Comments on: Iditarod / Mush http://www.word-detective.com/2012/01/iditarod-mush/ Semper Ubi Sub Ubi Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:32:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: George Cheek http://www.word-detective.com/2012/01/iditarod-mush/comment-page-1/#comment-41073 George Cheek Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:20:21 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=7312#comment-41073 Iditarod means "river with many mouths," in Athabaskan. The river flows into the Innoko, which proceeds north to join the Yukon at Holy Cross. I suppose the word for the mouth of the Iditarod would be "braided;" it's really hard to figure out where the channel is, although shallow draft steamboats once went up it. It was a good landing, which created quite a town at the site until some time in the teens, when it was flooded out and everything moved overland to the "flat" place where most local gold mining took place. There already was a horse=drawn streetcar line to what later became the town of Flat. When I was growing up mushers (what we called 'em) used a variety of ways to start their dogs. None were "mush." The two most common were "okay" or "all right," to the lead dog or, far more common, slipping a rope that trailed off the end of the sled and was tied to something solid, like a tree or building. Once they were in harness, the dogs began throwing themselves against it to pull and getting them to run was pretty easy. That probably is a lot more than you want to know. Iditarod means “river with many mouths,” in Athabaskan. The river flows into the Innoko, which proceeds north to join the Yukon at Holy Cross. I suppose the word for the mouth of the Iditarod would be “braided;” it’s really hard to figure out where the channel is, although shallow draft steamboats once went up it. It was a good landing, which created quite a town at the site until some time in the teens, when it was flooded out and everything moved overland to the “flat” place where most local gold mining took place. There already was a horse=drawn streetcar line to what later became the town of Flat.

When I was growing up mushers (what we called ‘em) used a variety of ways to start their dogs. None were “mush.” The two most common were “okay” or “all right,” to the lead dog or, far more common, slipping a rope that trailed off the end of the sled and was tied to something solid, like a tree or building. Once they were in harness, the dogs began throwing themselves against it to pull and getting them to run was pretty easy.

That probably is a lot more than you want to know.

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