HEAD COOK DRIVES MERRILY ALONG TO WORK—Mrs. Agnes
Burgrt. head cook in the University of Alaska cafeteria, drives her
dogteam to work every day during the winter. She has no worries
about gasoline bills, mechanical repairs or car starts, nor does she
worry about being late or getting stuck.
SKI-JORING—The sport that is performed by driving a team of
dogs using skis instead of a sled. Here, Raphael Murran, represent
ing the University of Alaska Dog Mushers Club, is seen speeding
around the circular coure during the North American Sled Dog
Championships. Murran placed third in the ski-joring event.
SKI-JOKER'S VANTAGE POINT—This is how the trail looks to a
contestant in the North American Sled Dog Championship in Fair
banks. The picture was taken by a ski-porer as he was being pulled
along on skis by three huskies. Ski-joring, a comparatively new
sport, is gaining in popularity. —Photo by Nat Goodhue
THEY MUSH THEUt WAY TO COLLEGE
• ‘ ...
Nomie From Nome
Woman Flies
Sick Dog to
Hospital Here
.-When one’s children have grown
up, married or have gone away to
school, what does a husband and
wife do? They miss their children,
of course, and sort of look around
for something to fill the void in
their home.
That's what Mr. and Mrs. Harry
Johnson, of Nome, did and they
filled their home with warmth and
love by adopting a little puppy, part
Chesapeake and Labrador. They
named her, "Nomie."
In a short time, they got very
attached to the dog.
She was extremely well manner
ed and smart too. By just hearing
the footsteps of the Johnsons or
their son or daughter, the little dog
could tell who was coming. She
could also detect the footsteps of a
stranger at which she would make
quite a fuss.
Nomie became a good hunting
dog too. iVIr. Johnson would take
her squirrel hunting and ptarmigan
and bird hunting.
At night Nomie would sleep on a
rug in their son’s bedroom, but
would wake up in the morning
bright as a wink. The Johnsons
would take turns feeding Nomie.
For five years, the Johnsons were
intdhsely happy with their little
dog. Then last Tuesday she did not
meet Mr. Johnson when he came
home. The previous night Nomie
had been sick, began to vomit and
bleed. Of course the Johnsons be
came very scared and worried.
They called a doctor at the Nome
Hospital and he came and looked
at her. But, of course, treating a
dog was a little out of his line. He
told the Johnsons the dog needed
medical attention.
All day long, Johnson, city utility
engineer at Nome, telephoned his
wife. Laura, about the dog. Nomie
didn’t seem to be improving. Fin
ally he told her, “Laura, you had
better go to Fairbanks to take No
mie to the Hospital.”
That's exactly what she did. On
Wednesday, Mrs. Johnson went to
the Nome International Airport
and boarded a Wien Alaska Air
lines plane, came 547 miles to Fair
banks, and took her sick dog to
Cushman Dog Hospital.
"We think the dog has swallow
ed a sharp bone, but the vet thinks
it might be something else,” Laura
said.
The Johnsons have two children.
Their married daughter is living
at Nome. Their son. Harry “Cookie"
Jr. is now attending the University
of Alaska.
Nomie is still under observation
at the dog hospital. Mrs. Johnson
says she will stay as long as ne
cessary in Fairbanks until she re
covers. Mrs. Johnson hopes and
prays an operation will not be ne
cessary.
Florida Orange
Friend
Major Ed Kayworth, now retired,
has never forgotten a novel assign
ment he was once given while sta
tioned in an Air Force base in Al
aska. He flew a goodly supply of
oranges to an Eskimo village on
the coast of Bering Straits.
Now raising oranges in Hardee
county in Florida, Kayworth, be
fore the holidays, had tried to in
terest the Air Force to transport
ten bushels of oranges as Christmas
gifts to the Eskimos.
Whether Kayworth was success
ful in this effort or not, he has the
best wishes of the Eskimos he be
friended some years ago.
> By Nancy Plotts *
Times Staff Writer
University of Alaska officials are
thinking of dusting off an old regu
lation that prohibits any dogteams
on campus from being tied within
a block of a classroom building.
The reason: sometimes teachers
find it difficult to lecture louder
than the prevailing “husky talk" or
mournful cries of huskies.
Interest in the dust-covered regu
lation has increased as has the num
ber of dog teams being driven to the
University of Alaska campus.
Olden Days
Students in the early days of the
University of Alaska, then known
as the Alaska Agricultural College
and School of Mines, would come
to the campus by means of an old.
electric car from Fairbanks; walk
, over the railroad tracks, or hike
from their homes on the flats below
College Hill.
In the old days, the large number
of huskies were not notable for
quietness. When tied outside, they
would howl their displeasure at the
lew midwinter sun, cause a chain
reaction, and the air would become
filled with their cries.
Ruling Made
Some students complained of
hearing more “husky talk” than that
of their instructors.
Dr. Charles Bunnell, president,
appreciated the utility of the hus
kies. but he did not appreciate the
noise. He finally ruled that no dog
team could be tied within a block
of any classroom.
Dogs Dwindled
Over the years dormitories were
built, roads paved, and the use of
dogteams dwindled. Very few dog
teams were used as a mode of
transportation and Dr. Bunnell's
ruling gathered dust.
But in the last two or three years.
University of Alaska officials have
been eyeing the ruling with the
thought that perhaps they'll have
to brush off the dust it has accum
mulated.
Interest Revived
A number of people—instructors,
students, and employees—now mush
to the University during winter. Not
all of them are native born Alas
kans, either.
This revived interest in the use
of dogteams for recreation and
transportation led to the formation
in 1961 of the University Dog Mush
er's Club, the newest competition
in the sports field on campus. One
of its members came within six se
conds of winning the $50 prize in
the 1961 ski-joring event at Cream
er's Field in Fairbanks.
Nat Goodhue and Raphael Mur
ran. representing the University
Mushers, placed second and third
in this event sponsored by the North
American Sled Dog Championships.
Ski-joring
Skitjofring behind dogs differs
from the more familiar sled dog
mushing in that the participants
uses skis instead of a sled.
The number of dogs that the ski
jorer uses varies. Goodhue and Mur
ran relied on a three-dog team to
pull them in turn around the cir
cular track.
After placing so strongly in the
club’s first competition, the mushers
are looking forward to this year’s
championships.
"There are four events we could
enter and have a good chance of
winning,” Goodhue said, "These are
ski-joring, lead dog, weight pull,
and the scramble race.”
Mushing Director
Who are some of the other stal
wart people who mush on campus?
Guy Watson is one; he is director
of Student Employment at the Uni
versity. Born and reared in Holly
wood, Calif., he first became inter
ested in dog mushing when he
taught for the Bureau of Indian Af
fairs in Wainwright, Alaska.
He has been in Alaska since 1958,
and loves it. His three-dog team is
a source of recreation and enjoy
ment to him.
Another college musher is Mrs.
Agnes Burget who came to Alas
ka in 1951 from Aberdeen, Wash.
"Gold didn't interest me a bit; it
was the dogs. I just wasn’t made
to have gold,-’ she says.
No Headaches
Mrs. Burget drives her dogteam
to and from work as head cook in
the cafeteria for Universal Services.
She doesn’t have to worry about
gas bills, mechanics services, wreck
er tow bills, headbolt heaters, trickle
chargers, or car starts.
"There's one thing to it," she said.
“I don’t have to worry about get
ting stuck and being late."
Mushing Students
Last year two University of Al
aska students, Mr. and Mrs. Mike
Bradner, mushed to school. Both
from Illinois, the Bradners were as
sociated with people who had dogs
when they worked for Yutana
Barge Lines, a company that hauls
supplies up and down the - Yukon
River.
The Bradners keep 23 dogs: half
of them are Mike Brady’s. Brady
teaches at Ft. Wainwright, Alaska,
and is a University of Alaska gra
duate who had a dogteam while at
tending school.
Mr. and Mrs. Bradner have a dis
tributorship for dog food that helps
pay for dog feed. The dogs are more
or less a hobby with them. Last
year a Lathrop High School stu
j dent competed in races with their
dogs.
Mushing Professor
Jack Distad, a math instructor
and assistant professor at the Uni
versity, who was reared north of
Great Falls, Montana, is a member
of the board of governors, vice
president, treasurer, time-keeper,
and publicity chairman of the Alas
ka Dog Mushers Association, Inc.
He has been in Alaska since 1955.
Distad has five dogs which he
uses for recreation with a hickory
sled that weighs about 35 pounds,
without the steel strips on the sled.
Game Agents Mush
Peter Shepard, game biologist for
the Department of Fish and Game,
trapped his way through college
and used his dog team to enable
him to extend his 14-mile trapline
on the Chatanika River, north -of
Fairbanks. His wife, Jill, works in
the Stenographic Center on campus.
John Burns, also an employee of
the Department of Fish and Game
and a graduate student, worked
with a dogteam on the Kuskokwim
while trapping, studying and mak
ing observations on mink trapping
for his master's thesis. Burns com
mands respect from Eskimos, since
they don't have to bother teaching
him, a white man, how to mush
and the ways of the north.
The head of the Department of
Geophysics, Dr. Lief Owren, uses
his two dogs for pulling his three
children, Turid. 10, Torgeir, 8, and
Magne, 6, on a sled. Dr. Owren was
born and reared in Norway.
Need Hitching Post
These people use their dogteams
for recreational and transportation.
People without dogteams have to
put up with frustrating inconven
iences in the coldest weather.
One unusual feature on the Uni
versity of Alaska campus is the
‘‘headbolt heater,” an electric meter
and outlet to which car owners
connect their automobiles in the
coldest weather.
The connection flows into a cord
to the headbolt heater which keeps
the engine warm and startable.
As the number of student cars
increases, more headbolt heaters
must be put in.
Before all the parking space is
gone it looks like the dog mushers
are soon going to have to build a
dog team hitching post — a block
from all classroom buildings, of
course!