How Leonhard Seppala became the world’s most famous dogsled musher

By: Christine- Smith-Simonsen and Ellen Kathrine Bludd // UiT – The Arctic University of Norway At Christmas 1899, the Kven Jafet Lindeberg rowed a boat around the fjord of Kvænangen in northern Norway showing off gold nuggets from Alaska and offering glasses of madeira. His mission: to find trustworthy people from his own community to work in his goldmine in Nome. Jafet had accompanied a shipment of reindeer from Alta to Alaska in February 1898. Once there, he joined the gold rush. He was one of the lucky ones, and together with two Swedes, he established the Pioneer Mining Company and founded the gold rush town of Nome.