Sunday, November 25, 2007

Dog Sledding

Brown, Hawkins (1910). Alaska's Digital Archives: 1/2 Ton of Gold Dust. Seward, Alaska
Link: http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cdmg10&CISOPTR=131&REC=1

The title of the picture above is 1/2 Ton of Gold Dust, this picture was taken between 1904 and 1913. It shows a couple of dog sled teams lined up on Fourth Avenue in Seward, Alaska. This picture was taken after the teams brought back of large amount of gold dust from the Iditarod gold fields. It was said to be the largest amount of gold dust ever carried by dog sleds, and is was valued at $210,000.
D. Smith, C. Whitlock (2003). Mush the Rush: a mushing chronicle.
Dog sledding was once the main source of transportation in the Arctic Region, dog sledding goes back before snow machines and airplanes all the way to the 1800's. Dog sleds were used to transport such things as people, cargo, mail, and medicine from location to location threw the deep snow. Dog sledding was not only used for transportation, in the mid 1880's the first race occurred. In 1886 racing became a big part of winter carnivals and in 1932 dog sledding was a demonstrated sport at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

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