Welcome to the Hedlund Husky Preservation Project’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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