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History of the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Breed
Copyright ©2009 J. Jeffrey Bragg
The Original Siberian Sleddog (Prior to 1908)
It is uncertain how domestic dogs first came to the vast arctic and subarctic land of Siberia; they may have arrived with nomadic tribes pushing northward out of Mongolia. They may have arisen from native wolves. Probably the Siberian dog developed from both scenarios as dogs that came along with Mongol tribespeople were bred with wolves raised from pups by the same people. Tribes in various regions of Siberia had different kinds, types and sizes of dogs, used for various purposes such as hunting, draught, and fur production.
Although popular northern-dog myth claims the Chukchi tribe to have had a unique strain of dogs, supposedly "purebred for three thousand years," in reality the dogs of the Yukaghir, the Yakuts, the Kamchadal, the Koryak and other tribal groups were as important as those of the Chukchi (whose dogs were widely regarded as the poorest specimens in Siberia). Although all of these tribal dogs conformed to the basic northern dog image, there was much variation among tribal varieties.
Siberia in the late nineteenth century contained a vast heterozygous canine population with considerable genetic diversity and regular migration among subpopulations. Given the way the dogs were kept and the relative absence of controlled breeding, boundaries between the purpose-bred varieties could hardly have been rigidly fixed; they could not have been called purebreds or distinct breeds in the modern sense. Nomadic travel and inter-regional trade in dogs took place constantly, assuring that no single tribal variety of dog was ever genetically isolated in the way that modern purebred dog breeds are.
The entire canine population of Siberia was ruled by natural selection in one of the harshest climatic regions on earth, giving these dogs unique hardiness and survival characteristics. The Siberian sleddog as it was imported into Alaska during the period from 1908- to1930 was naturally hardy and vigourous, was a natural sleddog, and was heterozygous and variable in type. It was not at all identical, of course, to the Siberian Husky show-dog breed later developed by selection in the U.S.A. from a tiny handful of Siberian stock, neither was it originally bred or selected as a racing dog, although original import dogs performed superbly in the All-Alaska Sweepstakes after just one season of conditioning and training.
Importations to Alaska (1908 to 1915)
In summer of 1908, during the period of the Nome Gold Rush, a ten-dog team of Siberian sleddogs was imported to Nome, Alaska, by a Russian fur trader, William Goosak. The team was entered in the 1909 All Alaska Sweepstakes, a 408-mile dogsled race from Nome to Candle and back, organised as a late-winter entertainment event in the miners' community. The Sweepstakes were hotly contended, and were a major wagering event in the Gold Rush society that was flush with easy money. Alaskan sleddogs of the day were usually mongrels or crossbreds, usually mostly of "white man's breeds"; the norm was represented by dogs of from 80 to 120 pounds. The smaller Siberian dogs were scorned by the miners as "little Siberian rats." The Goosak team, driven by Louis Thurstrup, was given 100 to 1 betting odds, but came close to scoring an upset victory. (It is said that an agent of a gamblers' consortium met the team on the trail and bribed the driver to slow down, as a 100-to-1 victory would have broken the Bank of Nome.) The Siberian team finished third, to the astonishment of the Nome mining community; needless to say, there was an upsurge of immediate interest in the Siberian draught dog.
The following summer a young Scots nobleman, Charles "Fox" Maule Ramsay, second son of the 13th Earl of Dalhousie, chartered a schooner to cross the Bering Sea to Siberia. From the Anadyr River village of Markovo he obtained between sixty and seventy Siberian sleddogs which he took back to Nome. The dogs were immediately set to work hauling mine timbers into the hills. The following winter, three Sweepstakes teams were entered from this group of imports; driven by Ramsay himself, by John "Iron Man" Johnson, and by Charles Johnson, the three teams placed second, first, and fourth respectively, definitively proving the speed and endurance of the "little Siberian rats" versus the large freighting mongrels. In the following years more stock was brought from Siberia by various individuals, including a young miner named Leonhard Seppala from the village of Skjervøy in Norway.
1915 to 1931 - Leonhard Seppala
Seppala worked for the Pioneer Mining Co., owned by his friend Jafet Lindeberg; he had been in Alaska for thirteen years in 1913 when Lindeberg collected a group of Siberian dogs, mostly females and pups, which he intended to present to polar explorer Captain Roald Amundsen for his proposed expedition to the North Pole. As Seppala by then had considerable experienced driving freighting teams of mixed breeds, Lindeberg turned the Siberian dogs over to him for training. The Amundsen expedition never happened, and Seppala kept the dogs, and entered them in the 1914 Nome Sweepstakes. The dogs were young, Seppala had never run a race as demanding as the Sweepstakes nor even been over the course; he took a wrong turn as a blizzard was beginning, and narrowly escaped going off a cliff with his team. By the time he made it back onto the trail, his team was exhausted and he withdrew from the race.
The 1915 Sweepstakes was another story! Seppala prepared his team carefully and, although he was the long-shot of that year, easily won the race. As he did in 1916 and 1917 (the last year in which the All Alaska Sweepstakes was run). His three-year domination of the Sweepstakes, coupled with the advent of World War One, caused the race to be discontinued.
(Image and digital restoration courtesy Janis A. Ingve)
Seppala’s career with Siberian dogs continued unimpeded for almost another decade in Nome. Towards the end of that period he clocked as much as seven thousand miles on sled runners in a single season, probably more than any other driver of his time. His dogs had an unsurpassed reputation for speed and endurance, and were in great demand for passenger trips, medical evacuations, and fast delivery of mail and emergency supplies. His career culminated with his participation in the rescue by dogsled relays of the city of Nome from a midwinter diphtheria epidemic by the delivery of a shipment of antiserum from Nenana, Alaska, the closest rail delivery point.
The "Nome Serum Run" as it was called became a highly newsworthy event which garnered considerable publicity for the participants. On the strength of that, Seppala toured the U.S.A. and Canada in 1926-1927 with forty-four sleddogs, finishing his tour in Poland Spring, Maine, where he won a "challenge race" against the reigning Maine dog-driving champion Arthur T. Walden. In Poland Spring he joined forces with Elizabeth M. Ricker to form a breeding kennel of Siberian dogs there. In 1930 the Seppala/Ricker kennel was responsible for the last importation of dogs from Siberia before the "Iron Curtain" consequent to the Russian Revolution closed down all exterior trade into and out of Siberia. In 1930 Seppala and Ricker took their dogs to Canada for an extended stay at the Laurentian ski resort of Grey Rocks Inn, owned by Harry R. Wheeler, at St. Jovite Station, Québec.
Harry R. Wheeler, Alex and Charles Belford (1931 to 1950)
At Gray Rocks Inn Seppala ran up a hotel bill he could not pay, Ricker found romance on New Year's Eve of 1931 with Kaare Nansen (son of the Norwegian polar explorer) and left with him for Norway; that was the end of the Seppala/Ricker kennel. Harry R. Wheeler acquired the core breeding stock of Seppala Kennels, as well as the kennel name. The Poland Spring kennel had lasted less than five years. Nevertheless, it had bridged the crucial gap between Alaska and the fledgling eastern centres of sleddog sport in Québec and New England.
The stock acquired by Wheeler included the Siberia import males Kree Vanka and Tserko, dogs that in subsequent breeding became so dominant that to this day they remain the virtual grandsire and great-grandsire of every living dog of the pure Seppala strain. Wheeler exported dogs back to New England, co-operating closely and occasionally exchanging stock with Alex Belford, DVM, and his son Charles Belford, both of Laconia, New Hampshire.
The "Siberian Husky" breed was recognised in the U.S.A. by the American Kennel Club in 1930; there was no parallel recognition in Canada at the time. Wheeler's exports to New England caused some concern in purebred dog circles and in 1939 Wheeler was ultimately forced to register his dogs with the Canadian Kennel Club, against his better judgment. (Working dog drivers of the day had little respect for dogs shows, show dogs, and their purebred registries.)
The year before the CKC recognition of the "Siberian Huskie" (both versions of the breed name based on an Alaskan racial slang label for the Inuit people), the Siberian Husky Club of America was founded, setting that breed firmly upon the path to show dog status. Early show dog breeders were dissatisfied with the physical "conformation" of the working Siberians of the day; nonetheless, early show dog breeders such as Eva B. Seeley (Chinook Kennels) and Lorna B. Demidoff (Monadnock Kennels) eagerly bred to US-owned Wheeler males and their descendants. Despite that, the show dogs gradually and inexorably changed from the lightweight, agile dogs typical of Seppala strain into something that resembled a miniature version of the Alaskan Malamute.
Wheeler and the Belfords would have nothing to do with the show dog bloodlines, so that a one-way pedigree barrier became established, in which show breeders often used Seppala lineage stock to improve the soundness of their dogs, while Seppala breeders would not consider anything with Chinook or Monadnock bloodlines in the pedigree. Thus over the years the Seppala strain became virtually a breed within a breed, always closely held by a tiny handful of breeders.
In 1950 Harry Wheeler closed his breeding operation and sold his remaining dogs to another Québec resident, J. D. "Donnie" McFaul of Maniwaki. McFaul immediately resold about half the Wheeler stock to another sleddog breeder in New England, William L. Shearer III of Boston, Massachusetts.
William L. Shearer III and J. D. McFaul (1950 to 1963)
Both Shearer and McFaul had acquired Siberians prior to the closing of the Wheeler kennels. Shearer, in fact, got his first Siberians in 1930 from the Seppala/Ricker kennel, and was a steady customer of the Wheeler operation. McFaul got his first Siberians from Shearer in 1942, breeding at first as Gatineau Kennels.
The regular exchange of broodstock among the major Seppala kennels (Wheeler, Turner, Shearer, Belfords, McFaul, Bryar, Gagnon, McDougall) produced a strong main trunk of Seppala lineage that was carried forward from 1930 through the mid-1960s entirely free of and separate from the show breeding of Chinook Kennels and its successors. Bill Shearer was central to that exchange of stock, both acquiring and furnishing stock from and to the other majors.
In 1938 Shearer acquired the bitch that made a permanent mark on Seppala strain and who was Shearer's true foundation bitch: the unregistered Sigrid III of Foxstand. Bred to Millie Turner's leader, Vanka of Seppala II, Sigrid produced dogs like Foxstand's Shango who was Shearer's main leader for several years. His sister Foxstand's Sukey bred to another Turner maie (Jeuahnee of Cold River) produced another major Shearer leader, the long-coated Foxstand's Shamus.
Both SHANGO and SHAMUS were titans of the era of the single lead dog, before the racheting-up of competitive levels in the 1960s that resulted in the present-day situation of double-leaders and sixteen to twenty-two dog open-class racing teams. Bill Shearer stood five feet ten inches tall and weighed two hundred pounds. His usual team size was nine or eleven dogs. Typical races of his day ran for three days at twenty or thirty miles each day. Under parameters like these, races were won at ten to fifteen miles an hour over "hill-and-dale" courses, not because the dogs of that era were inferior but because the concept and implementation of dogsled racing were different then. In many locales (eastern Canada, for example) and individual races, team size was not unlimited, but often restricted to seven or nine dogs. A two-hundred-pound driver could not compensate for his own weight or lack of athletic condition by driving a sixteen or eighteen dog team. Sleds tended to be larger and heavier. Steel runner shoes were the usual thing. Dog harnesses were heavier and less efficient in design than today. Ganglines and tuglines were shorter, so that teams were more closely-hitched with less running room for each dog. Moreover, the "numbers game" of breeding two hundred and fifty pups to get half a dozen good racing dogs had not yet taken hold.
Donnie McFaul had acquired Siberian stock from Shearer in 1942 for winter patrol use. Eight years later, when he bought the last of the Wheeler dogs, he essentially started over, discarding the "Gatineau" stock (which in the hands of others went on to become the rootstock of several of the best Racing Siberian Husky bloodlines).
The Seppala Kennels of McFaul in Maniwaki was crucial to the continuation of the pure Seppala trunk from 1950 through 1963. Prior to the purchase of the Wheeler stock and kennel name, McFaul had acquired Foxstand’s Sunday from Shearer and Zarina of Seppala III from Wheeler. CKC stud book records show eleven dogs transferred from Wheeler to MacLean and McFaul. Seven of them were resold to Shearer; McFaul kept only four: Bilkoff of Seppala, Bilka of Seppala II, Volk of Seppala and Vodka of Seppala III.
Five litters were bred in 1951 and 1952 making use of the new genetic resources from the Wheeler kennel. Bilkoff sired two litters out of Bilka II. Vodka III sired a litter out of Zarina III. Vodka III also sired a litter out of one of the Bilkoff/Bilka II progeny, while Volk sired a litter out of another. At that point the partnership acquired Foxstand's Georgia. These early breedings established the future genetic topography of Seppala strain. The breeding carried on from that base over the next ten years, to a total of thirty litters.
(1962, Ste. Agathe des Monts, QC)
McFaul raced in much the same way as Shearer after acquiring the Wheeler dogs, competing mostly in Quebec and New England races. McFaul sold males to other racers, notably to Laconia racer Keith Bryar, getting a price of $1000 for his dogs in the 1950s; he would not sell females at any price. Bryar, who had six or eight fine McFaul males, was finally forced to buy a Foxstand bitch from Shearer in order to start his own breeding programme.
J. Malcolm McDougall of Ste. Agathe des Monts QC had better luck with McFaul in the late 1950s (or more money) and managed to secure two females, Vixen of Seppala IV and Chugach of Seppala, in addition to Gagnon's Ruby from the Maniwaki kennels of Allan Gagnon. His main stud dog was the well-known Maquois of Seppala. McDougall bred Seppalas until the late 1960s when he switched to Alaskan huskies to remain competitive in the faster sprint races that had become the norm in those days.
In 1963 Donnie retired and sold the remainder of his stock to Earl F. Norris, Alaskan Kennels, of Willow, AK, who had no interest in keeping Seppala strain going. Norris had purchased the McFaul stock only as an aid to the genetic renewal of his own mainstream Siberian Husky strain. He took just a few McFaul dogs to Alaska, leaving many "farmed out" in eastern Ontario and western Quebec.
The rescue of Seppala strain from impending extinction in the early 1970s was achieved through the use of McFaul-bred stock and the McFaul-derived Malamak and Bryar bloodlines.
Near Extinction (1963 to 1970)
In 1956 Shearer closed Foxstand Kennels after a career spanning a quarter of a century. His contribution to the development of Seppala lineage and thus, to that of the Seppala Siberian Sleddog, was absolutely crucial. It is strange that today he is so little remembered or regarded. Without such dogs as Foxstand’s Sunday and Foxstand’s Georgia, McFaul would not have had a sufficient genetic base to carry on. But the McFaul operation outlasted Shearer’s kennel only by seven years. Without question the most crucial period for the Leonhard Seppala Siberian sleddog was the twelve years following the closing of the McFaul Seppala Kennels. This was the period when Seppala strain might well have been lost forever in its pure form; it was, in fact, a very close brush with extinction for the Seppala dogs.
The Bryar kennel was never a serious breeding operation. It produced small numbers of stock that seem to have been sold mostly at random. The McDougall kennel bred more, but mostly for its own use. Neither kennel produced major continuation bloodlines.
By the close of the 1960s the last surviving McFaul dogs were seven years old or more. The market for racing Siberians had disappeared. J. Malcolm McDougall had by then ceased to breed Siberians and was running mostly Alaskans on his team. So was anyone else who wanted to be seriously competitive in major dogsled races. Over the years races had gotten shorter and faster. Trails were much better groomed, lightweight nylon harness was in general use and plastic runner surfaces were beginning to appear, replacing steel shoes. The Siberian Husky had come into great disrepute in serious sleddog racing circles for a variety of reasons, chiefest of which was that the majority breed population had become show dogs.
The desertion of the Seppala Siberian by people like McDougall, Belford, Lombard and Bryar, together with widespread lack of interest in maintaining the breeding population of the strain during the seven years following McFaul's retirement, brought about the absolute nadir of the Seppala Siberian sleddog. Deserted on all sides, abandoned and ageing, Seppala dogs were a figure of ridicule at the time. The show people called them "ugly -- dirty faces -- mismarked" and the racers simply jeered "too slow." To express an interest in Seppalas was to be laughed at from all sides.
The historic Leonhard Seppala bloodline seemed ready for extinction, or at least for disappearance by assimilation into the much more numerous mainstream Siberian Husky population.
The Markovo Rescue (1970 to 1975)
(Born 10 February 1959, sired by Toto of Seppala out of Zaza of Seppala)
The Willett Years (1975 to 1990)
Beginnings of the SSSD Project (1990 to 1995)
Early Days of WCAC (1995 to 2002)
ISSSC Confusion (2002 to 2005)
Evolving Breed (2005 to the present)
