“We all know what an important part dogs have contributed to the development of Alaska, how dependent we are up here on them for transportation. I propose that we establish a Kennel Club, the purpose of which will be to improve the strains of Alaskan dogs, and to better their conditions. The Annual All-Alaska Sweepstakes races...will serve to prove which dogs are best. I predict that dog racing in Alaska will prove as popular a sport as horse racing in Kentucky.” -Albert Fink, Attorney and dog fancier, Nome, 1907
With the words above, spoken at the Board of Trade saloon in 1907, the Nome lawyer and dog fancier Albert Fink and a few friends set in motion the creation of the Nome Kennel Club, which would be the first to formalize the rules for racing dogs, founded on the same principles as the rules laid out for horse racing by the jockey clubs of Kentucky and elsewhere.
Albert Fink, who had lived in Nome since at least 1899, when a news item described him as a “bright young attorney,” was known for having fine dogs, as described in this article in the Nome Pioneer Press, November 21, 1907: “Albert Fink, Jake Berger and ‘Scotty’ Allen leave this morning for a ten days hunting trip to the Norton Sound country. Fink will drive one of the greatest dog teams which has ever been in Nome. He has some beautiful animals, and will put 15 of them onto one team. The others will also have excellent malamutes for it is the intention to make good time, and none but the best dogs will be able to stand the journey.”
Albert Fink served as the first President of the Nome Kennel Club, and when the well-known and widely respected dog driver John Hegness left Front Street in the first All Alaska Sweepstakes race he was driving a team owned by Albert Fink, with a leader named ‘Jack.’
The All Alaska Sweepstakes was the oldest organized distance sled dog race in the world, founded in 1908. The first recorded sled dog race in North America, it’s the race which made “Scotty” Allan, Leonhard Seppala, and John “Iron Man” Johnson famous, along with their courageous lead dogs ‘Baldy,’ ‘Togo,’ and ‘Kolyma.’
The All Alaska Sweepstakes is considered the “granddaddy of all sled dog races,” the one which set the standard in dog care, as explained by the Race Marshal for the 2008 Centennial running, Al Crane: “Winning in that 400 plus mile race did not mean pulling out all the stops and going for broke, but employing the use of great strategy and special care to get their dogs through some of the roughest and most inhospitable landscape in Alaska. From those early races have come most of the basic rules for present-day long distance or for that matter all sled dog racing; thus, all sled dog racing is tied inextricably to the Sweepstakes race.”
John Hegness won the inaugural All Alaska Sweepstakes race, with a time of 119 hours, 15 mins, and 12 secs., and reportedly won a purse of $10,000, although there were different reports of $2,500 - still a whopping amount for the era. The second place time for popular Nome musher “Scotty” Allan was 120 hours, 7 minutes, and 52 seconds. This close finish for such a rich purse guaranteed the future popularity of the race!
For many years the silver trophies which were awarded to the winners of the first and second race (among others) were missing and unaccounted for. In 2010 the Alaskan artist Jon Van Zyle was gifted the elaborately ornamental trophy which “Scotty” Allan won in the second All Alaska Sweepstakes in 1909. In turn, Van Zyle gifted the trophy to the Carrie McLain Memorial Museum in Nome, and a lengthy article in Mushing magazine included a detailed description: “The cup stands 18 inches tall and weighs about five pounds. It is ornately engraved with the name of the winner, the date and the winning time of 82 hours, 2 minutes and 41 seconds. Inscribed under thick overlaid lines descending from the rim is the phrase ‘Midnight Sun’ over a representation of half a sun still visible over the horizon. On the reverse is a gold pan backed by a pick and shovel. Gracing the base are four finely fashioned snowshoes, each individually crafted, the delicate silver thread webbing wrapped tightly around perfectly shaped frames. Two handles cast from solid silver are topped by accurately sculpted heads of huskies. ‘The workmanship is gorgeous,’ Van Zyle said.”
In the article then-Director Laura Samuelson noted that the Nome museum had the trophies for race years 1910, 1911, 1912, and the three trophies won by Leonhard Seppala in 1915, 1916 and 1917 (on loan from the University of Alaska). With Van Zyle’s gift of the 1909 trophy, only the 1908, 1913, and 1914 trophies were missing.
A couple of weeks ago this writer was contacted by a gentleman whose family trust owns the 1908 trophy, won by Albert Fink’s team, John Hegness driving. While not as elaborately ornate as the following year’s trophy, the 1908 silver loving cup is the ‘Holy Grail’ of mushing, the first trophy won by the winning team in the first running of the most historically important sled dog race in the world. Phone calls and emails have flown over the past two weeks as word of this legendary gem has spread, as the owners would like to see the trophy returned to an Alaskan museum on a long-term loan exhibit.
Both Albert Fink and John Hegness lived extraordinary lives, and I’ll write more about each of them in the near future for my website on the All Alaska Sweepstakes, which attempts to preserve the history of the great event and share stories, photographs, newspaper and magazine articles and more. At the 2008 Centennial Running of the race I was part of the official media team, and my contribution to the effort was a book about the 100th Anniversary race. But as I’ve learned more about the history over the years I have come to appreciate the depth of influence this great race has had on the North, and for the last two years I’ve been working on a book expanding the history to include the pre-war races, and the dog drivers who accepted the challenge of one of the most arduous routes ever devised. Stay tuned!
Helen
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Helen Hegener