My excursion into New England sleddog breed history the other day led me to look into additional avenues of information about Chinook Kennels, and in so doing I came to the New England Sled Dog Club website. There are several interesting essays touching on aspects of NESDC history on the site, but what really attracted my interest was a table containing the 1932 Lake Placid Olympics demonstration race results. This Olympics demonstration race was a high point of sleddog racing history in the 1930s; one still sees it mentioned occasionally.
The winner of the two-day 50.2 mile event was Canadian driver Emile St. Goddard with his team of Quebec hounds, with a total time of 4 hours 23 minutes 12.5 seconds, an average speed of 11.44 miles per hour. Not impressive by today's standards, but these were the early days of the sport. In second place was Leonhard Seppala at 4:31; third was Canadian Shorty Russick at 4:47, and fourth was Harry Wheeler at 5:02. Russick and St. Goddard drove hounds, Seppala and Wheeler drove Seppala Siberians. Eight other teams participated, including two Chinook Kennels teams, one driven by Saint Eva B. herself, and the other by Col. Norman Vaughan.
Now, whether or not Eva B. Seeley was "one of the greatest woman dog drivers of all time" as Siberian Husky breed mythos insists, Col. Vaughan was widely regarded as a good dog driver. So the placing of the two teams from Chinook Kennels is interesting. Eva B.'s team placed dead last, with a total time of 7:14:46.7. The team driven by the professional driver did a wee shade better at 7:13:56, next to last. These two teams averaged 6.94 miles per hour. Accompanying text says that Mrs. Seeley drove Alaskan Malamutes; it doesn't state what dogs Col. Vaughan was driving. Here's the page link so you can check it out for yourselves; click the link at the top of the History page to go right to the 1932 Olympics Demonstration race results.
http://www.nesdc.org/history.asp
Eva B. Seeley's Siberians and Malamutes went on to become the guiding light of these two show-dog breeds as Chinook Kennels and its spiritual successor Monadnock took control of the show ring. Interestingly enough, those who continued to breed Seppala Siberians after Leonhard Seppala returned to Alaska, namely Harry Wheeler, Alec and Charlie Belford, William L. Shearer III, and finally in 1950 J. D. McFaul (after he bought the Seppala stock and kennel name from Wheeler) — all were very careful to keep Chinook Kennels breeding out of the Seppala Siberian breeding programme. I think between the Zoller files and these eloquent 1932 race results, it's pretty obvious why Seppala Siberian people wanted nothing to do with stock from Chinook and its successors. I wish that everyone breeding Seppalas today understood that position and the reasons for it so well...
Posted by jjeffrey at August 8, 2003 02:23 PMPeople who are blindly against Eva Seeley are as misguided as those who are blindly for. Both sides are missing the point of following the HISTORY. You have some leaps of assumption and some missing gaps in the story that are making it more difficult for you to learn the true history. Now, personally, I do not care if you do or if you do not learn the true history. And you can either rail against Eva Seeley or for her, and I still will not be much affected. But you are wasting valuable time. I thought you were a truth seeker. when are you going to start?
norman Vaughan won the right to drive Chinook Kennels dogs because he was the top placing driver that season with NESDC...he did not have his OWN team. Chinook's #1 team was a Siberian Team. It also, in the season's standings, won the right to be in the race. It was a fine team...but part of that was due to the fact that part of the team was the driver, who worked for the Seeley's...somehow it was determined that the CK driver could not be allowed to drive, Vaughan did not have a team. A match up was worked out. Maybe vaughan was a good driver, but he was not exactly Pathfinder Personified. He got lost. (I think he did this in the Iditarod too, correct me if I am wrong). Hence, the really nice Siberian team that was Chinook Kennels real representation in the race came in after Short the second day...Last team in. But his first day had been better, so he did better in total time. Short was not in the race "officially", but was allowed to participate. she was awarded Best Conditioned Team. Yes, she was driving Mals. the driver who won--Emile St. Goddard--was a HIRED driver for the owner of his dogs...go figure THAT one out! there was never any doubt that the race would be won by either St. Goddard, Russick or Seppala...but the first day pretty much ruled it to be a race between St Goddard and Seppala. the second day, when Vaughan got lost, was a real blizzard. No one improved their time, except, I believe (and I would need to go up to check my records in the attic to stake my life on this statement, but I THINK it is right) St. Goddard. I wrote this whole race up in the Popular Dogs Siberian Husky issue, which you probably have not read. It is also, with the day times and overall standings, in my book On By! What was phenomenal about the whole thing was that Siberians had been on the East Coast a mere five years, with very limited numbers brought East, but there were a NUMBER of Siberian teams...from New England, Canada and New York....AMAZING. Some of your statements about Chinook Kennels and racing Siberians are dead wrong, but I am not going to argue with you...just wish you would bone up so that you really WOULD make some progress in your goal. Until your mind broadens just a bit, and pardon me, I really do not mean to sound in your face, which is maybe how this DOES sound, you will not be able to benefit from all you need to discover and learn. Saving Siberians as racing sled dogs is not my goal. Saving History is. nancy cowan