Hope Springs Kennels: History

The Siberian Husky: A Brief History of the Breed in America

The Fall of 1908 was history making in the North, for that year, Goosak, a Russian fur buyer, arrived in Nome with a team of nine Siberian Huskies to enter the 1909 All Alaska Sweepstakes Race of 408 miles with its $10,000 first prize.

No one was impressed with Goosak's little dogs weighing only 40 to 52 pounds, compared to their longer-legged, heavier competitors. The people of Nome referred to them as "Siberian Rats."

Goosak persuaded Louis Thrustrup to drive his team. This team, even though the odds were 100 to 1 against it in the betting, made a tremendous showing and nearly won the race, placing third. Rumor ran rampant in Nome that gamblers had paid off the driver before he reached the finish in order to save them from ruin. It was said that had Thrustrup won, it would nave broke the Bank of Nome. Goosak's dogs were subsequently sold to a Nome fur trader, Charlie Madsen. But, the Siberian dogs had made such an impression on the Honorable Fox Ramsay, a young Scotsman interested in mining in Nome that summer, that he went to Siberia, up the Kolima River, and purchased sixty of the best dogs he could obtain.

In April 1910, at the start of the third Sweepstakes, Ramsay had three teams in the race with one driven by John Johnson, one by Charlie Johnson (entered in the name of his uncle, Col. Weatherly Stuart of London), and one driven by himself. When one of Ramsay's teams, driven by John Johnson, made the all-time, never beaten record of 74 hours, 14 minutes for the 408 miles, and Fox Ramsay himself, placed second, all the amusement changed to admiration for the little Siberian. From that time on, the Siberian dogs attained an enormous popularity.

However, the concept that the Siberian Husky first came to Alaska with Goosak is misleading. Lieutenant Zogoskin, a Russian, writing of his travel in Alaska from 1842 through 1844, referred to the Kamchatka lead dogs his party was using. According to Zogoskin, the art of driving dogs, by the Alaskan natives, was in its infancy. There were no lead dogs. The small teams of three and four dogs followed a person, rather than being driven by someone. The Russians imported dog keepers and drivers from Akhotsh, as well as Siberian dogs. What influence if any, these animals had on the Alaskan stock is speculative. But it is possible the blue eyes and Siberian characteristics common to many dogs along the Yukon were there before the 1900s.

Amundson, the Norwegian explorer, planning an expedition to the North Pole, utilizing dogs, contracted a Nome miner, Jafet Lindenberg, to buy and train the dogs. When the polar trip was abandoned (Peoria had just reached the pole), the dogs, mostly Siberians, were turned over to Leonard Seppala, a Lindenberg employee, to be raced for Lindenberg.

That is how, during the latter stages of the Nome Sweepstakes, the wiry, little Norwegian came into possession of the Siberians. Seppala won the last three Alaska Sweepstakes and went on to many racing records, both in Alaska and "outside." Today, the name of Seppala is synonymous with that of the Siberian Husky.

When Nome was gripped in a diphtheria epidemic in 1925, and the life-saving serum was over 600 miles away, a dog team relay was formed to hasten its arrival. Seppala had left Nome early to meet the serum at Nulato on the Yukon River, but, due to speedy relays, he met a team with the serum on the eastern shore of Norton Sound, and after his all-day run, and in the midst of a blizzard, Seppala turned his tired team around, and with his leader, "Togo," made the perilous run back across the Sound. A team of Siberian led by "Balto," driven by Gunner Kasson, competed the last leg of the relay. A statue of "Balto" stands in New York honoring all the dogs of the serum run.

In the late 1920s, Seppala traveled to New England and eastern Canada racing all over the East, including the 1932 Olympics, which staged a demonstration sled-dog race in Lake Placid, New York. Many people acquired dogs from Seppala, and when he returned to Alaska, he left his remaining animals with Harry Wheeler, owner of Gray Rock Inn, St. Jovite, Quebec, whose famous kennel, with the suffix "of Seppala," is known to all breeders of Siberians. All the registered dogs bred today in the American Kennel Club registry can trace their ancestry to these dogs.

There was no one actually breeding pure Siberians in Alaska in 1946 when Natalie Jubin (now Mrs. Earl Norris) arrived with two AKC registered Siberians bred by Eva (Short) Seeley of Chinook Kennels in New Hampshire. One of these, "Chinook's Alladin of Alyeska," became the chief foundation stud during his lifetime, of Siberians bred in Alaska. Due to this dog's tremendous drive and working ability, plus well-balanced conformation and overall typiness, he was chosen as the Siberian to double up on.

"Ch. Bonzo of Anadyr, C.D." (Anadyr was used by the Norse's for their Siberians) was not only the first Siberian Husky to be placed Best in Show in an all-breed show, but he was Best in Match in the first sanctioned obedience trial and the only Siberian, to date, in Alaska, to earn that title. Both of these dogs, grandsons of Alladin, were famous racing leaders and were known and remembered by Alaskan mushers for their ability as lead dogs more than their other achievements.

In New England, in the meantime, Arthur Walden of Wonalancet, New Hampshire dominated the races with this Chinook dogs. Walden had established a line of sled dogs based upon Chinook, his large, yellow, mixed-breed lead dog. So handily did he win with these dogs that it was felt he couldn't be beaten. In 1927, however, Leonard Seppala came to race at Poland Springs, Maine. The impression that he and his dogs made upon the New England Sled-dog enthusiasts was not particularly overwhelming. In fact, the Siberians appeared so small next to the huge New England sled dogs that some people objected on humanitarian grounds to the Siberians being allowed to run at all. The race result turned out to be a shocker. Despite many mishaps, the Siberian team came in first -- seven minutes ahead of Walden!

At the time the first Siberians sere seen in New England, there was quite a variety in the specimens. Some were long and leggy, others shorter coupled and heavier boned; some marked symmetrically, many were not. The goal of the Chukchi breeders had always been function -- esthetics seldom entered the picture. Seppala, although obviously concerned with function, had already begun breeding with an eye to greater uniformity. Not the least of the problems facing these early breeders was the need to create a standard of conformation. After the breed was officially recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1930, the first standard was published in the AKC Gazette in April of 1932. It closely resembles the one used today. The degree to which the basic tenets of the Standard have survived indicates the kind of in-depth study that went into its composition.

More than any other of the foundation kennels in New England, Chinook and Monadnock remained dedicated to the concept of a dual-purpose Siberian, one who could win in the show ring as well as on the trail. Too often today, one hears the argument of show dogs versus sled dogs and forgets that not only did Chinook and Monadnock produce the foundation stock for almost every show kennel in the country, but they also fielded some of the top racing teams of their day. Even today, when the sport of sled dog racing has grown so popular, Mrs. Seeley and Mrs. Demidoff -- the women behind these two kennels -- are ranked among the top women drivers of all time. And the teams they drove contained many bench show champions, many of them outstanding leaders.