The Camp Rimini War Dog Reception and Training Center, located west of Helena, Montana, was established in 1942 to train sled and pack dogs for use in World War II. The facility was run by the Quartermaster Corps, which was responsible for running the Army's K-9 Corps. The camp closed in 1945.
Karen Ann Fischer (b. 1947) is a librarian and library director. She received a BA from Hamline University in 1969, a MLS from the University Minnesota in 1971, and a MA from Montana State University in 1980. She worked as a cataloger at Montana State University from 1976 to 1986 before becoming director of library media services at Central Oregon Community College (Bend, OR) and then, in 1993, director of the Briggs Library of the University of Minnesota, Morris. In 1981, she received a staff improvement grant to conduct the interviews that form this collection.
New Englander David W. Armstrong (1921-2021), arrived at Camp Rimini on Febrary 5, 1943. After serving in WWII, he continued to mush and returned to Montana with his wife, Alice, in the 1960s. A pioneer of sled dog racing, he mentored many mushers and was a founder of the Montana's Governor's Cup Sled Dog Race (later named Race to the Sky) to honor the dogs and soldiers of Camp Rimini.
Leroy Edmund "Eddie" Barbeau (1908-1994), a member of the Ojibwe (Ojibway or Chippewa)Nation, was born on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota and grew up on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota where he raised and raced sled dogs. Following the war, he stayed in Helena and became an accomplished artist, spiritual leader, and advocate for the many diverse tribal members who lived in area. He served on the board of the Montana United Urban Indian Alliance and, in 1969, organized the Helena Indian Alliance. Barbeau and his wife, Mildred Katherine "Kay" Callaway Barbeau, raised and trained dogs at Avalanche Kennels, becoming national known for their work with canines.
John Gordon "Jack" and "Johnnie" Eslick (1919-1995) was born in Belvidere, Tennessee. He married Irma Evangeline Nash Eslick of Helena in 1944 and the couple stayed in Helena following WWII, where Eslick worked as a cab driver.
Having trained as a botanist, Stuart Aitken Mace (1919-1993) had no previous experience with sled dogs or mushing when, as a young 2nd lieutenant with the Army's 10th Mountain Division, he was assigned to lead the new sled dog patrol. Following the War, in 1948, he settled with his family near Aspen in Ashcroft, Colorado. He operated the Toklat Wilderness Lodge and continued to mush, pioneering the sport in Colorado and, through appearances in the "Sargent Preston of the Yukon" TV series and other shows, introducing the dog sledding to viewers across the country.
The Camp Rimini (Mont.) oral histories consist of interviews conducted by Karen Fischer from 1982 to 1983 with four surviving members of the dog training program at Camp Rimini: Stuart Mace, David Armstrong, Eddie Barbeau, and John "Jack" Eslick. Topics discussed in the interviews include the problems involved in procuring and training sled dogs and sled-dog drivers for search-and-rescue work in the Arctic; the history of the detachment from its inception at Camp Hale, Colorado, to its final days at Fort Robinson, Nebraska; administering the program; the project's difficulties, accomplishments, and failures; feeding and health problems encountered by the dogs; and search and rescue operations in Newfoundland, Canada, and Greenland. The collection is comprised of nine audiocassettes, two bound copies of the interview transcriptions, and photocopies of two U.S. Army pamphlets dealing with the use of pack dogs.
This collection is open for research.
Duplicate copies of audiocassette tapes, and typed transcriptions, of four oral history interviews conducted by Karen Fischer were deposited with both the Montana Historical Society in Helena and the Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections in 1983.
[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT
This collection was processed 2014 November 14
Recordings are on audio cassette. Researchers must request access copies to listen to these recordings.
Copies of the four interviews are also held by the Montana Historical Society in Helena, Montana. They are part of the General Montana History Collection, call numbers OH 616-619.
An oral history interview with Stuart Mace, recorded November 8, 1991, is held by the Aspen (Colo.) Historical Society, item AHS-C79a. A digital copy is available on the Sound Model Digital Archive of the University of Denver: https://duarchives.coalliance.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/143853