Northern Light Media

2012 Copper Basin 300

Early Sunday morning an emergency alert was released by the Copper Basin Race Committee...

Knik 200 Joe Redington Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race

The 2012 Knik 200-Joe Redington Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race came to an exciting,...

Paul Johnson Memorial-Norton Sound 450

The Norton Sound Sled Dog Club was established by local mushers in 1971 to...

B.A.R.K. – Buy A Round of Kibble

The idea for the “Buy A Round of Kibble”program was developed by ardent race...

There are many strange and unusual stories in the annals of northern sled dog travel, but one of the most fascinating concerns an enigmatic Japanese explorer and adventurer named Jujiro Wada. Born in Japan in the 1870s, the second son of a lower-class samurai warrior, he traveled to the U.S. in 1890 and worked as a cabin boy for the Pacific Steam Whaling Company and at Barrow for the renowned Charlie Brower, manager of the Cape Smythe Whaling and Trading Company, which history buffs agree was probably where he learned to handle sled dogs and began learning the Alaska Native languages. Jujiro Wada was with E.T. Barnette when the businessman landed at what is now the site of Fairbanks. Hearing about the recent...
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Sled Dog Mail in Alaska 1890′s to 1963

By Helen

November 27, 2011

Delivering the mail to Alaska has always presented a formidable challenge to the U.S. Postal Service. Letters, parcels, and supplies from the “Lower 48 states” often took weeks or months to reach their destinations. Steamships transported Alaskabound mail north from Puget Sound in Washington to southeastern coastal towns. After reaching these towns, mail was carried to some sections of interior Alaska by river steamers and, later, by Alaska Railroad trains for delivery to smaller, outlying villages. The harsh Arctic weather and limited trail and road system also made mail delivery extremely difficult. In the more isolated sections, carrying the mail required methods far different than those traditionally used elsewhere in the United States. Dogs proved superior for the winter transport...
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Appetite & Attitude

By Helen

November 25, 2011

In 2008 Northern Light Media produced the documentary Appetite and Attitude: A Conversation with Lance Mackey, about the world’s preeminent long distance sled dog racer, who made racing history when he won two 1,000 mile races back-to-back, the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod, with most of the same dogs – an incredible feat of endurance, long considered almost impossible, which changed how mushers think about what their dogs are capable of achieving. An excerpt from an early review noted, “For die hard Lance fans, like myself, its mesmerizing. He is amazingly candid and open. He offers up insights about the sport that few of us would imagine. He tells us a lot about his own thinking and how he...
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Stained Glass Dogteam

By Helen

November 25, 2011

The Northern Light Media logo is a stained glass dogteam which graced The Arctic Club in Seattle around the turn of the century. Now fully restored and hanging in the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle, it highlights the colorful history and partnership of sled dogs and their mushers, and the concept of light shining through the glass to illuminate the scene nicely underscores our company name: Northern Light. We’ll share more about this magnificent piece of artwork in a future post.
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By Helen

November 25, 2011

Since 1997 Northern Light Media has been tracking sled dog races in Alaska and the Yukon, closely following the Iditarod, the Yukon Quest, and the centennial running of the famous All Alaska Sweepstakes, the oldest organized sled dog race in the world. Many shorter races are tracked annually as well, including the Alaska Excursions 120, Sheep Mountain 150, GinGin 200, Knik 200, Copper Basin 300, Northern Lights 300, Tustamena 200, and many others. When sled dogs are racing across the trails of Alaska and the Yukon Territory, Northern Light Media will be tracing their routes, reporting on their standings, and whenever possible, photographing the teams along the way. From interviews with mushers and race organizers to tales from the...
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The Mushing History Conference

By Helen

November 24, 2011

The 2009 Mushing History Conference, presented by Northern Light Media, took place Nov 6-8, at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and at the Iditarod Trail Headquarters and the Grand View Hotel, in Wasilla, Alaska. The 2009 Conference brought together many veteran mushers, along with a broad assortment of authors, historians, researchers, storytellers, writers and photographers for a weekend of exploring the colorful history of man’s travel via dogteam. Presentations traced the evolution of man’s relationship with working sled dogs, including trapline use of sled dogs in the North American fur trade, historic and present-day sled dog races, delivering the U.S. mail by dogteam, sled dog use in polar expeditions, the Centennial of the Iditarod National Historic Trail, Joe Redington’s work...
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Yukon Quest Album

By Helen

December 17, 2011

Yukon Quest Album 1,000 miles across northern Alaska and the Yukon Territory The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race spans some of the harshest winter territory on the planet: 1,000 miles between Fairbanks, Alaska and the city of Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Known as ‘The World’s Toughest Sled Dog Race,’ it’s an event like no other. Run every February, the race is phenomenally challenging, crossing four mountain ranges, including the dangerous and intimidating 3,685-foot Eagle Summit, as it loosely follows the course of the mighty Yukon River. First run in 1984, the Yukon Quest follows historic mail delivery and transportation routes between Fairbanks, Dawson City, and Whitehorse, the same routes followed by the stampeders in the 1890′s Klondike Gold Rush. The idea originated...
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Graveyard of Dreams

By Helen

December 17, 2011

Craig Medred has written about the Iditarod perhaps more than any other single writer, gathering numerous awards as he made the race come alive for his readers; in 1992 he was named one of the best sports writers in America for his Iditarod coverage. An Alaska Dispatch staff writer, Craig added to his considerable writing accomplishments with his first book about the Iditarod, Graveyard of Dreams: Dashed Hopes and Shattered Aspirations Along Alaska’s Iditarod Trail. An excerpt: The “come back” theme resonates throughout these chapters: The come back from the brink, the come back from heartbreak, the come back time and again by those who should have quit. But one come back story bears telling first because it is...
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Ballad of the Northland

By Helen

December 16, 2011

Ballad of the Northland is an epic Alaskan tale, spinning the story of a legend, “The Boy,” who grows up on the Yentna River in the foothills of the Alaska Range, hunting, trapping, learning to drive a dogteam and learning to get by in a harsh world where survival is never taken for granted. There’s an enigmatic quality to the story, recurring images and feelings which hint at an overriding mystery: “The wind is howling and Mama is singing, Mama howling and the wind singing, I can’t tell one from the other now. Howling and singing.” The Boy learns about the Great Race, a grueling 1,000-mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome, and his true story begins. He learns...
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Champion of Alaskan Huskies

By Helen

December 11, 2011

When an intrepid musher and his fast-moving team wins the premier sled dog race in the world — the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska — the trophy presented to honor their achievement is a 95-pound bronze sculpture depicting race founder Joe Redington, Sr. The artist was Bill Devine, a close friend of Redington’s who created many of the symbols associated with the great race, and he designed the trophy with Joe’s arm around his favorite lead dog, Feets, and with the burled arch — which signifies the end of the great race — standing behind him. It’s a fitting tribute to a visionary Alaskan legend, a homesteader, pilot, big-game guide, fisherman and miner; but...
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Races

2012 Copper Basin 300

Early Sunday morning an emergency alert was released by the Copper Basin Race Committee temporarily suspending the Copper Basin 300. According to the statement signed by Race Marshal Greg Parvin, and posted around 6:00 am, the section of trail between Meier’s Lake and Sourdough was impassable due to unusually deep snow conditions, high winds and...

Knik 200 Joe Redington Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race

The 2012 Knik 200-Joe Redington Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race came to an exciting, crowd-pleasing, but confusing finish on Sunday afternoon when four-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey raced under the finish banner only moments ahead of 2010 Copper Basin 300 champion Jake Berkowitz. As the two teams swept out of the woods and down...

Paul Johnson Memorial-Norton Sound 450

The Norton Sound Sled Dog Club was established by local mushers in 1971 to support dog mushing in the village and region. The annual Norton Sound Portage 200 race, started in 1973, goes from Unalakleet to Kaltag and return. Now the Norton Sound Sled Dog Club is proud to announce a new race, the...

B.A.R.K. – Buy A Round of Kibble

The idea for the “Buy A Round of Kibble”program was developed by ardent race fans and longtime volunteers Lee and Claudia Nowak, of Traverse City, Michigan. Sled Dog Central is the host site for the list of participating kennels, bringing the B.A.R.K. program to the attention of mushing fans who want to support their favorite...

Race Season Triple Kickoff

The Alaskan sled dog racing scene got off to an exciting start this past weekend with three hotly contested and crowd-pleasing races, including the Sheep Mountain 150, which runs through the mountains and between lodges on the Glenn Highway west of Glennallen, the Alaska Excursions 120 in Big Lake, and the Two Rivers Dog Mushers Solstice 100 near Fairbanks....

The Wild Quest

Up Here magazine is sort of like an Alaska magazine for the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada’s Far North Country. Writer and Associate Editor Katharine Sandiford’s article The Wild Quest appears in the October-November, 2009 issue, and it will stir the heart of any Yukon Quest fan: When my editor suggested I follow the 2009 Yukon Quest from...

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