2007 Yukon Quest

EAGLE — Much of the Yukon Quest follows old gold rush, trade, trapping and mail trails, and nowhere is that more evident than in the hamlet of Eagle.

Roald Amundsen, Adolph “Ed” Biederman and Percy DeWolfe are three legends who graced Eagle and used dogs for transportation before the Taylor Highway existed or airplanes became commonplace.

Amundsen is the most famous of the trio; aboard his wooden herring board named Gjoa, Captain Amundsen and his crew became the first to navigate the elusive Northwest Passage in 1905.

With his ship icebound on the Arctic coast several months later, Amundsen traveled by dog team with an Eskimo couple to Fort Yukon to obtain medical advice for a sick crew member.

There he learned that Eagle had telegraph service, so he traveled another 350 miles by dog team up the Yukon River to Eagle, which was incorporated in 1901 and whose population then dwarfed the current 100 or so winter residents.

Amundsen arrived on Dec. 5, 1905, a day the thermometer read 60 below zero.

He had no money, but when his famous identity became known he sent the telegram announcing the finding of the missing navigational link to the Arctic Ocean.

Amundsen stayed in Eagle for two months and returned by dog sled to his ship in February 1906. He died in a plane crash in 1925.

Amundsen’s memory remains in Eagle; there is a park — with a monument — named after him, as well as a street in the heart of town. A model of the Gjoa is also on exhibit in one of Eagle’s museums.

Eighty-nine years after Roald came to Eagle, his granddaughter, Suzan Amundsen of Two Rivers, mushed the Yukon Quest, finishing 21st in 1994. She completed the race twice more.

Mushing the mail

Located at the Charlie River between Eagle and Circle City is Biederman’s Cabin, which has been a frequent hospitality stop in past Quests.

Adolph “Ed” Biederman (1869-1945) had a mail contract to make 13 winter round-trips from Eagle to Circle, and the 162-mile one-way trip took six days by dog sled.

In 1925, Ed froze his feet going through overflow, an accident that prevented him from continuing the arduous mail trips, so his son, Horace, and younger brother, Charlie, took over for awhile. In 1938, the airlines won the mail contract, and the mail was no longer delivered by dog sled from Eagle to Circle.

One of Ed’s mail run dog sleds now can be viewed at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

“Iron Man of the North”

Beginning in 1915, Canadian mail carrier Percy DeWolfe delivered the mail from Dawson City to Eagle, and he continued the run for 35 years.

DeWolfe’s 204-mile roundtrip route took eight days. Carrying the mail year-round by horse, dog sled, motor launch or on his back, DeWolfe was known as the “Iron Man of the North.”

After more than 100,000 miles of travel, DeWolfe retired in 1950 at the age of 73 and died a year later.

The 31st Running of the Percy DeWolfe Memorial Mail Race, begins March 15 and travels from Dawson City to Eagle and back.

Note: Much of the information in this article came from the book “Jewel on the Yukon: Eagle City” by Elva R. Scott and published by the Eagle Historical Society & Museums in 1997. Information also came from the book “Yukon Quest” by John Firth, published by Lost Moose in 1998.

Contact staff writer Matias Saari at msaari@newsminer.com.