAREN BREWSTER: That would be in Anchorage? LEE POLESKE: Yeah, that was always in Anchorage.

We used to -- we, for a while, had a spring meeting, once in Seward, once in Wasilla. But again, that -- we didn’t have all that much money, so that’s another limiting factor.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. So yeah, so how do you get somebody in, like, Kaltag? You want somebody from Kaltag, from McGrath, from Unalakleet? You want people from --

LEE POLESKE: Well, a lot of times -- Again, that is where people involved in the race can be very helpful. So-and-so. Oh, you should contact so-and-so in Kaltag. They really into that.

I know that’s in McGrath, we got a guy who’s -- he wasn’t a racer, but he was, you know, always helped out. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: The racers as they go through.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, and as we know, in small towns -- LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: -- people are stretched pretty thin. LEE POLESKE: Yeah, that’s true.

KAREN BREWSTER: So it’s hard to get people. Yeah. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Yeah, it is. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And there’s always -- not easy. You know, they’ve had trouble there in McGrath on airplanes, and getting in and out. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: So. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: It is -- It’s not always easy to get from one place to another in Alaska. KAREN BREWSTER: No, it is not. We know that.

LEE POLESKE: I -- the reser -- a car rental agency told me, they were down here, and they said, a guy was in the other day. He wanted to know how long it would take to drive to Nome. KAREN BREWSTER: From here? LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: A few years.

LEE POLESKE: I said, well, it would take a few years. They gotta build a road first.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Well, yeah, the -- Yeah, the building the Nome -- road to Nome concept that’s been thrown around for a long time. LEE POLESKE: I know. KAREN BREWSTER: Has that ever been a problem for the historic trail?

LEE POLESKE: It could’ve been, but it hasn’t because they’ve never done it.

KAREN BREWSTER: They haven’t gone far enough?

LEE POLESKE: No. I mean, it is the logical way to get there. KAREN BREWSTER: Yes. Well, a railroad?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah, well, there was actually talk of a railroad.

KAREN BREWSTER: I know, that’s why I’m saying, that there’s been talk about those things. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: And it just occurred to me when you mentioned it that, oh, well -- LEE POLESKE: Yeah, that could --

KAREN BREWSTER: -- what route would they go? Well, maybe they’d go on the trail?

LEE POLESKE: Well, that’s why easements on the trail would probably protect it. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: I don’t know, what -- you know. I don’t think that’s going to happen too soon. KAREN BREWSTER: No. It just, we -- you -- LEE POLESKE: I know, it -- it's --

KAREN BREWSTER: It’s an interesting -- Um, so I guess the other -- so my -- one of my last questions is, have there been challenges to -- besides the myth thing, which we know is a big challenge. But other, you know, sort of, boots on the ground, getting things done, obstacles or frustrations?

LEE POLESKE: Well, it’s like, anyth -- something you just said, most of the places are pretty small.

I admit myself, a lot of things I didn’t do because I was interested in the museum. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And the museum came first.

And other people -- some people were trying to make a living. And there are things -- it is sometimes a problem getting people together to do something. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: This is -- it’s just the way it is. When they can, they do.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. And like, those shelter cabins, there’s one out of McGrath, and now one out of -- LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah, those -- KAREN BREWSTER: -- White Mountain.

LEE POLESKE: Well, of course, those are vitally important out there. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: I mean, ’cause people are using those trails all year.

KAREN BREWSTER: And those cabins were -- the ideas for those, did that come from the Alliance, or did the idea come from the community?

LEE POLESKE: Well, there were trails there, but there were cabins. You know, a lot of them had been established in the old days. They just needed repair and maintenance.

That’s something -- most of that’s on state land. BL -- Bureau of Land Management can’t do anything.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. But -- but the Alliance has gotten involved to help?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah. They paid -- they’ve given money. What they try to do is get a local group in response. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: That’s why the McGrath Trail Blazers came in. We’ll give you the money. Bureau of Land Management can fly in supplies.

You build it, you do the work, and you maintain it.

KAREN BREWSTER: And the idea -- but the idea for that cabin needing to be fixed came from somebody in McGrath?

LEE POLESKE: Well, McGrath and the BLM. BLM checks all these cabins along the way, and they try -- Those ones, their land, they can take care of. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Those on state lands, the state, of course, then money again comes up. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But the Alliance gets money, a grant, from the BLM every year. Some of it can only be used for some purposes. Some is open to anything.

And some of it -- so there’s a lot of -- we’ve a cooperative agreement. We’ll give you the money. You build it and promise to maintain it.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. And that’s the same with the White Mountain one? LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: And the -- Same with that White Mountain one, did the idea for that come from White Mountain? LEE POLESKE: Them, yeah. ’Cause theirs had -- was, completely -- In fact, they’re going to be -- start from scratch. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: And they have come up with a great plan. And again, you’re running into problems of getting materials there. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: But there again, the race people have agreements with some airlines, and they don’t always use -- they buy a lot of time, and sometimes they have time left over. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: And they’re willing to donate that.

And they’re willing, in this case, maybe, to help get some supplies to White Mountain.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Well, yeah, this whole Alliance and the trail project, it just shows to me the importance of individual people being passionate and working really hard. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: For a long time. LEE POLESKE: Yes.

KAREN BREWSTER: And being creative and networking and partnering and joining forces to accomplish something. LEE POLESKE: Patience. KAREN BREWSTER: Patience.

LEE POLESKE: We just keep plugging away. Plugging away.

And sometimes you think, if you bother ’em enough, they say, "Oh hell, let’s just do it." And then they’ll shut up.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, and that, somebody like you and Dan as well, been involved for so long, that you haven’t gotten frustrated and given up.

LEE POLESKE: Oh, no. You don't -- can’t give up. I mean, you can -- this -- this is all along, you know. I admit, you know -- but when you look back over it, a lot has been accomplished. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: Somebody said, "Oh, you didn’t do that much."

When you were at the beginning, when there was really nothing, complete -- completely -- What do we do? KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: And then, look at it today. A lot has been done.

KAREN BREWSTER: And the -- why have you continued? Why didn’t you just give up?

LEE POLESKE: Again, I just, maybe I’m too dumb. No, I -- well, I care about -- I like Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: And I really got invested in it, and the museum. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: The history.

Seward has had an unbelievable history. It’s been in the middle of all kind of important. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: Well, you know, the first flight around the world. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. LEE POLESKE: In ’25, course you couldn’t go all, you know, they had to stop. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: They stopped here in Seward. There was a second stop, was here in Seward. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, I didn’t know that. See?

LEE POLESKE: And, you know, and other things have happened here. It’s always amazing to me how many things Seward has been involved with.

And the Iditarod is one of the things it was involved in. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Which I did not know. I’ll admit, I had not realized it.

And when we started the Trail Blazers, I realized, and so those two things meshed. I was interested in the history. I still am. I don’t really care much about -- I care about the race when there’s a -- like Dan was in it. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: Or Dallas. I had -- Not Dallas, but Mitch. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

LEE POLESKE: ’Cause I had Mitch in high school. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: There’s people you know, so you’re interested.

Uh, so I’m not that interested in the race itself. I’m interested in the history of the trail. Dan is interested in both. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: So you do what you do -- what you’re interested in. What you -- KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: What you want done.

And basically, most of these things mesh.

KAREN BREWSTER: Right. Do you think it’s important for people in other parts of the state to know about the history of the Iditarod Trail?

LEE POLESKE: Well, it’s as important as anything, any big event. Most people, I’m sure, have heard of the Iditarod gold strike.

One thing I think a lot of people don’t -- John Beaton is buried up in the Anchorage Cemetery.

KAREN BREWSTER: Who’s John Beaton? LEE POLESKE: The one that -- one of the two men who discovered gold in Iditarod. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, ok.

LEE POLESKE: Dikeman is -- Dikeman was unusual. He sold out early, and unlike so many, he did not waste his money. He was very preservative. He died down in Nebraska. He had bought a ranch in Nebraska. He died down there in the '40’s.

KAREN BREWSTER: Hm. Yeah, I mean, that’s kind of like, why should Alaskans who don’t live along the trail care about it being a historic trail and protecting it?

LEE POLESKE: But it’s a part of the history of Alaska. Like you say, why should you care about the Chilkoot? KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: You know? Well, it’s a part of the history. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

LEE POLESKE: Why do you care about the Klondike? Well, they went through -- Why do you care about Skagway? Why you care about you? Well, we don’t. I was --

KAREN BREWSTER: So, yeah. It’s caring about history of where you live?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that is -- Of course, that's the iTREC program is built on that project to get people -- get the young people interested, so when they are the old people, they’re going to keep it. See, we can’t. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

LEE POLESKE: We -- "I remember when I was a kid, we worked on that, you can’t destroy that. That’s a part of our history."

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. And it is, you know, stewardship. It’s a hard thing to --

LEE POLESKE: Stewardship is a hard -- But if you -- The trail here -- As I said, it was some opportunity, but -- look out the window, and they’re walking. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: They're people. Everything. Dogs are a great thing because people are walking their dogs.

But I do a survey in the summer. It’s unbelievable. You know, I take half-hour periods. You know, 60, 70 people. On a real good day, over 100 people. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

LEE POLESKE: On a rainy day, one or two. But it is constantly used. Biking. Biking has really taken off. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: Scooters are back. Kids going on their scooters, skateboards. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. LEE POLESKE: It’s non-motorized.

KAREN BREWSTER: But it’s paved, so that -- LEE POLESKE: Yeah. People in wheelchairs. KAREN BREWSTER: Wheelchairs. LEE POLESKE: It’s handicapped accessible KAREN BREWSTER: Strollers?

LEE POLESKE: Strollers are very -- But you gotta, be careful. I learned you gotta be careful. There’s not always kids in ’em. Some people have their dogs. But wheelchairs. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

LEE POLESKE: It is handicapped access. You can get on there. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. LEE POLESKE: And you can even -- I’ve seen ’em. They take their wheelchair out on -- There’s one little gentle hill. Not a hill, it’s a slope. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. LEE POLESKE: So there’s no problem there.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, it sounds like you’re, uh, have -- well, that's -- That you feel good about having been involved in this -- LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: -- trail effort for so long. LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: It’s meant a lot to you?

LEE POLESKE: Every time -- I almost every day walk on the trail. It’s 30 years old now. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow. LEE POLESKE: The paved. KAREN BREWSTER: The paved part?

LEE POLESKE: Yeah. Thirty years last month.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, but you’ve been involved in the Alliance since the '90’s.

LEE POLESKE: Well, yeah, I know. But, I mean, you get -- That was one of our first real successes. KAREN BREWSTER: For the Trail Blazers. Yeah. LEE POLESKE: Yeah.

And it -- it has become very popular. There’s a guy walking his dog. It has become very, very popular.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Well, I can tell from talking to you, you seem very passionate about the history of the trail. LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: And all these efforts.

LEE POLESKE: Always pushing Seward. I admit, I am on the Seward angle. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. That’s ok.

LEE POLESKE: But that’s why we’re trying to get people all up and down the trail. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, and that --

LEE POLESKE: Nome, their people are really passionate up there.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. And the Southern Trek section being all connected. LEE POLESKE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: That must feel good to -- LEE POLESKE: Oh, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: -- have seen that happening. LEE POLESKE: It’s unbelievable when you look back. That is really unbelievable. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. Big accomplishment.