The All Alaska Sweepstakes has been dubbed the “birthplace of competitive Long distance dog mushing”.  It all started back in 1908 when the newly formed Nome Kennel Club decided to hold the longest race they had ever attempted, most previous races were 3 or 4 mile sprints.  At that time in Nome, during the middle of the gold rush there were many things for people to bet on and the new All Alaska Sweepstakes was marketed as the greatest.  The first year the race was attempted it was completed in just about 100 hours, and the all time record was set by “Iron Man” John Johnson in 1910, for the next 8 years mushers like LeonardSeppala (of Serum Run fame) and Scotty Allan would try to break the 74 hour record, but no one was ever able to.  It was because of these first 18 years when the All Alaska Sweepstakes was run that things like selective dog breeding came into the picture, and mushing went from being a part of life to a full time sport.

In 1983 the Nome Kennel club had been recently working with the new Iditarod Sled Dog race, and managing the Nome aspect of this exciting new venture.  It was decided that in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the All Alaska Sweepstakes, it would be run again on its original course, and using the original rules.  Rick Swenson competed with 22 other mushers on that original course and went home with the trophy and the $25,000 winner take all purse.  Even after winning 4 Iditarods, Swenson only was able to come within 10 hours of Iron Man Johnson’s record, coming in at 84 hours.

This year’s race will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the All Alaska Sweepstakes and competitive dog mushing, and will be offering one of the largest purses in mushing history, $100,000 winner-take all.  Even though the race is winner-take-all, the 14 other mushers entered in this year’s race will have something to look forward to.  Right now in Nome there is a contest for the “All Alaska Sweepstakes” Queen, members of the public can vote for a queen by a $5 vote.  The winning queen’s vote money will allgoto the second place musher as their prize, and all other queen vote money will be spread out among the other mushers in the race.

Just like in 1983, this year’s race will operate on the very same rules that the original races operated on, this means that every musher must sign a bill of sale for their dog team over to the Nome Kennel Club, and the Kennel club will take ownership of a team if a musher breaks the rules along the trail.  This also means that while its 200 miles to Candle, the mushers will then turn around and travel back to Nome on the same trail in order to finish the race.  Every musher must also finish the race with the very same number of dogs as they started with at thebeginning of the race.  The rules differ pretty dramatically from today’s current Iditarod rules, and are interesting to read.  (click here for the full rules)

It should be an amazing race, and will be an exciting follow up to this year’s Iditarod, especially since both front-runners Lance Mackey and Jeff King are signed up, as are Mitch Seavey, Ed Iten, Ramy Brooks, Hugh Neff, and other big time mushers.

I will be in Nome for the entire race, and will be bringing you updates, pictures, audio, and video on the race from a firsthand prospective - on the trail and in Nome.

Posted by admin on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 9:38 pm.