Northwest History. Alaska. Dogs, Dog Races & Mushers.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: Alaska dog derby; Fairbanks; Chena river trail; dog sled; Leonard Seppala; Salchaket; Bob Buzby; U. S. Signal Corps cup; antitoxin; diphtheria-stricken; Canada; New England; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Alaska; Pacific; Nome; Huskies
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/90514

Alaska Dog Derby Planned: New Course This Year For Fairbanks' Annual Race. New Course This Year For Fairbanks' Annual Race FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Jan. 4. (/P)—Fairbanks dog derby enthusiasts today awaited a break in the subzero weather to enable them to ?et out their skiis and start the gruelling labor of packing down the snow on the Chena river trail for this year's dog sled classic March 6-8. Leonard Seppala, world famous musher, In charge, said race drivers met and selected the 16 miles between here and Chena and decided to run the event in three qaily round-trip heats. This will make a 90-mile race as compared with the one-day 80-mile round trip between here and Salchaket formerly used. The team with the lowest total time will be declared the winner. Seppala suggested an innovation of placing the teams in groups allowing each group to draw lots and determine the starting order of individual teams. The groups would "move up", group two startting the second day's heat and group one starting last. Seppala will Judge this year's derby. He officiated last winter when Bob Buzby, young Fairbanks businessman, won for a third consecutive year over the old course and gained permanent possession of the U. S. Signal Corps cup. The cup will not be in competition but the Fairbanks ice carnival committee said this year's purse will total at least $1,000. Seppala is the veteran driver who won world fame in 1924 when his huskies made the longest and fastest mush in Alaska history— he carried antitoxin to diptheria-stricken Nome, over snow and broken ice, 137 miles in 16 hours' 32 minutes, broken by a night's •est. He is widely known through but the U. S. as a lecturer, and has :ompeted in eastern Canada and New England dog derbies.