The Chinook is a rare breed of sled dog, developed in the state of New Hampshire by Arthur Treadwell Walden who had a farm in Wonalancet in the White Mountains, during the early 20th century.



Members of Farmington Historical Society were recently introduced to Bob and Debbie Cottrell’s dog Tug, and learned much of the history of this breed.



It was just last year that the Chinook was named the American Kennel Club’s 176th breed, and joined the working group. Bob Cottrell, in explaining the dog’s origin, talked at length about Walden, a larger-than-life character who was born in the Midwest in 1871. Walden, as a young man, took off for the Yukon, and ran freight, via dog sleds, from steamboats 200 miles across rugged country to the Klondike, during the gold rush. Based on these experiences he wrote “A Dog Puncher in the Yukon.”



In the very early 1900s he married a woman from a well-to-do Boston family, and they bought the 1,300-acre farm in Wonalancet, where Walden began to his work in breeding a powerful, fast and enduring sled dog that was also friendly by nature

Among the dogs he used for breeding the Chinook were descendants of Admiral Peary’s Greenland expedition huskies, along with mastiff-types.



Of a litter of three pups, one had all the traits Walden was seeking, and he named it Chinook, after a sled dog he had in the Yukon. This dog is the ancestor of the entire breed.



Chinook (the original) grew to be 100 pounds. In his book Harness and Pack, Walden described Chinook as “a large tawny yellow dog, a half-bred Eskimo, with dark ears and muzzle,” known not only as a wonderful sled dog, but also for his gentle disposition toward children.



Walden’s success with the breed led to his appointment as head of the dog department of Admiral Richard Byrd’s Antarctic expedition in 1927, and ahead of time, the dog crews trained at Wonalancet.



Cottrell showed the Farmington audience slides of this expedition, which included early aircraft blown over by howling gales and mechanized vehicles wrecked by crevasses.



Admiral Byrd went on record as saying Walden and his 16 Chinook dogs were the saviours of the exploration.

“The wisest thing they did was bring the dogs,” Cottrell credits Byrd with saying.



(As an aside, local historian Bob McKinley says that blankets for Byrd’s expedition, were manufactured in a Milton Mills factory.)



Unhappily, the father of the breed, Chinook himself, was lost in Antarctica in 1929 at the age of 12, and his death was not only taken badly by Walden, but mourned as a famous lead dog, around the world. At Walden’s request, Route 113A from Tamworth to Wonalancet, now bears the name “Chinook Trail” to honor his famous lead dog.



Returning to New Hampshire, now aged almost 60, Walden found himself in a tough spot. The 1929 crash had depleted his finances, and his wife had fallen ill. He was obliged to sell the Chinook Kennels to Eva Seeley, but the breed survived as he had given pups to Julia Lombard, nearby, before heading off to Antarctica.



Walden wrote Leading a Dog’s Life in 1931, in 1939 a movie was made about Chinook’s children, and in 1940, Lombard sold the breeding rights to Perry Green, a Maine resident.

In 1947, Walden lost his life in a fire while rescuing his wife from the blazing Wonalancet farmhouse.



After this, the rare breed became even rarer. By 1965, there were only 125 Chinooks alive in the world, and dwindling. They were kenneled in Warren, Maine, and in 1981, only 28 dogs remained, and most were elderly or neutered. The remaining 11 breedable Chinook dogs were divided between interested parties in Ohio, California and Kathy Adams of Maine of the Alder Patch Chinooks. Between them, they saved the breed from extinction, and today, according to Cottrell, there are about 1,000 Chinooks, including Tug, who came from Maine.



In June 2009, after lobbying by the seventh grade students of Lurgio Middle School in Bedford, Governor John Lynch signed a bill making the Chinook the State Dog of New Hampshire.



At the end of Cottrell’s presentation, Debbie Cottrell introduced Tug to the members of Farmington Historical Society, and the dog lived up to the breed’s reputation for friendliness. Indeed, so fond of family companionship is the Chinook, that keeping one outside in a kennel is strongly discouraged. It is a sled dog and a house dog, both.

For much more on this rare breed, originating in New Hampshire, visit www.chinookclubofamerica.org.