Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race Returns To Dubois After 20-Year Hiatus

It’s not often a town finds out that a premier sled dog race is coming to town from a Google alert. But that’s how Destination Dubois’ Joy Breaux learned that the Pedigree Stage Stop Race is returning to Dubois after a 20-year or so hiatus.

“It was a shock, and I started asking everyone if they knew. I got in touch with the mayor and with everyone,” she said. “No one else knew that they had chosen Dubois.”

Breaux manages Destination Dubois’ website and social media, whose aim is to promote tourism in the small mountain Wyoming town. She and other community leaders wasted no time rallying to the cause of putting together a special weekend in Dubois for the event. It was a tremendous opportunity for winter tourism, at a time of year when many Wyoming communities struggle. Their efforts are already paying off, Breaux told Cowboy State Daily, with a couple of the town’s hotels and motels reporting they are already 100% full for the weekend. 

“People will be coming in from all over the world,” Breaux said. “From Germany and Poland, so we just had to figure out a way to make it fun and invite people to Dubois.”

That effort has been helped tremendously by people who recall things that used to happen back when Dubois was a regular stop on the tour. 

That’s put games on the table for a meet and greet, as well as skating and then sled-dog rides for the public by Continental Divide Dog Sled Adventures at the stunning and beautiful Double Bar J ranch, where a straight-on view of the majestic Pinnacles will overlook the activity.

“I have been just blown away by all the people who have said, ‘Yeah, let’s just go do something,” Breaux said. “The community has been huge with saying, I remember whenever we used to do this years ago, why don’t I volunteer my time in creating this?’”

Remembering Winterfest In Dubois

Michele Burdick is one of the Stage Stop Race’s prior organizers who remembers what a big deal the dog sled race used to be for Dubois.

Of course, then, it had a different name.

“We used to call it the International Rocky Mountain Stage Stop,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “And back then, it was a race to immunize. There was a booklet they published every year, and it talked about how years ago in Alaska, the only way they could get vaccines to some of these remote areas was via dog sled. So that’s how the whole thing started. It was a health, vaccination thing.”

The race was also one long, continuous route back then, and was a qualifier for the world-famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, held in Alaska in early March, which travels from Anchorage to Nome.

“We built a Winterfest around the Stage Stop and it was a big event,” Burdick said. “We had a soup cook off we called the Soupenanny, and we had a Hootenanny, too, with musicians and kind of like jamming.”

There were awards and prizes, dress-up events for the children, as well as a parade, and the Snowflake Princess beauty contest, which featured men dressing up as women.

“It was an enormous weekend, and our amateur mushers were from all over Wyoming, some from Montana, Idaho, and Utah,” Burdick said. “It didn’t expand much beyond that.”

Snowmobilers would man the trails, to ensure no one made a wrong turn, and, as there weren’t many hotels in Dubois during that timeframe, lots of people opened their homes so the mushers had warm places to stay.

Over time, the race became too much for volunteers, who became burned out, Burdick said. 

It was also expensive for the town to participate, requiring a $6,000 participation fee paid to the race, over and above all the expense and effort the town was putting into organizing local events for the Winterfest and finding homes to host mushers. 

A Global Following

Today the race, now in its 30th year, has grown beyond its origins. While it’s no longer a qualifier for the Iditarod and no longer has a connection to the health Department, it has evolved into one of the world’s premier dog sled racing events, with a nice fat $200,000 purse, Stage Stop race director Dan Carter told Cowboy State Daily. 

“We are the pinnacle of races within the lower 48 and really the world for that matter,” Carter said. “We’re one of the top races in the sport.”

The key to that, Carter added, has been adapting to the trends in the dog sledding world.

“There’s fewer mushers in the lower 48 who are going up to Alaska and racing,” he said. “The Iditarod have larger kennels which are focused on distance racing. But more and more kennels have reduced their size and are focused on smaller races that they can fit into a long weekend, to take time off work and travel.”

The other thing helping the race remain relevant in today’s world is an intense media program that allows people from around the world to follow the race through Facebook, YouTube, and the race’s own website.

Some of that’s made possible by Starlink satellite technology. 

“Thanks to that, we’re able to provide live uploads throughout each day’s racing,” he said. “So, a person can, from their desktop or phone, watch the race each day as it unfolds, with video from the trail, video from the staging area, interviews with the mushers, and commentary from our media team. That’s made it more of a spectator sport from anywhere in the world.”

A Military Coup

One of the things that cinched Dubois’ new spot on the Stage Stop race was its relatively new National Museum of Military Vehicles.

“We made some other changes to the race course this year,” Carter said. “We had been going to Driggs and to Alpine (in Idaho) for various reasons, but we aren’t any more. So, logistically, it made sense for us to return to Dubois. 

“And then, of course, with the new military museum there, and their conference and banquet facilities, that offers a really good venue for us not just to race out of Dubois, but to have our final banquet there,” he continued.

The military museum is a wonderful venue in and of itself, Carter added.

 “It’s a great place, so we’re very excited,” Carter said. “And they have a couple of different rooms available, as well as a full commercial kitchen and catering.”

Started by Dan Starks as a hobby, the museum today boasts a collection of hundreds of military vehicles, many of them operable, as well as important U.S. military artifacts like the musket that fired the first shot during the Battle for Bunker Hill.

Starks has a vehicle restoration shop in Dubois that’s working to restore more vehicles for the collection, as well as maintain the existing exhibits. Those operable tanks and military vehicles have become a star attraction in Dubois’ annual Fourth of July parade. Around 30 or so working tanks, ambulances, and the like roll down Dubois streets, as both a salute to the military and to the nation’s independence.

Trial Run For Dubois Segment

This year’s return to Dubois is something of a trial run, Carter said, and one that could be repeated if all goes well.

“We’ve gotten a tremendous amount of support from the community of Dubois,” Carter said. “They have really re-embraced the event, and we’re excited about that.”

One of the keys, though, isn’t really under Dubois’ control, Carter added.

“I did have to request from the Forest Service a conditional use for our permit to use the trail system there out of the Sheridan Snow Oval,” he explained. “So, we’re sort of on, I guess, a trial period for this year with the Forest Service. They want to see how everything goes with the usage and the spectators and parking availability with other people who want to use the trail system there. So as long as it goes smoothly, I would expect they’ll extend our permit usage to that are in the future.”

With 30 years of the race history under its belt, Carter believes the Pedigree Stage Stop Dog Sled Race is a well-oiled machine, and won’t have any trouble returning to Dubois in future years.

“We’re very organized, and we have put on races in the areas where there is a lot of that other activity besides just the race, so I would expect that it won’t be any different here. We will manage everything and put on a smooth event.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.