Category Archives: Alaska History

Addison Powell in Valdez

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Helen Hegener

Addison M. Powell was an adventurer, prospector, hunter, and a guide for Captain William R. Abercrombie’s 1898 Copper River Exploring Expedition, one of three military expeditions organized to explore the interior of the new territory of Alaska. His book Trailing and Camping in Alaska, subtitled Ten Years Spent Exploring, Hunting and Prospecting in Alaska – 1898 to 1909, was republished in its entirety by Northern Light Media in September, 2018. Continue reading →

Posted in Alaska History, Book Reviews, Books, Gold Rush History | Tagged Abercrombie, Addison Powell, Copper River, Exploring, Miles Brothers, Nizina, Trailing & Camping in Alaska, Valdez, Valdez Glacier, Valdez-to-Fairbanks Trail | Leave a comment

W. T. Geisman, Photographer

Posted on January 13, 2019 by Helen Hegener

As the official photographer for the Matanuska Colony Project, Geisman documented every aspect of the venture, from the kitchen help aboard the North Star to the colonists’ children playing in the tent city, from officials posing stiffly for portraits to farmers working together to build homes before winter. His photographs portray proud farm wives showing their neat tent kitchens, and a small girl sitting in an Alaskan berry patch grinning at the cameraman. Continue reading →

Posted in Alaska History, Books, Colony Barns, Matanuska Colony, Matanuska Valley, News & Information | Tagged "A Mighty Nice Place", .R.R.C., Alaska, ARRC, Col. Frank Bliss, Colonist, Colony, Don Irwin, Helen Hegener, Jim Fox, L. N. Troast, Mary Nan Gamble, Matanuska, Matanuska Colony, Matanuska Valley, North Star, Northern Light Media, Palmer, photographs, Willis Geisman, Willis T. Geisman | Leave a comment

1967 Centennial Race

Posted on January 11, 2019 by Helen Hegener

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 →

Posted in Alaska History, Books, News & Information, Sled Dog History, Sled Dog Races | Tagged 1967, Dick Mackey, Earl Norris, George Attla, Herbie Nayokpuk, Iditarod Trail, Isaac Okleasik, Joe Redington, Joee Redington Jr., Knik, Leonhard Seppala, purchase of Alaska, The First Iditarod | Leave a comment

The Origins of Mushing

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Helen Hegener

“I find in the book, ‘The World of Sled Dogs,’ by Lorna Coppinger, that the earliest historical records of the use of sled dogs in the Siberian subarctic appear in Arabian literature of the tenth century; in writings of Marco Polo in the thirteenth century; and of Francesco de Kollo in the sixteenth.” Continue reading →

Posted in Alaska History, Books, News & Information, Sled Dog History | Tagged Bering Strait, dog teams, Eskimos, Fridjof Nansen, Frobisher, Historic Navigations, Ibn Batuta, Iditarod, In Northern Mists, Lorna Coppinger, mushing, mushing history, Sled Dog Tales, sledges, Wrangell, Yukon Quest | Leave a comment

1911 Iditarod Sweepstakes

Posted on December 31, 2018 by Helen Hegener

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 | Leave a comment

The First Iditarod, 2nd Edition

Posted on December 28, 2018 by Helen Hegener

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 | Leave a comment

All Alaska Sweepstakes

Posted on December 13, 2018 by Helen Hegener

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 | Leave a comment

Sled Dog Tales

Posted on December 11, 2018 by Helen Hegener

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 | 1 Comment

Alaska & The Klondike

Posted on December 9, 2018 by Helen Hegener

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 | 1 Comment

Alaska Railroad 1902-1923

Posted on December 7, 2018 by Helen Hegener

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 →