Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog

About the Author


Hudson Stuck was born on November 4, 1863 to James and Jane Stuck in Paddington, London. He graduated from King's College London. To pursue a bigger dream, he immigrated to Texas in the United States in 1885.


Initially, he was working as a cowboy and teacher. Later he went to study theology in University of the South. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest upon completion of his studies.


Hudson moved to Alaska in 1904 and served as Archdeacon of the Yukon. With Harry P. Karstens, he co-led the first expedition, and became the first non-native in the climber team to successfully climb Denali (Mount McKinley) in June 1913, via the South Summit. He published five books about his years in Alaska.


Apart from being an accomplished mountain climber and explorer, Hudson was a social reformer. He stressed progressive goals in his sermons and regularly published articles related to his causes. He founded a night school for mill-workers, a home for indigent women, and St. Matthew's Children's Home. He also actively campaigned against child labour. In his later years, he encouraged education among the Alaskan youth, helping arrange scholarships and sponsors for them.


Hudson dedicated his life to serve both Alaska Natives and American settlers in Alaska. He was single. He died of pneumonia in Fort Yukon, Alaska on October 10, 1920 .


About the book


Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled, by Hudson Stuck


Hudson Stuck, a missionary volunteered to travel into the remote primitive parts of Alaska by sled and dog team, bringing religious education and services to the native people. This is a telling of some of those long brutal winter journeys and exploration by this missionary. This is not a religious book by any means, but recounts of his adventures in remote Alaska at a time when there were no roads.


In this 1914 enthralling record, Hudson wrote about his 8 years of journeys in this "great, wild country" and the people who lived there. This is no mild tale of priestly ministering or zealous missionary work, going on with the daily travelling through drifting snow, over frozen rivers and lakes, and across mountain ranges, making camps in the open plains, on mountain foot, in log huts, or sleeping under the stars at sub zero temperature, with the interplay between Christian beliefs and native traditions, and the trying Alaskan economics of the time


Readers get eloquent descriptions of the places he visited, the people he met, from the indigenous peoples to early gold-rush prospectors and their followers, He wrote about interesting personalities, the types of people who flocked to Alaska, the characteristics of the native. He also described the varying geography of the north and its memorable trails, including sighting the aurora borealis and the "feast of rich, delicate colour" which can be experienced in the period when the sun barely lifts above the horizon.


He wrote about caring, feeding and selection of sled dogs. There are interesting facts about many of the long standing myths among Alaskan as to the origin of the dogs.


By the time you finish, you get a good glimpse of early Alaskan life., more than you ever considered about early Alaskan life. Read about how miners thawed the soil to a depth at which they wished to secure gold, how they froze tunnels through the water to mine the ocean floor, the quality of Alaskan potatoes, the types of snow and ice conditions, and a thousand other interesting details.


If you loved outdoors, simply enjoy true adventure stories, this certainly is a great book on adventures that you will appreciate and resonate with your own experience.


On the other hand, for those who will never have an opportunity to experience this journey, allow this book to transpose you onto the trails, enjoy seeing the mountains of Alaska through the author's eyes, and traveling with him on frozen rivers with incredible names like Koyukuk and Kuskokwim.


Enjoy!