Gem of the Yukon – Rubylicious

The Ruby checkpoint, over halfway through the northern-route Iditarod trail, is the most delectable spot on the last great race. Ruby is the location where the executive chef from Iditarod headquarters’ Millenium Hotel cooks up a gourmet, seven-course meal on a camp stove for the first musher to arrive. As if the camp cuisine wasn’t enough, the meal is followed with a $3,500 after-dinner mint, that is, 3,500, freshly-minted dollar bills.

Ruby is no stranger to wealth, however. Nicknamed the “Gem of the Yukon,” the village of Ruby, has its roots in the gold rush, springing out of the Yukon when gold was discovered in Ruby Creek over a hundred years ago. With close proximity to the airfield and the steamboat landing on the Yukon River, Ruby was a major thoroughfare for miners in the early twentieth century. At its height, Ruby was home to over 3,000 people, but the population began to dwindle with World War I. Many men left to fight leaving the primarily labor-driven economy of Ruby without its lifeblood. Add to that grim prognosis the ship Sophie which sunk with many of the village’s women and children, and the fire of 1929 which destroyed the riverfront properties, and Ruby was left luster-less, a gem without a sparkle. Now this high-profile Iditarod checkpoint boasts of a mere 200, and its future doesn’t look so bright.

Like Iditarod checkpoint McGrath, Ruby is primarily inhabited by native-americans, Athabascans, who dwell in rather rustic homes. Few have running water and septic systems. Tourism fuels the economy in Ruby, however, like the gold rush, tourism of the Yukon is on its way out. Travel costs have sky-rocketed, and access to remote villages like Ruby is challenging. One thing is sure, Ruby is a coveted destination for plenty of mushers each year as they mush the 1,000 mile Iditarod.

- Loren Liden for Iditablog.com