Dick Wilmarth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Dick Wilmarth (born c.1942) is a miner and trapper from Red Devil, Alaska who won the inaugural Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1973 with lead dog Hotfoot.

In a 2001 interview with the Anchorage Daily News, Wilmarth said he saw the 1973 Iditarod as not really a sled dog race but more of a time to enjoy the Alaska wilderness with friends. He assembled a 12-dog team just a few months before the race, obtaining dogs from Native villages on the Kuskokwim River.

Thirty-five dog teams started the 1973 race and twenty-two finished. Competing in what would be his only Iditarod, Wilmarth won in a time of in 20 days, 49 minutes, 41 seconds, claiming the first-place prize money of $12,000. Almost two weeks behind him was John Schultz who became the recipient of the first ever "Red Lantern" award given to the last musher to cross the finish line.

[edit] References

Preceded by
---		 Iditarod winner
1973		 Succeeded by
Carl Huntington
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/i/c/Dick_Wilmarth_3fa9.html"