With spring almost upon us—the days are getting longer and warmer—sled dog season is winding down. The last big race of Alaska’s season, the Kobuk 440, is running this weekend out of Kotzebue, and mushers farther south are unanimously bemoaning the rapidly disappearing snow. This might be a good time to lay in a supply of inspiring summer reading to tide us over until the fall season, and an excellent choice would be Alaskan Sled Dog Tales, a wide-ranging exploration of some of the best writing and most exciting adventures ever based on a team of dogs.
Published in 2016 by Northern Light Media, Alaskan Sled Dog Tales brings together excerpts from classic books and writings by Arthur Treadwell Walden, Leonhard Seppala, Scotty Allan, Hudson Stuck, Alaska Nellie, Samuel Hall Young, Judge James Wickersham, Dr. Joseph Romig, Father Bernard Hubbard, and many others, along with the stories of mushers whose adventures were recorded by others, such as Ed Biederman, Jujiro Wada, Eli Smith, Mary Joyce, Caribou Bill, and John “Iron Man” Johnson.
This book shares the important history of sled dogs in Alaska, and explains how sled dogs were an integral part of historic events such as the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, mapping the Arctic coastline, and the 1932 Olympics; while also a part of the more mundane: the delivery of mail and the services of doctors over hundreds of roadless miles, the taking of the census, and the meting out of justice. Fascinating stories of Alaska’s history as seen from the runners of a dogsled!
Alaskan Sled Dog Tales, True Stories of the Steadfast Companions of the North Country, by Helen Hegener, details the stories of mushers and their dog teams in early Alaska, the explorers, the scientists, the racers, and the long-distance drivers hauling freight, mail, passengers, and gold. Published in 2016 by Northern Light Media. 320 pages, 6′ x 9″ b/w format, includes maps, charts, bibliography, indexed. $24.95 plus $5.00 for First Class shipping. Reviews below.
Review by Gwynn Morgan, GoodReads, June 8, 2016:
If you love sled dogs, adventure, the North Lands, and/or history, this is a book for you. Ms Hegener knows her subject forward and backward and writes about it in an engaging and informative way. She has collected an amazing bunch of photographs, old magazine covers, postcards and other memorabilia which illustrate and enhance this absorbing narrative. You will meet many of Alaska's notable characters and some who have never received the fame and acclaim they deserve as well as a few shining examples of the incredible dogs who made Alaska what it is today. If you loved White Fang or some of the modern mushers' personal tales, you will get even more and deeper insights from this beautifully presented book. As a long term follower of sled dog racing, the author has "been there and done that' making this book totally authentic. Also be sure to look for more of her fine collections of Alaskan history! This is not a book to read cover to cover in one or two sittings like a novel but one to take in small doses--and the individual tales are short enough to allow this--so that you can fully savor it, wipe your eyes in some places and laugh aloud in others. It is "real" in a magical way.
Four Star Review by Jim Patterson, August 10, 2016:
I think you'll like this book! Hegener did the research on trails, drivers and dogs that mush Alaska. Short tales with incredible pics of teams and chronologies backed with dates and places. I've never seen so many dog sled tales in Alaska.
Review by David Fox, GoodReads, reprinted from the Anchorage Press on June 9, 2016:
Alaska’s Canine Heroes
Helen Hegener sets us straight from the start. For those out there who picture a sled dog team looking like they stepped straight from the “posters of Sgt. Preston of the Mounties with his faithful sidekick Yukon King” – well, you’re in for an eye opener. The early dogs bred to survive the Alaskan wilderness were a mongrel mix of “setters, pointers, hounds, mastiffs, Saint Bernard’s and Newfoundlands.” This motley crew formed the backbone of the sled dog communities we know today.
Prior to the universal fame of Alaska’s Great Iditarod it’s probably safe to say that most of the Lower 48’s populace knew little about the pivotal role played by sled dogs in Alaska. Hegener’s Alaskan Sled Dog Tales changes all of that. She skillfully stitches together one story after another, all basking in the glow of sled dogs and their owners who adored them. Relying upon material written from the late 1890s through the early ‘30s, she catalogues how sled dogs provided Alaskan residents the ability to traverse enormous distances, deliver critical supplies and maintain communication from within and outside Alaska. The episodes she recounts are stirring, filled with human and animal bravery. Some are simply mind-boggling, filling the reader with awe and enormous respect for dog and driver alike. One herculean adventure occurred in 1933 when Slim Williams, an Alaskan icon who hunted, trapped, and blazed trails for over 30 years, was persuaded by Donald MacDonald, Alaska’s Road Commissioner, to drive his dog team from Alaska to the World Fair in Chicago, Illinois. They believed such a successful odyssey would demonstrate that a road could be constructed from Alaska to the continental U.S. He launched his journey from Copper Center (about 16 miles southeast of Glenallen) and wound his way down through Dawson City, White Horse, Atlin and Telegraph Creek, finally arriving in Hazelton, B.C. after five months of arduous sledding. From there he worked his team to Seattle before ecstatically completing the trek at the World’s Fair in Chicago. But, he was not finished. From the World’s Fair Williams took “his team of half-bred wolf/dogs … to Washington D.C. bringing the total distance of his journey by dog team to over 5,600 miles.”
Like their famous masters, the sled team’s lead dogs gained incandescent fame. Hegener’s book underscores why these beloved canines deserve the accolades lauded upon them. Baldy’s heroic rescue of his master is one sterling example of this exceptionalism Hegener shares. During the Solomon Derby, Scotty Alans’s lead dog, Baldy, realized he was pulling a driverless sled basket. He turned the team around and began searching the just traveled trail for his master. Far away from where he began the search he found Allan “lying pale, motionless and blood-stained in the trail.” He did not leave his side till he was able to rouse him by repeatedly licking his face and gently prodding his chest. Making this story even more remarkable is not only that Alan and Baldy went on to win the race but this was the first time Baldy had functioned as Alan’s lead dog.
Baldy was not the only celebrity dog applauded in these halcyon days of sledding. Togo was Leonhard Seppala’s lead dog for over 12 years. Seppala, one of Alaska’s premier mushers, gained international fame as the intrepid dog driver who delivered the life-saving Diphtheria serum to Nome. Togo led that team and Seppala heaped the praise upon him, noting “he had worked the hardest and best.” And in the ultimate compliment to one’s lead dog, champion Emile St. Godard of Manitoba, Canada, “the only dog sled racer to be inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame” retired from racing after his favorite lead dog was no longer able to compete.
Hegener relates a comical story about a veritable stand-off between sled dogs and reindeers that on reflection, says much more about the status of Alaskan sled dogs. A movement arose which argued reindeer could replace the dog out on the Alaskan trails. The principal reindeer advocate was “Dr. Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian minister and the head of Alaska’s fledgling education system at the turn of the century … Jackson even testified before Congress that dogs were ‘treacherous and unreliable beasts...while reindeer are gentle, timid and eat little...”’ Clearly, Jackson lost that argument. But, on a broader scale, the sled dog’s positive image was solidified. These trustworthy creatures could be relied upon to do the heavy work, while remaining, as Hegener eloquently reminds us, our most treasured friends.