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
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