Producer: Sarah Birnbaum
Associate Producer: Ronnie Godeanu
Design Director: Mohammad Riza
Writer: David Malakoff
Designers: Sabina Daley, Shannon Palmer
Graphic Artist: Lenny Drozner
Acting Technical Director: G. Francisco Perin
Scientific Consultant: Gianna Scaralia

wNetStation is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Ann Willmott Andersson, Director of Interactive & Broadband.

© 1999 Thirteen/WNET New York

All Rights Reserved

Television Credits

A co-production of Pangolin Pictures Inc. and Thirteen/WNET New York.

Funder Credits

Funding for the TV series NATURE is made possible in part by Park Foundation. Major corporate support is provided by Canon U.S.A., Inc., Ford Motor Company, and TIAA-CREF. Additional support is provided by the nation’s public television stations.

We recommend the following Web sites for those interested in subjects presented on the program. All links are valid as of July 14, 2000.

Iditarod: The Last Great Race
www.iditarod.com
Everything you want to know about the world’s most famous sled dog race.

SledDog.Com
www.sleddog.com/indexmain.htm
A site for mushers of every stripe, armchair to frostbitten.

Alaskan Sled Dog and Racing Association
http://alaskansleddogracingassociation.com/
Preserving the traditions and heritage of the State of Alaska.

Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
www.iditarod.com/
From the history of the race to frequently asked questions, this site’s got it all.

Beargrease 2000
www.beargrease.com
The longest sled dog race in the lower 48 states.

Sled Dogs and Iditarod
http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/
Joe Runyan, 1989 Iditarod winner, and other famous Iditarod personalities, provide race updates on this site with information on all things Iditarod.

Print Resources

Bowers, Don. BACK OF THE PACK: AN IDITAROD ROOKIE MUSHER’S ALASKA PILGRIMAGE TO NOME. Anchorage, AK: Publication Consultants, 1998.

Brown, Tricia. IDITAROD COUNTRY: EXPLORING THE ROUTE OF THE LAST GREAT RACE. Anchorage, AK: Epicenter, 1998.

Flanders, Noel. THE JOY OF RUNNING SLED DOGS. Bozeman, MT: Alpine, 1988.

Freedman, Lou. IDITAROD CLASSICS: TALES OF THE TRAIL FROM THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO RACE ACROSS ALASKA. Anchorage, AK: Epicenter, 1992.

Jones, Tim. THE LAST GREAT RACE: THE IDITAROD. New York: Stackpole, 1988.

Mattson, Ted. ADVENTURES OF THE IDITAROD AIR FORCE: TRUE STORIES ABOUT THE PILOTS WHO FLY FOR ALASKA’S FAMOUS SLED DOG RACE. Anchorage, AK: Epicenter, 1997.

Riddles, Libby and Tim Jones. RACE ACROSS ALASKA: FIRST WOMAN TO WIN THE IDITAROD TELLS HER STORY. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 1988.

Standiford, Natalie. THE BRAVEST DOG EVER: THE TRUE STORY OF BALTO. New York: Random House, 1989.

In 1925, sled dogs helped stem a diphtheria outbreak.

In January 1925, doctors realized that a potentially deadly diphtheria epidemic was poised to sweep through Nome’s young people. The only serum that could stop the outbreak was in Anchorage, nearly a thousand miles away. But the lone aircraft that could quickly deliver the medicine had been dismantled for the winter. In desperation, officials turned to a much lower-tech solution: moving the medicine by sled dog.

Soon, a musher embarked from Anchorage on the first leg of a remarkable dog-sled relay aimed at delivering the needed serum to Nome. More than 20 mushers took part, battling temperatures that rarely rose above 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and winds that sometimes blew strong enough to knock over sleds and dogs. Reporters brought news of the race to a world suddenly transfixed by the drama in the far north.

Incredibly, just six days later, on February 2, 1925, Gunner Kaassen drove his heroic dog team into the streets of Nome. In the lead of his team was a husky named Balto, whose furry face soon became known around the world. A year later, in honor of the epic trek, admirers erected a statue of Balto in New York City’s Central Park.

Balto became known around the world.

Balto was suddenly a world-famous celebrity; for two years after the serum run, the dog and some of his teammates traversed the continental United States as part of a traveling show. After Balto died in 1933, his body was preserved and displayed at Cleveland’s Natural History Museum. In 1995, a popular animated movie about Balto was released, adding to his fame.

Long after his death, Balto’s popularity lives on. Today, some Alaskan schoolchildren are campaigning to bring Balto back to his home state. The students want his body moved to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race museum in Wasilla. But Cleveland officials aren’t ready to give Balto back, noting he spent more than half his life in their city. There are plans in the works, however, for Balto to return to Alaska as part of a temporary exhibit at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art — a testament to the strength of Balto’s memory and a fitting memorial to his indomitable spirit.

They call it the Last Great Race. It covers nearly 1,200 miles across some of the toughest terrain on earth, through some of the bitterest winter weather in the world.

Still, there is something about Alaska’s Iditarod sled dog race that keeps competitors coming back year after year, eager to test their 16-dog teams and mushing skills against the elements and each other.

Sled dogs racing the Iditarod.

NATURE’s SLED DOGS: AN ALASKAN EPIC provides a compelling portrait of this competition, a test of endurance for both dog and driver. It follows several teams as they race to overcome the many obstacles, physical and psychological, they encounter along the trail. And it allows armchair mushers, if only for a moment, to share in both the spectacle and splendor of the Alaskan wilderness and the special bond that unites the racers with their partners, the sled dogs. “It’s an unbelievable adventure,” says Joe Runyan, the 1989 Iditarod champion.

The Iditarod, held each March, isn’t a race for just anyone — or any dog. The route bumps along from Anchorage to Nome across rugged landscape, from mountains to sea ice, retracing an historic 1925 dash to bring desperately needed medicine to the children of Nome, who were threatened by a diphtheria epidemic. In 1967, Alaskan sled dog enthusiasts decided to memorialize the event and remind people of the sled dog’s proud place in Alaskan history; by 1973, it had evolved into the modern Iditarod. While experts don’t agree on what “Iditarod” means, many believe it is a Native American word meaning “distant place,” while “musher” is believed to come from the French word “marcher,” to walk.

The mighty Alaska range.

Iditarod racers “face a tough new test at every turn in the trail,” says Runyan, a dog breeder and Iditarod consultant who lives in southern New Mexico. At the beginning, for instance, the 60 to 80 racers who start must battle the soft snows of Alaska’s coastal plain, then fight their way along the frozen Yukon River, “which is just a big wind tunnel in the winter,” says Runyan. Later, the teams must traverse the dark, frozen wastes of the Bering Sea into Nome. At each of the 26 checkpoints along the way, veterinarians carefully monitor the health of every dog, making sure they are up to the challenge. If for any reason a dog does not receive a stamp of approval from the vet, they are immediately airlifted out of the back country. Not even the mushers get this kind of support.

All told, the trip can take 10 days or more. While it took speed record holder Doug Swingley of Sims, MT, just nine days to complete the course in 1995, another racer named John Schultz needed 32 days, 15 hours, and 9 minutes to finish in 1973. But for most mushers, “if they finish at all, they feel like they’ve won,” says Runyan. He notes that racers typically get just a few hours of sleep a day while on the trail, traveling at night and sacrificing shut-eye to make sure their dogs are getting enough food and rest.

The differences between the top teams and the also-rans are often “imperceptible at the beginning of the race,” says Runyan. After 500 miles, however, “things begin to resolve themselves,” he says, with better-prepared teams pulling ahead into a tight leading pack, waiting for a chance to break away into the lead. Often, those in front have spent all year preparing their dogs for the race, spending $50,000 or more to maintain a kennel of well-fed, carefully-trained champions.

The bond between musher and dog is crucial.

But strong dogs are only part of a winning formula. The driver’s attitude is also critical. “The musher has to keep a positive attitude, even if they have to fake it,” Runyan says. “The dogs really pick up on the emotions of the musher; a good attitude can make a good team even better.”

Desire also plays a big role. “If you are going to run the Iditarod, you’ve got to go to bed dreaming about it, mentally preparing yourself,” says Runyan. “You won’t find anyone in the lead pack without that desire.”

Indeed, in 1978 such desire denied another victory to Rick Swenson, an Alaskan who has won the race a record five times. After a tight battle across the state, Swenson entered the home stretch in Nome with a seemingly safe lead over his closest rival, fellow Alaskan Dick Mackey. But in a last-minute sprint that has become legendary, Mackey overtook Swenson in a photo finish, prevailing by just a single second. Such drama, Runyan says, “is what makes the Iditarod unique.”

Ironically, the powerful, dedicated canines profiled in NATURE’s SLED DOGS: AN ALASKAN EPIC are little more than mutts. “The dog we call the Alaskan husky isn’t a formal breed,” explains onetime musher Joe Runyan, who won Alaska’s Iditarod sled dog race in 1989. Rather, huskies are mixed-breed dogs that are selected “for performance, not looks,” he says.

In particular, husky breeders are looking for dogs with an instinctive desire to pull long and hard through the toughest conditions. “You’ve got to have dogs that really want to see what is around that next corner,” Runyan says. “They want to be always on the go.”

Still, careful breeding over decades has produced dogs with telltale physiques. For one thing, the best sled-pulling dogs have quick, efficient gaits and remarkable strength for their size. “You rarely see a really good sled dog over about 55 pounds,” says Runyan, speculating that larger dogs are at a physiological disadvantage when it comes to delivering oxygen and blood to the heart, lungs, and muscles. But even small dogs can pull impressive loads. “My daughter had a 43-pound dog that pulled over 800 pounds,” Runyan recalls. With such power, a 16-dog sled team “is like a small pony with 64 legs,” he notes. Bigger teams, including one that included more than 200 dogs, have been known to pull buses and even help move houses. “Their strength can be unbelievable,” Runyan says.

Getting dog teams to pull together, however, takes months of training. In the off-season, for instance, some mushers rope their teams to wheeled carts or four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles, and let the dogs pull the chariots along snowless dirt roads. The dogs are so strong and possess such an inherent drive to pull, that according to Runyan, even brakes have difficulty holding them back.

Dogs running the Iditarod have special abilities — and special requirements, like food. Along with their power comes a huge appetite. While a normal mutt might get by on 1,500 calories a day, sled dogs can easily consume up to 10,000 calories per day. And while they’re tough, huskies can have sensitive feet. To safeguard them, mushers tie on polar-fleece booties that keep paws warm and protected. In the Iditarod, a single musher will use about 2,000 booties. Each usually lasts several hours and up to 100 miles.

Once trained, sled dogs can remain in top form for years. It’s not unusual to see 10-year-old dogs in races. Top dogs are highly sought after by breeders to help sire champion lines. And the prospect of owning one is not to be taken lightly. “They take a lot of love and care,” Runyan points out.

To order a copy of Sled Dogs: An Alaskan Epic, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Sled Dogs: An Alaskan Epic was originally posted November 1999.