Walden and his dog, Chinook |
Boston Herald 1928 February 8
CHINOOK,
FAMOUS LEAD
DOG, HAS
OPERATION
Chinook,
famous former lead sled dog
in the
racing team of Arthur T. Walden,
of Wonalancet,
N.H., which was oper-
ated on yesterday
morning by veteran-
arians at
the Angell Animal Hospital
was resting
comfortably last night and
within a
week or so will be in as good
condition as
ever, according to officials
of the hospital
last night.
The dog was operated on for an abcess
on the orbit
of the eye, and the opera-
tion was
entirely successful, the sight of
the eye
being saved.
Walden, who is president of the New
England Sled
Dog Club and well known
both in the
United States and Canada
where dog
sled races are held, is pre-
paring for
the South Pole trip of Comdr.
Byrd, which
will depart next September.
He will
accompany the expedition and is
planning to
take Chinook with him.
The dog has taken part in many point
to point
races and led his team to vic-
tory many
times. He is now 11 years old
and too old
for racing and was retired
after his
last point to point race two
years ago,
which took place in New
Hampshire. He is the pal of his master
How famous was Chinook?
In February of 1928, before Walden even took his dog,
Chinook, on the Byrd Expedition to Antarctica, Chinook was admitted to the Angell
Animal Hospital in Boston. Angell is a world-renowned
veterinary hospital still in existence.
We adopted our first cat from Angell when we were first married in
1983. The newspapers in Boston and
across the country reported the news that Chinook had been admitted.
Why was this dog so famous even before he left for
Antarctica?
There was a bit of a mania about sled dogs in this early
part of the twentieth century. The Alaskan
God Rush just at the turn of the century renewed interest in using sled dogs as
transportation. Then the Peary
Expedition in 1909 featured sled dogs, and in 1925 the famous serum run to Nome,
Alaska by sled dogs (featuring the famous Siberian Husky dog named Balto) took
place and established the Iditarod Trail.
Sled dogs, sled racing, the Arctic and Antarctic expeditions made sled
dogs a very popular news item.
Chinook was already a champion racer during the early
1920s. Chinook’s record as a champion
persuaded Admirial Richard Byrd to accept Walden as the head of the sled dogs
for his 1928 expedition. By the time this news article had been written,
Chinook had already been selected as the lead dog, so he was already a
celebrity! Even his overnight in a veterinary clinic in Boston made headlines locally, and across the USA.
Boston Herald 1928 February 16
CHINOOK READY
TO
TAKE TRAIL AGAIN
"The famous sled dog, Chinook, which
has been at
the Angell Memorial Hos-
pital for
the last nine days for treat-
ment of
abscesses behind the ear, has
now
recovered and tomorrow will ac-
company his
master, Arthur T. Walden,
noted
musher, back to Wonalancet,
N.H.
Chinook was a happy dog yesterday
when Walden
called at the hospital to
get
him. He thumped his tail on the
floor of his
cage and bounded against
the bars,
and when he was let out of
the cage he
leaped to Walden’s chest
and made dog
sounds expressing his
delight. Walden took the dog with him
to the Hotel
Statler, and tomorrow they
start back
to New Hampshire and the
snow."
Part One of this series "Who was Chinook" is available at this link:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/05/who-was-chinook.html
Part Three of this series "Chinook's Final Great Adventure at the South Pole" (to be posted May 21st):
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/05/chinooks-great-adventure-at-south-pole.html
Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Chinook's Operation", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 14, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/05/chinooks-operation.html: accessed [access date]).
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