Meet rugged, independent, determined, and hard-working Joe Redington, Father of the Iditarod, a man who found his destiny in Alaska. In an inspirational biography, Lew Freedman chronicles Redington's birth on the Chisholm Trail and his boyhood in the Depression--homeless, motherless, roaming the country looking for work. Alaska was his rebirth in 1948. On his own piece of dirt, a man could raise a family, hunt, fish, run dogs, and stand up for what he believed. Redington helped rescue Alaska dog mushing from extinction, creating a legacy in a thrilling thousand-mile race across Alaska, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.