This is the first of a three-part account of a very unique sled dog race that took place in March, 2011. This account is being shared in this blog because of the historical significance associated with this event.
Fort McMurray, Fort MacKay and Fort Chipewyan are three communities all located on the Athabasca River system and all connected wy a sled dog race which ran through each of them....the Three Forts Sled Dog Race. This was a 170 mile dog race that ran over 4 days, from March 3 - 7, 2011. The first stage running 34.7 miles from Fort McMurray to Fort MacKay, the second 53.9 miles from Fort MacKay to Poplar Point, the third 29.9 miles from Poplar Point to Kathy’s Cabins and the final stage running 48.8 miles from Kathy’s Cabins to Fort Chipewyan.
It was a stage race….or was it? True, there were four distinct stages and some of the top stage racers in the world were present. , but it was much more than a stage race. Arguably the top sprint racing teams in the world were there also, as was at least one multi-time finishing Iditarod team. Mid distance mushers were represented, some fresh from competing in Saskatchewan’s Canadian Challenge. It was also a race back in time, there were local First Nations teams with mushing roots deeply connected to the fur trade and northern exploration and transportation history of the historic Athabasca corridor.
Up until the 1960’s when the Mackenzie Highway was constructed, there was only one way to move goods into the N.W.T. from the south. The journey started by rail from Edmonton to Waterways, a rail terminus located on the Clearwater River just above the point where this river flows into the Athabasca River. Goods and passengers were then transferred to barges and sternwheelers for the journey down the Athabasca River to Lake Athabasca, the site of Fort Chipewyan. The Slave River flows out of Lake Athabasca at this point and goods and passengers continued their travel by water to Fort Fitzgerald, the start of 17 miles of impassable rapids and also the beginning of the Mountain Portage trail to Fort Smith, where goods once again were returned to the river to continue their journey to Fort Resolution, the point where the Slave River enters Great Slave Lake. A journey across this huge lake brought travellers to the start of the Mackenzie River which flows to the Beaufort Sea.
One of the first non First Nations travellers on this route was Peter Pond, an American who was one of the founders of the famous Northwest Company, destined to become a key force in the North American fur trade. In 1788, Pond was given the task of finding out just what kind of fur trading territory lay beyond the Churchill River route. The Clearwater River was part of the well-established Churchill River route and the vast territory beyond the point where this river emptied into the Athabasca River was unexplored and this territory was simply referred to as the Athabasca. Pond journeyed down the Athabasca River and spent his first winter at Old Fort in the area of Embarras Portage, less than a mile from the site of Kathy’s Cabins, one of the checkpoints for the Three Forts Race. Pond then went on to establish the first of several NWC forts near the site of present-day Fort Chipewyan, making this the oldest continuous non-native settlement in present-day Alberta, dating back 240 years.
After Pond, a steady stream of famous northern explorers, traders, clergy and characters passed through this route. Sir John Franklin, John Hornby, George Douglas, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, J.B. Tyrell, Bishop Gabriel Breynat O.M.I., the list is almost endless. Sir George Simpson, destined to become the Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company served his fur trading apprenticeship at Fort Wedderburn which was the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post established on Coal Island, in close proximity to the Northwest Company post at Lake Athabasca. The harsh rivalry that existed between the two companies came to an end in 1821 when the HBC purchased and took over the assets of the Northwest Company.
With exploration came development. Dwellings were erected the length of the river. Small businesses also came and went along the Athabasca River. The river was the supply route when gold was discovered at Goldfields on the northern shore of Lake Athabasca, similarly when uranium was discovered at Uranium City also on Lake Athabasca. During WWII a pipeline was constructed to move oil from Norman Wells on the Mackenzie River to Alaska to be used in the battle against the Japanese. This construction project known as the Canol (Canadian Oil) project led to the construction of the Canol Road and Pipeline. Virtually all of the construction materials and most of the 4000 American soldiers that worked on the construction of this project moved along this river route.
In the 1920’s, the era of the bush plane was born. WWI had produced many young daredevil fighter pilots and it was this group that pioneered flying in Canada’s remote northland. A base of operations became a backwater on the Clearwater River known as the Snye, a spot where float planes still come and go today. Throughout all of this period, goods continued to be delivered by riverboat in the summer and by dog team in the winter. This is truly one of the most historic sled dog transportation corridors in all of Canada.
The Three Forts Race is a resurrection of a sled dog race that was run regularly during the 1960’s and once in the late 1980’s. In the 60’s, teams from Fort Chipewyan, usually consisting of six trapline dogs pulling an oak toboggan used a similar stage format as they headed for the Winter Carnival in Fort McMurray. Larry Marten, now in his late 60’s and a member of the Fort Chipewyan Canadian Rangers group that were providing logistical support for the race, won this race three times in the mid 1960’s. Teams carried all of the food and supplies required for the whole trip for both musher and dogs right from the start of the race. “Everyone would camp in the same place at night and then we would start off again in the morning” said Martin as he talked fondly about these past races. In the 60’s, it took teams 4 days to journey from “Fort Chip” to “Fort Mac”.
........continued in Part II
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