One man, Arthur Walden, was most responsible for the breed we know as the Chinook. Walden was an experienced “musher”with years of experience in the Yukon, and to him was born a dog in 1917 whose parentage was half mixed husky stock from the Peary North Pole expedition, and half Mastiff-type male. He named the pup, “Chinook,” and the dog would go on to become his lead dog, and the forefather of a breed.

With adventure still in his blood, the 56 year old Walden applied to the 1929 Byrd Antarctic Expedition and was accepted for the job of lead driver and trainer. Of the 100 dogs he trained for the expedition, half of them were sired by Chinook, but inexplicably to us, he also took Chinook with him. The dog was just shy of being 12 years old.

Chinook was put into his harness when his help was needed, but on the occasion of one such time, Chinook was lost. Some speculated Chinook knew he was dying and wandered off.  Another rumor was that Chinook fell into a crevasse and died. Walden himself believed Chinook wandered off to die after his leadership was challenged in a fight with three Huskies several days before he disappeared. Chinook, he said, was initially able to fend off his attackers, but Walden had to intervene at the end to save the dog’s life. He added that on the day Chinook disappeared, he’d been taken off the lead after passing the worst of the crevasses with an empty sled, but lagged behind and wasn’t seen again. Chinook was never found.

When Walden returned home, the people of the area in which he lived wanted to rename the road that connected the town of Tamworth with Wonalancet from whatever it was at the time to “Walden’s Road.” Walden asked that Chinook be honored, instead, by naming it after him. Today, the road is still known as the “Chinook Trail,” and the sign that marks it is located a short distance away from where Chinook was born.