Leonhard Seppala brought his dog sled team of Siberian Husky's to Maine in 1927 during a tour of the United States.

He and his dog team were part of a famous serum run in Alaska known as the Great Race of Mercy that used dog sled teams to deliver an emergency supply of diphtheria serum to Nome in 1925.

His team raced Arthur Walden's Chinook team of New Hampshire at Poland Spring in 1927.

Seppala's dogs won the race. Seppala and Elizabeth Ricker, wife of the Poland Spring Hotel manager and a "musher" herself, started a kennel breeding these Seppala Siberian sleddogs at Poland Spring.