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Author Archives: Helen Hegener
1967 Centennial Race
The 1967 race was billed as ‘the biggest event in racing history,’ with an unprecedented purse of $25,000, richer than any purse offered for a sled dog race until then. It attracted mushers from all around Alaska, respected dog drivers such as George Attla, Gareth Wright, Earl Norris, Jerry Riley, Orville Lake, Herbie Nayokpuk, Dick Mackey, and even two champion sprint mushers from Massachusetts: Dr. Roland Lombard and Dr. Charles Belford. Continue reading
1911 Iditarod Sweepstakes
On New Year’s Day, January 1, 1911, 62 years before the inaugural run of today’s race, the First Annual Iditarod Sweepstakes Race was held over a 20-mile course which started in front of the Miners and Merchants Bank in the town of Iditarod. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Books, Gold Rush History, News & Information, Sled Dog History, Sled Dog Races
Tagged Alaska Kennel Club, Anchorage Kennel Club, Claude Shea, Eklutna, Flat City, Frank Dixon, George May, Iditarod, Iditarod Trail, Northern Commercial Company, Old Knik, race, sled dog race, Summit Roadhouse, Sweepstakes, The First Iditarod
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The First Iditarod, 2nd Edition
From 2007 to 2012 I travelled across Alaska to visit veteran mushers from the 1973 race who would share their memories of what has since become known as “The Last Great Race on Earth.” The bulk of my book is comprised of the verbatim words of these intrepid men who drove their teams on that first journey to Nome in 1973, captured through recorded and videotaped interviews and many notes and follow-up letters and emails. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Book Reviews, Books, News & Information, Sled Dog History, Sled Dog Races
Tagged Anchorage, Iditarod, Iditarod Trail, Joe Redington, Nome, sled dog race, sled dogs
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All Alaska Sweepstakes
The historic All Alaska Sweepstakes is the oldest organized distance sled dog race in the world, with records kept by the Nome Kennel Club dating back to the first race in 1908. The race, which was held from 1908 to 1917, and commemorated with 75th and 100th anniversary races in 1983 and 2008, is the subject of All Alaska Sweepstakes: History of the Great Sled Dog Race, by Helen Hegener. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Book Reviews, Books, Gold Rush History, Sled Dog History, Sled Dog Races
Tagged Aaron Burmeister, All Alaska Sweepstakes, Baldy, Candle, Jan DeNapoli, Janice Doherty, Jeff King, Jodi Bailey, Joe May, John "Iron Man" Johnson, Jon Van Zyle, Lance Mackey, Leonhard Seppala, Mitch Seavey, Nome, Nome Kennel Club, Percy Blatchford, Scotty Allan, Togo
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Sled Dog Tales
True stories include Alaskan mail carrier Eli Smith’s epic trip to Washington, D.C., Alaska Nellie’s daring rescue of a lost mail carrier, the Rev. Samuel Hall Young’s 1913 trip over the Iditarod Trail, and Territorial Judge James Wickersham’s 1901 dogsled trip down the frozen Yukon River from Eagle to Rampart. Fascinating stories of Alaska’s history as seen from the runners of a dogsled! Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Book Reviews, Books, Gold Rush History, News & Information, Sled Dog History, Sled Dog Races
Tagged Alaska Nellie, “Iron Man” Johnson, huskies, Iditarod Trail, James Wickersham, Leonhard Seppala, Nome, Samuel Hall Young, Scotty Allan, Serum Run, sled dogs, Yukon River
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Alaska & The Klondike
Complete chapters from books such as Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled, The Land of Tomorrow, and Along Alaska’s Great River offer first-hand accounts of the authors’ adventures in charting an unknown country, exploring a wondrous land, searching for gold, delivering freight and mail, and administering medical and religious services by dog team, at a time when the land was young. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Book Reviews, Books, Gold Rush History, Kindle eBooks, Sled Dog History
Tagged Arthur Treadwell Walden, Denali, Ernest Ingersoll, Frederick Schwatka, Hudson Stuck, Josiah Spurr, Klondike, May Kellogg Sullivan, Robert Service, Ten Thousand Miles with a Dogsled, The Spell of the Yukon, Yukon River
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Alaska Railroad 1902-1923
This 400-page book is a wide-ranging look at the many ways in which the railroad played a major role in Alaska’s growth and development. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Alaska Railroad, Book Reviews, Books
Tagged Alaska Central Railroad, Alaska Railroad, Anchorage, coal mining, Fairbanks, Golden Spike, Guggenheim, Hurricane Gulch, monopoly, Morgan-Guggenheim Syndicate, Nenana, Palmer, Seward, steamboats, Talkeetna, Turnagain Arm, Wasilla
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Joe Redington, Sr.
Joe Redington came to Alaska in 1948, settling on a homestead near Knik, south of Wasilla, with his family. He learned about sled dogs and how to handle a dog team from his new neighbors, mail and freight team driver Sharon Fleckenstein and Lee Ellexson, one of the last dog team mail drivers on the Iditarod Trail. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Books, News & Information, Sled Dog History, Sled Dog Races
Tagged Dick Mackey, George Attla, Gleo Huyck, Hudson Stuck, Iditarod, Iditarod Trail, Iditarod Trail Committee, Joe Redington, Ken Chase, Knik, Leonhard Seppala, Nome, Raymie Redington, Tom Johnson, Unalakleet, Vi Redington, Wasilla
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The Call of the Wild
An excerpt from Jack London’s The Call of the Wild (Macmillan, 1903), the fictional account of events in the life of the great sled dog Buck who, at this point in the story, ran in the traces of a courier for the Canadian Government, bearing important dispatches. Continue reading
Posted in Books, Gold Rush History, Sled Dog History
Tagged Jack London, The Call of the Wild
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