Emmitt Peters

Emmitt Peters, Sr. (born October 1, 1940) the "Yukon Fox", is an Alaskan American hunter, fisher, trapper, and dog musher. The last rookie to win the 1,049 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (in 1975), he and his lead dogs Nugget and Digger shattered the previous speed record by almost six days.

Peters is an Athabaskan Alaska Native who was born in Ruby, deep in the Alaska Interior. He became a hunter, fisher, and trapper, and grew up around sled dogs. Mushing was the primary means of transportation in the rural parts of the state, far from the road system that spans southern Alaska, but the advent of the snowmobile (known as snowmachines in Alaska) in the 1960s almost drove mushing into extinction.

Iditarod

Peters entered the Iditarod as a rookie in 1975, and won the race with a time of 14 days, 14 hours, 43 minutes, and 45 seconds. The two previous races in 1973 and 1974 were slower and more measured, and both were won in just over 20 days. The 1975 race was a close one, and he placed in the top 10 in the next five races. According to Peters, he earned the "Yukon Fox" nickname, "because I'd sneak away from all my competitors and have five or six teams chasing me" (Rozell, 2003). Even with a weak team of sled dogs, he regularly placed high in the standings.