The village of Ruby's new race

Racing against time, the 99-year-old fishing camp turned mining town hopes to use its past to secure its future.

Stephen Nowers photos

RUBY -- Travel widely enough in the Alaska Bush and you'll find a common refrain: high gas prices, few jobs, shrinking towns and dying traditions. Although Ruby, Alaska, suffers on the banks of the Yukon River under the weight of those same statewide trends, it has no intention of becoming history. Instead, Ruby hopes to use its rich history to secure its future. And like many rural communities in the Last Frontier, the people who live there are taking matters into their own hands with determination and drive.

It's not a perfect formula, nor is it swift. But triumph over adversity just seems to be something people do in Ruby, passed on from generation to generation. And locals here are looking to the young minds of future generations for inspiration and guidance.

For those of you who hated story problems in math class, imagine this one: A small, remote village could use a new power plant, new school, new health clinic, runway repairs, and a police officer. Lack of physical activity is a major health problem. Energy costs are through the roof. A recent improvement -- a washeteria -- is almost too expensive to afford. Jobs are scarce, and people are moving away. Your assignment? Create a way for the community to make money, preserve tradition and improve its overall quality of life.

As the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race barrels through this town, it deepens a connection to Ruby's past as well as its future. Original mushers from the historic serum run, in which dog teams shuttled lifesaving medicine to far away Nome in a winter blizzard, made their homes and raised families here.

Now, decades later, a snowshoe maker, retired teacher, tribal administrator and an outsider are all on survival missions of their own.

George Albert, an Athabascan Indian, grew up in camps in the Alaska woods dozens of miles outside of Ruby when hardly anything existed in Ruby but "rabbit tracks." His family ran traplines, catching animals like marten, lynx and beaver. He loved running and building miniature fish wheels and sleds out of wood. By his early 20s, he had developed a love of snowshoe racing. And then one year, when he didn't have a pair to compete in, he decided to make his own.

Largely self-taught, it took Albert years of trial and error with birch to find the right type of tree and the right way to strip and bend it to make the frames, and he took special note of a local woman's sewing technique for the webbing.

George Albert of Ruby

Life in his part of Alaska is different now and easier with better stoves, better housing, vehicles and motorized boats.

Still, Albert's heart remains in the quiet remoteness of the woods.

And although life isn't as hard these days, given his choice, Albert would turn back time, restoring the area to a land of abundance with plenty of fish and moose. Store-bought beef, which he now uses to supplement his diet, doesn't fill him up, and he feels hungrier sooner than when he eats game meat.