LAURIUM – Village of Laurium officials have been working with CopperDog officials in preparing for the 2026 CopperDog sled dog race.

The CopperDog organization announced in June the race will begin in Calumet, but will finish in Laurium for the first time. The three-day race event will take place Friday, February 27 – Sunday, March 1. The CopperPull, a weight-pull competition, will also be held in Laurium, and will run on both Saturday and Sunday.

Laurium Village Manager Ian Lewis said the village met with the CopperDog Board on Monday, and discussed where the CopperPull will likely be held and where the CopperDog races will end. The finish line, he said, will be at the Gipp Ice Arena, located at 200 Isle Royale St.

Lewis said a major concern right now is adequate parking.

“We’re hoping to keep one of our snow dumps open for parking, but we have 170 inches already,” he said, “so I doubt we’ll be able to keep it open.”

While the CopperPull competitions are going on, Laurium also has plans to help the public celebrate, with free public skating.

“Right now, we have a tentative schedule set for 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday,” Lewis said. “We’re going to just run all-day, free, public skating during the Copper Pull times,” Lewis said. “Rental skates will still cost $2 but we have plenty of rental skates, so anyone who wants try and skate, the more the merrier.”

On Sunday, the Copper Pull will go from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Lewis said, “and our plan is to have free public skate in line with that, as well.”

Lewis said the tentative race finish time is between 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. The concession stand at the Gipp will be open at that time, he said.

“People can go into the warming area and have have hot chocolate, cappuccinos and whatever.”

The village is currently working with a local restaurant to have hot soups and chili, hot food items available. Meanwhile, Lewis said a bit more planning is schedules for last-minute details.

“We’re going to have a few more meetings with CopperDog in the next month or so,” he said. “We should have more updates and more set schedules before the event.”