Veryl Goodnight paints a piece of Denali history
To mark an important milestone in Denali National Park, artist Veryl Goodnight created the painting Lucky Puppies – The Denali
Park Canine Patrol. “This the 100th year that Denali National Park has used dog teams to patrol the vast wilderness,” Goodnight says. “I flew into the heart of Denali in March 2019 to observe the patrol at work. Among their many tasks in addition to patrolling 2,000 miles of trail in the dead of winter, is monitoring scientific equipment that has been installed to track climate change. Many of the human rangers are young women such as Julie Carpenter. Julie is now the head Canine Patrol Ranger.”
Goodnight says the title of the work refers to five freerunning 8-month-old pups in the painting. One litter is raised each year by the park to replace the 8-year-old veterans that retire to a long list of waiting homes. The puppies are greeted by thousands of visitors each summer and then get to run free with the teams when the snow is deep enough to begin patrolling.
Lucky Puppies is one of four paintings the artist has held off the market so they can be loaned to institutions to tell the untold stories of the many roles sled dogs have played in the history of North America. “Veryl has used sled dogs to bookend the narrative of the past 6,000 years of human existence.
With expert skill, Veryl visually narrates the perilous journey from long ago when travelers were crossing continents with the aid of dogs, to today’s Alaskan dog teams that drive scientists to remote locations to monitor climate control,” says Brenda Macon, executive director of the Durango
Art Center. “Through these paintings, we see how dogs have been crucial to our survival and to our progress.”