The first issue of Alaskan History Magazine for 2026, Volume 5, Number 1, features a lengthy excerpt from Colonel Walter Goodwin’s 1908 report on the route which would become the Iditarod Trail, the first official documentation of what would become one of the most famous trails in the world. The history of cattle breeding in Alaska was the subject of a report written by C. C. Georgeson, Director of the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Stations, in 1929. He wrote about the Russians maintaining “a considerable number” of cattle at Kalsin Bay, on Kodiak Island, and noted later developments after the purchase of Alaska, including consumption figures for beef and dairy products in 1925, providing an interesting overview of how cattle played an important role in the early days of the territory. Explorer and writer Harry de Windt and his friend George Harding had attempted to travel around the world by land in 1896, but in Siberia they ran into unforeseen life-threatening difficulties. Narrowly escaping disaster, de Windt nevertheless wrote a book about the adventure in 1898, titled Through the Gold-fields of Alaska to Bering Straits , and in December, 1901 he and Harding set out once again, this time traveling in reverse of the first trip. This issue excerpts a chapter from his subsequent 1903 book, From Paris to New York by Land . The history of Falcon Joslin and his visionary Tanana Valley Railway are included in this issue. The TVR was Joslin’s visionary dream, planned as a rail line reaching north and east to Circle City on the Yukon River, at that time the center of the Circle Mining District and the landing for steamboats heading upriver to the town of Eagle, or to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory, or downriver to Nenana, Ruby, Nulato, and St. Michael on Norton Sound, and the Bering Sea. When the Alaska Railroad was constructed and planning for the northern portion was under consideration, parts of Joslin’s Tanana Valley Railway were incorporated. The cover of this issue is a photograph of two well-known champions of the historic All Alaska Sweepstakes race, and inside this issue is the story of one of the most famous dogs in literature, Baldy of Nome. He was Scotty Allan’s famous lead dog in the All Alaska Sweepstakes; and a profile of Scotty, written for a major American magazine in 1921 by one of Alaska’s most beloved writers, is reprinted in full with a larger biography of the intrepid Scotsman’s life in Alaska, Washington, and California. 64 pages. 6″ x 9″ b/w format. No advertising, just history. Back issues and subscriptions are available at the Northern Light Media website: northernlightmedia.org