THE BOW LAKE BLOODLINE got its start with Tina of Gatineau who was purchased from her eastern owner, bred to Nicko of Gatineau, and shipped to Seattle. The resulting litter (Dushka, Malinka, Leda, etc., of Bow Lake) became the foundation bitches of the line. A Lombard-bred male, Igloo Pak Chuckchee (Ch. Laddy of Wonalancet x Tchuchis of Wonalancet), was acquired and bred to several of the females. A male bred by John E. Jackson of Wilkensburg, PA, Torr of Seppla [sic] was bred to Leda of Bow Lake, one of the Nicko x Tina progeny; this male was three-quarters Wheeler and one-quarter Seeley ancestry.
Motivation for the Bow Lake operation appears to have been largely pecuniary (to put it delicately). One respected SH historian told me she regarded the Bow Lake episode as a "sellout" on Sepp's part, in the light of what he had done earlier in his career, and said she detested seeing the WWII-vintage photos of him with those dogs. I would have to agree with this assessment. The emphasis seemed to be mostly upon producing lots of lovely pure white or silver grey Siberians.
Moderate amounts of Bow Lake breeding are found occasionally in various racing Siberian Husky bloodlines including Little Alaska and Calivali. The only real successor to the Bow Lake lineage was Martha Lake of Raymond Thompson, which largely gave rise to western US show stock. I include Bow Lake here mainly because people are occasionally misled about it through association of the kennel name with Leonhard Seppala. It is important to understand that this was an episode of his declining years that had little connection with his achievements and dogs of the 1920s.
Bow Lake is definitely a mixed lineage with substantial Seeley ancestry through all of its foundation stock, especially through the use of the Seeley-line male Igloo Pak's Chuckchee as its main stud dog. Although at least in name it had associations with Leonhard Seppala, it forms no part of the Seppala Siberian Sleddog gene pool.
SAMPLE PEDIGREE -- Gromko of Bow Lake (Opens in a new window.)
