HUMAN

Name: Scott Silver

Age: 70

Residence: Tacoma, Washington

Occupation: Currently retired from the JL Darling Corporation where we make, “Rite in the Rain” paper. And we are currently still board members and partial owners.

Years involved with Iditarod: 25

Iditarod Roles: I’m one of the Iditarod checkers for Skwentna

Current Location: Skwentna, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 6, 2022

Temperature: 35 F Outdoors 

What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?

I first got involved in Iditarod in 1994. My brother Todd and I were both the co-owners of the JL Darling Corporation. And we made all the mushers diaries and the check sheets for the Iditarod. And we had an opportunity to come up because back then. Jim Strong was the race manager. Invited Todd to come up in ’93. Todd was able to fly along the trail with Jim for a number of days. They ended up in Skwentna. And Todd says, “Well, Jim, I got to get out of here. I got to get back home.” So he says, “Well, let me take you over and introduce you to this couple.” Joe and Norma Delia. So, that started Todd in ’93. And so we, as a company, always sent out See’s candy as a gift to all of our customers and friends. And we sent some back to Joe and Norma, on a nice letter and they wrote back and said, “We’ll, come back next year.” And so Todd says, “Well, that’d be wonderful, but I got to bring my brother Scott we’re partners.” And so that’s the next year Todd and I came up, Jim Strong gave us the opportunity to come up with him. He was now in charge of the Iron Dog. So we snowmachined up here. And showed up, and Delias were very gracious and welcomed us in. And we didn’t work that hard that year, but we were here and seeing how things ran and that was the first time it really became a nighttime checkpoint, ’94. And so we saw the cluster that this place was and went, “Wow, you guys need some help?” And they said, “Well, sure.” So we started bringing help. First year, we brought four more people. Next year, we brought two more people, six. By the next year we had eight of us all coming up by snow machine. Now we were running snowmachines out of Big Lake and coming up. And we were staying up here on the hill on that little cabin that belonged to the Dukes. And had wonderful adventures, and now we’ve grown to the point where we’re now bringing 16 to 17 people up every year, this year because of COVID and the restrictions, and some of that. We’re only able to bring 12, but still great, we still love it. And we’ll do it as long as we’re still able to sit up and take nourishment.

What is your Why? Why are you here TODAY and involved with the Iditarod?

I’m here today and involved in the Iditarod because it’s something that’s become a family tradition. We’ve been doing this for 20 plus years and we just love the opportunity to come up here and serve on the iditarod trail.

Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences.

The most memorable Iditarod experiences was decades ago when we were younger. We were basically done with the race, getting everybody, but we’re cleaning up the checkpoint. We took our snowmachines out and had some fun playing in the snow. Well, I did a super jump, Superman thing. And I came down on the back of the machine with my shins, busted a hole in my leg through multiple layers. And I came back to the checkpoint. And as I walked in the door, I go, “I need a vet.” And they said, “What? A team come back?” And I said, “No, I need a vet.” So, he laid me on the kitchen table and sewed me up using dog sutures, no novocaine. And then at the end of it, he says, “Well, what do you weigh?” And I go, “170 pounds.” And he’s doing the math because he was going to give me a bunch of dog amoxicillin. And they were literally laying me on the kitchen table, doing all this sewing. And nobody realized we should have taken a picture. And after we cleaned up and got me off the table, one of our buddies, Brad came up, he’s a minister. He conducted the wedding of the neighbors on that same table, an hour and a half later after it was a surgery and then an altar.

What do you know for sure?

What I know to be sure in life is that you’re never sure what’s going to happen to you over the years, but you can always hope if you treat people right, it’ll go right for you. We’ve had great experiences here up on the trail because we were fortunate enough to bring excellent people with us and people with a good heart. You can see this checkpoint is, for sure, one of the greatest on the trail, just because of the people.