Susan Howlet Butcher was an American dog musher, noteworthy as the second woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1986, the second four-time winner in 1990, and the first to win four out of five sequential years. She is commemorated in Alaska by the Susan Butcher Day.
Susan Butcher and dogs in 1997, speaking to tourists aboard a Riverboat Discovery cruise from her kennels near Fairbanks International Airport
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod, is an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of between 12 and 16 dogs, of which at least 5 must be on the towline at the finish line, cover the distance in 8–15 days or more. The Iditarod began in 1973 as an event to test the best sled dog mushers and teams but evolved into today's highly competitive race.
The Iditarod 2020 start line in Anchorage
Start of the Iditarod National Historic Trail in Seward
Aliy Zirkle's team on Anchorage's Fourth Avenue at the start of the 2003 Iditarod
Brent Sass departing Rainy Pass checkpoint during the Iditarod 2020