The Hedlund Husky

Welcome to the Hedlund Husky Preservation Program’s official website.

We are a group of individuals who share a passion for this historic line of working Alaskan Village Dog.  Through careful selection and breeding, we wish to see this line survive time and continue to bring joy into the lives of those who are fortunate enough to  live in their company.

An excerpt from Racing Alaskan Sled Dogs compiled by Bill Vaudrin 1976

 TO NELS AND ROSE HEDLUND

     Nels and Rose Hedlund. Eskimo and Athabascan respectively, grew up with sled dogs. They both ran their own traplines. When Rose was 13 she drove an 11 dog team, trained her own leaders, and designed her own harnesses which she still uses today.

     By the time Nels was 16 he had the mail run from Bethel to Aniak, a nearly 200 mile round trip, and was hauling as much as a thousand pounds of mail with up to 19 dogs at a time.

    People still talk about the rangy gray dogs Nels brought with him when he came to the Illiamna country, some 25 years ago.   For the past 20 years, the Hedlunds have had one of the largest kennels in the Illimana Lake area.

Nels has built and supplied sleds for drivers all over Alaska. Rose has bred and raised and sold dogs that have raced in half a dozen teams in the World Championship Race at Anchorage. Since 1960 she has divided her efforts between racing stock and registered Siberian Huskies.

  I moved to the Illiamna country when I was 17, an outside Indian green as birch leaves in the spring. Nels and Rose took me in, got me started that first winter with a team of dogs, and just generally kept an eye out to see I made it off on the right foot. They have been like family to me in every way.

   The Hedlunds are a legend in the Lake area.

   This book is dedicated to them.

                                       Bill Vaudrin