The American Dog Derby is a dogsled race held in Ashton, Idaho, on the third weekend of February. It is the oldest dogsled race in the United States.[1] The first American Dog Derby was held in 1917. It was tremendously popular in the 1920s through the 1950s. Interest waned in the 1960s and the race was discontinued for several years. It was revived in 1993 and continues to grow in popularity.
The dog sledding tradition in Ashton owes its existence to Union Pacific Railroad. Ashton was founded and constructed with the coming of railroad in 1906. The construction of the Yellowstone Branch continued from Ashton into the high country of Island Park and completed at West Yellowstone in 1908. A few years later, the Teton Valley Branch, was constructed from Ashton into the Lamont and Teton Valley areas and completed to Victor in 1912. Due to the deep snows, however, these two railroads were closed down in winter and not plowed until spring. This made Ashton the wintertime rail terminus for the entire region. In winter, mail, people, and supplies could only be transported to developments in these high country areas via dog sled. By 1917, mushing, in Ashton, was a serious business with dozens carving out a living training and maintaining dog sled teams that transported mail, people, and supplies to the high country in winter.
The idea for the first dog sled race has a traditional history that a popular barber in Ashton, named Jay Ball, dreamed it up after reading about the All-Alaska Sweepstakes in Nome, Alaska and the new Hudson Bay Dog Derby in Las Pas, Manitoba, Canada that began the year before in 1916. Two of the four founders of the American Dog Derby were direct employees of Union Pacific Railroad and that Union Pacific spent tens of thousands of dollars promoting the American Dog Derby over the following decades and made it a wildly popular international event and made several mushers international celebrities. A popular female musher named Lydia Hutchinson even starred in a movie.
The rules for the American Dog Derby would be based on those of the Hudson Bay Dog Derby, the course would be the unplowed Yellowstone Branch railroad from West Yellowstone to Ashton, and the date would be Sunday, March 4, 1917. Promoters must have been pleased when 16 teams registered in Ashton between February 25 and March 1 for the first big race. All were local. There were two teams from Harriman’s Railroad Ranch, one team from the Utida Gun Club, one from the Trude Ranch, several from West Yellowstone, one team from Henry’s Lake, one team from Kilgore, one team from Spencer, two from Marysville, one team from the Mesa Hunting Lodge, and several teams from Ashton. It looked to be a grand affair.
Tud Kent in deeps snows of Island Park in 1918 with same team he used to win in 1917. Photo illustrates problems of deep snow in Island Park
The heavy snows started falling in Island Park the beginning of March. Between 20 and 40 inches of fresh snow fell by the 3rd. It was deep and soft enough that only four teams were able to make their way through Island Park to the starting point at West Yellowstone. In spite of the elimination of 12 of the 16 entrants, things went well, Sunday morning, for the remaining four teams at the start of this 55-mile run down to Ashton. It was still snowing, however, and at 8 miles, assenting to Rea’s Pass on the Continental Divide, the teams encountered 20 more inches of new light powdery snow. They took turns at breaking trail. At 14 miles and entering Island Park near Big Springs, the winds began to blow and the snow storm became a blizzard. The mushing became even slower and more exhausting but the four teams pushed on through the flat Island Park country all day in the blizzard. With fading daylight, the teams realized that an exciting finish before a cheering crowd was not to be. They finally holed up for the night at a fish hatchery on Warm River at the 40 mile mark.
Start of Boys Race with each team consisting of one boy, one sleigh, and one dog.15 Dogs in One Big Fight and 15 Boys Trying to Untangle Them.
Meanwhile, in Ashton, the spectators waiting for them in the milder climes of the valley were having a pretty good time. It was described as a “large” crowd by the papers but the numbers were tiny when compared to those of following years. They watched or participated in the many other events of the American Dog Derby such as ski races, ski jumping, and a 200-yard boy’s dog sled race. Each “team” in the Boy’s Race consisted of one boy, one sled, and one dog. There were 15 teams, and at one point, it was reported, all 15 dogs were in one big fight with all 15 boys trying to untangle them. It was all great fun and, though going home and not seeing the big race finish, most spectators had a wonderful time and would be back the following year. Next morning, the four stranded teams at the fish hatchery raced down the Warm River grade, into the valley, and ran the final few miles into Ashton. Tud Kent, one of the four original organizers, racing for Harriman’s Railroad Ranch, was the first winner of the American Dog Derby, winning by over 20 minutes. He did this while breaking trail and would go on to win five more Dog Derbies for a total of six. This was more wins than any other musher.
Tud Kent (standing behind sleigh) and his dog team after winning the first American Dog Derby amid a deserted Main Street as mushers did not arrive until the Monday morning after the race day.
The race was promoted and held again the following year but in a figure-eight course in the valley around Ashton where 40 inch snowfalls are less common. By the early 1920s, the American Dog Derby attracted crowds estimated at 10 to 15 thousand and had officially displaced the All-Alaska Sweepstakes as the American Championship race. In fact, the All-Alaska Sweepstakes held its last race in 1919 making the American Dog Derby the oldest surviving American dog sled race. The American Dog Derby became so internationally popular, it would be considered the World Championship in dog sled racing. The prize money growing to $1000 in the 1920s would be equivalent to $130,000 today. With the wild success, the glamour, and the international press coverage of the American Dog Derby, dog sledding was popularized and dozens of other dog sled races soon sprang up across America, Canada, and in Europe making dog sled racing what it is today.
Ashton is a city in Fremont County, Idaho, United States. The population was 1,127 at the 2010 census, and it is part of the Rexburg Micropolitan Statistical Area. The district is noted for seed potato production and bills itself as the world's largest seed potato growing area.
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod, is an annual long-distance sled dog race run in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome, entirely within the US state of Alaska. Mushers and a team of between 12 and 14 dogs, of which at least 5 must be on the towline at the finish line, cover the distance in 8–15 days or more. The Iditarod began in 1973 as an event to test the best sled dog mushers and teams but evolved into today's highly competitive race.
A sled dog is a dog trained and used to pull a land vehicle in harness, most commonly a sled over snow.
Sled dog racing is a winter dog sport most popular in the Arctic regions of the United States, Canada, Russia, Greenland and some European countries. It involves the timed competition of teams of sled dogs that pull a sled with the dog driver or musher standing on the runners. The team completing the marked course in the least time is judged the winner.
A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing. Traditionally in Greenland and the eastern Canadian Arctic the Inuit had the dogs pull in a fan shape in front of the sled, while in other regions, such as Alaska and the western part of Northern Canada the dogs pull side by side in pairs.
Mushing is a sport or transport method powered by dogs. It includes carting, pulka, dog scootering, sled dog racing, skijoring, freighting, and weight pulling. More specifically, it implies the use of one or more dogs to pull a sled, most commonly a specialized type of dog sled on snow, or a rig on dry land.
The Iditarod Trail, also known historically as the Seward-to-Nome Trail, is a thousand-plus mile (1,600 km) historic and contemporary trail system in the US state of Alaska. The trail began as a composite of trails established by Alaskan native peoples. Its route crossed several mountain ranges and valleys and passed through numerous historical settlements en route from Seward to Nome. The discovery of gold around Nome brought thousands of people over this route beginning in 1908. Roadhouses for people and dog barns sprang up every 20 or so miles. By 1918 World War I and the lack of 'gold fever' resulted in far less travel. The trail might have been forgotten except for the 1925 diphtheria outbreak in Nome. In one of the final great feats of dog sleds, twenty drivers and teams carried the life-saving serum 674 miles (1,085 km) in 127 hours. Today, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race serves to commemorate the part the trail and its dog sleds played in the development of Alaska, and the route and a series of connecting trails have been designated Iditarod National Historic Trail.
The Yukon Quest, formally the Yukon Quest 1,000-mile International Sled Dog Race is a sled dog race scheduled every February since 1984 between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon. Because of the harsh winter conditions, difficult trail, and the limited support that competitors are allowed, it is considered the "most difficult sled dog race in the world", or even the "toughest race in the world"—"even tougher, more selective and less attention-seeking than the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race." The originator envisioned it as "a race so rugged that only purists would participate."
Joe Redington, Senior was an American dog musher and kennel owner, who is best known as the "Father of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race", a long distance sled dog race run annually from the Anchorage area to Nome, Alaska.
Dorothy G. Page was best known as "Mother of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race", the 1,049-mile dog sled race across the U.S. state of Alaska.
The 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the Great Race of Mercy and The Serum Run, was a transport of diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled relay across the U.S. territory of Alaska by 20 mushers and about 150 sled dogs across 674 miles (1,085 km) in 5+1⁄2 days, saving the small town of Nome and the surrounding communities from a developing epidemic of diphtheria.
Leonhard "Sepp" Seppala was a Norwegian-American sled dog breeder, trainer and musher who with his dogs played a pivotal role in the 1925 serum run to Nome, and participated in the 1932 Winter Olympics. Seppala introduced the work dogs used by Native Siberians at the time to the American public; the breed came to be known as the Siberian Husky in the English-speaking world. The Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award, which honors excellence in sled dog care, is named in honour of him.
Lance Mackey was an American dog musher and dog sled racer from Fairbanks, Alaska. Mackey was a four-time winner of both the 1,000-mile (1,600 km) Yukon Quest and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Newton Marshall is a professional independent dogsled musher.
The Jamaica Dogsled Team is a team of sled dogs and mushers headquartered at Chukka Caribbean Adventures in Ocho Rios, located in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. The dog team is made up of strays rescued by the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and offers dryland dogsled rides, along with the adventure center's other outdoor experiences. In addition, the two mushers Newton Marshall and Damion Robb, compete in sled races throughout the US and Canada, using leased dog teams. Country music singer Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville is the team's major sponsor.
Brent Sass is an American dog musher who is one of only six people to have won both the Iditarod and Yukon Quest sled dog races.
The All Alaska Sweepstakes was an annual dog-sled race held in Alaska during April. Mushers traveled from Nome to Candle, traveling along the Bering Strait, and then return to Nome.
The John Beargrease Sled Dog Race is a dogsled race held along the North Shore of Lake Superior in northeast Minnesota. At 400 miles, it is the longest sled dog race in the lower 48 states. The "Beargrease" is a qualifier for the famed Iditarod race in Alaska.
The Chukotka Sled Dog is the aboriginal spitz breed of dog indigenous to the Chukchi people of Russia.
References
↑ Famous Firsts, Natalie Rompella 2007, page 15, the All Alaska Sweepstakes was held in Alaska which was only a territory in 1917 and not part of the United States.
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