SEVERAL ILLUSTRIOUS SLEDDOG BLOODLINES carried forward the Leonhard Seppala heritage from the early 1930s through the late 1960s. The primary kennels were the Seppala Kennels of Harry R. Wheeler and its successor, the Seppala Kennels of C. S. MacLean and J. D. McFaul, both in Canada. The Wheeler and McFaul kennels are discussed on separate History pages of this website. Further information on the major bloodlines listed below can be found in the Project's educational subdomain "Learning More About Siberian Husky Bloodlines" . Links in the headings below will take you to individual bloodline sketches in that section.
ALEC AND HIS SON CHARLIE BELFORD had a continuing involvement with Seppala Strain spanning the period from 1929 through the 1960s. Wheeler purchased a Belford bitch named NANNA as one of his foundation group. That transaction initiated a complex network of stock exchanges between the Belfords and Wheeler during the 1930s, most of it involving animals that were never registered. The Siberia imports KREE VANKA and TSERKO ran on the 1935 Belford racing team and were afterward returned to Wheeler. The Belfords in later years supplied dogs to William Shearer and to J. D. McFaul.
WILLIAM L. SHEARER III (Foxstand Kennels, Boston, Massachusetts) began breeding and racing as early as 1930, but the real foundation of the Foxstand line as far as its significance to Seppala lineage was the breeding in 1940 of Ch. VANKA OF SEPPALA II, owned by Millie Turner, to the Belford-bred bitch SIGRID III OF FOXSTAND. This mating of VANKA II (a KREE VANKA son) and SIGRID III became the cornerstone of Foxstand lineage. Shearer later bred to the long-coated white Turner male JEUAHNEE OF COLD RIVER and acquired further stock from Harry Wheeler. He produced such animals as FOXSTAND'S GEORGIA and FOXSTAND'S SUNDAY who went to the MacLean/McFaul SEPPALA Kennels of the 1950s. Foxstand Kennels closed in 1956. Like Wheeler and the Belfords, Shearer was an active participant in New England and Québec races between the two World Wars.
COLD RIVER KENNELS of Marie "Millie" Turner and her mother Rose Lee Frothingham, Beverley Farms, Massachusetts, was an early pure Seppala kennel based on stock from Wheeler. The most notable of these dogs were Ch. VANKA OF SEPPALA II and SAPSUK OF SEPPALA, both leaders. Other Wheeler dogs such as SKY OF SEPPALA, CHUCHI OF SEPPALA, SURGUT OF SEPPALA, JUNEAU OF SEPPALA, UGRUK OF SEPPALA and TONGASS OF SEPPALA figured in the COLD RIVER teams and bloodline. The Cold River stock became separated from the mainstream Seppala lineage and contributes to today's Seppalas only through Foxstand breeding; the kennel was closed in 1956. The remaining stock went to Peggy Grant and her husband (Marlytuk Kennels) whose major interest was show dogs; thus the Cold River line was lost to Seppala strain. As late as the 1970s pure Seppalas could be found that had Cold River lineage, but their line did not survive the post-Markovo era. Interestingly, Cold River stock was crucial to the foundation of Mrs. Lorna Demidoff's Monadnock line of show dogs, and to the early years of Dr. Roland Lombard's Igloo Pak Kennel.
KEITH AND JEAN BRYAR of Laconia, New Hampshire, obtained a number of male Seppalas in the 1950s from the McFaul Seppala kennels and raced them in New England. They were unable to purchase a female from McFaul, but finally obtained FOXSTAND'S RUMBA from the Shearer kennels to begin the creation of the pure Seppala BRYAR lineage that figures prominently in the background of today's Seppalas, largely through the red-sable long-coated male owned by Dr. Rule Olson, MIKIUK TUKTU TORNYAK, used at stud by both Gary Egelston and J. Jeffrey Bragg.
ALLAN GAGNON in Maniwaki, Québec, 1953-1961, had a small kennel which nonetheless contributed crucial dogs. Gagnon used his Siberians as a freight team. He got his dogs from McFaul and later provided stock to Bryar, McFaul and others. GAGNON dogs were living at the time of the MARKOVO rescue project, but unfortunately none were obtainable.
J. MALCOLM MCDOUGALL, Malamak Kennels, Ste. Agathe des Monts, Québec, obtained stock from the McFaul and Gagnon kennels in the late 1950s and bred until circa 1968. He was a successful racer who eventually moved into Alaskan huskies. The MALAMAK lineage provided four crucial dogs to the MARKOVO/SEPPINEAU programme: Lyl of Sepsequel, her sister Moka of Sepsequel, Frostfire Anisette and Malamak's Okleasik.
SOME KEY DOGS in the chain of ancestry were bred by other individuals such as W. R. Commins (POLARIS OF SAPAWE), J. H. Jacobs (LYL and MOKA OF SEPSEQUEL), Joel Nordholm (EMBER OF SNOW MYTH), Thomas Simms (MIKIUK TUKTU TORNYAK), Mildred Morton (WILLI-WAW'S GALE OF CUPID) and H. Barber (FROSTFIRE ANISETTE), but the above listed kennels were the major perpetuators of the Seppala Strain from 1930 through the mid-1960s when the strain was threatened with extinction.
and others, please see our HISTORY PAGE!
