Dear Friends,

We know that sled dogs helped get mail and supplies to gold miners in the 1800s and early 1900s.  Did you know that they also helped transport eggs? 

The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., has a display that talks about eggs being part of the Alaskan mail system!  It was difficult for chickens to winter in Alaska, so a farmer wanted a new set of eggs that would hatch into chicks in the spring.  

In 1913, from a farm in Washington state to the Alaskan farmer, the egg crate cost 26 cents postage.  The eggs traveled from spot to spot:  a farm in Washington state, to Seattle, Washington, where the eggs were put into a pouch, to a ship that took the eggs to the Seward peninsula in Alaska.

The eggs were then put onto either a dogsled, a small plane, or another ship to go to the farmer.

Display at the National Postal Museum

What questions do you have?  What do you wonder? Think of weather, temperature, breakage, and hatching of chicks.  Discuss it in class or with a friend.

Perhaps you can do some research, learning more about eggs traveling through Alaska by dogsled!  

Until next time,

Gypsy