Dog sled race has long history
Tradition kept alive through sport for 60 years
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Canadian Championship Dog Derby - and even the type of dogs themselves - has changed a lot since it started in 1955 in Yellowknife.
Racers take off on day three of the 60th annual Canadian Championship Dog Derby on Sunday. The derby has a rich history in the North. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo |
That first year Alfred Drygeese, known now as Alfred Baillargeon and still residing in Dettah, won the race for a grand prize of $50. Runner-up prizes included bags of groceries from Weaver and Devore.
But one race was all it took for popularity to catch on. Yellowknife Fish and Game Association, the organizing group at the time, raised funds and pledged to make it an event of huge Canadian significance. The second year of its existence saw higher cash prizes and teams competing from all over Great Slave Lake.
Its legacy continued last weekend, when racers took part in the 60th annual derby across the ice road from the Long John Jamboree.
Scott McQueen remembers his father and uncle, Danny McQueen and Ray Beck, heading off on five-day dog sledding marathons just to get to the Yellowknife derby.
The race was so serious, young Scott couldn't come along on the trip for fear he would add too much weight.
"They wanted to travel as light as they possibly could," recalled McQueen, whose family trapped on the southern shore of the lake at the time.
"Even when they were crossing Great Slave Lake they wouldn't bring a canvas tent with them. They would just make a fire outside
and sleep next to it."
All the pair brought were feather blankets and food for themselves and their dogs.
That dedication proved successful. Beck won the derby in '57, '58, '59, '60 and '62. Danny McQueen won five straight years from 1963-67.
After McQueen's last win, the format changed from the 240km marathon, but the Rotary Club of Yellowknife revived the long haul race with significant funding in 1972.
"When the race first began, it was a way to test working sled dogs," said McQueen. "Now people don't use sled dogs for working like that anymore. It's evolved into a sport."
What once were winter-hardened huskies are now smaller, short-haired dogs bred for speed and endurance. Racers no longer use the heavy toboggans of the past that were more suited for travelling great distances.
After his father died, McQueen tried his hand at racing in 1998, but his dogs were too exhausted by the third day to continue. Training takes a significant time investment.
"You want to make sure that you have a good training regime, where you're starting off in the fall with shorter runs and keep increasing the distances when your dog team's able to move up to a new distance," said McQueen. "It's important to have really good fuel for them because the food is the fuel they're going to burn."
Today, the derby attracts competitors from all over North America and even Europe. The race is known by dog sled enthusiasts the world over.
"It's got almost a folklore attitude in places outside of Yellowknife," said McQueen. "One of the racers who came up from Minnesota said as a young boy growing up with sled dogs, Yellowknife was a dream race they wanted to come to because it had such a rich history."
He says it will continue to be a big part of Northern culture and heritage.
