Photo courtesy of Village of Laurium For the first time, the CopperDog races finished in Laurium. The location change was by all accounts, successful.

LAURIUM – Relocating the CopperDog race finish to the George Gipp Recreation Area in Laurium was a huge success, according to Megan Jackman, administrative assistant for the Village and a finish line coordinator for the event. “I was there the whole time all weekend,” Jackman said, “and it was a huge success.”

Jackman said large numbers of people were on hand for the finish on Sunday. “We had a lot of people come and witness the finish,” she said. “I think our first musher came in around 11:45 in the morning. People were all lined up and down the finish line. I’d say by 1:00 the last musher came through.”

There were a number of reasons cited for moving the finish from Calumet to Laurium, including event organizers’ wanting to honor the long-standing support of Laurium businesses, volunteers and fans. Safety was another consideration. Permitting the return route to follow a snowmobile trail eliminated the need for teams to cross major roads like M-203 or US-41, making it safer for mushers and easier for volunteers to manage.

Moving the finish to the George Gipp Recreation Area also allowed organizers to centralize festival events, including the CopperPull weight-pull competition and the CopperDash kids’ race in one location. The reasons proved correct, according to Jackman. She reported Chris Kivi, owner of CD Kennels, and organizer of the CopperPull and the Copper Dash, said during the CopperDog banquet on Sunday that more dogs had participated in the CopperDog event than ever before. “He said around 50 dogs were registered for the CopperPull event,” Jackman said.. “For the CopperDash kids’ event, where kids can pretend to be mushers, he said more kids showed up for the event.”

Kelly Probst, CopperDog race director, was on site Sunday, and said she felt it was really successful, Jackman said.

The Gipp Arena was opened both days, providing a space for people to get warm, get a warm drink and something to eat. Pasties from Jen’s Kitchen sold out, said Jackman. In many instances, people took advantage of the free skating offered on both Saturday and Sunday during the event. Jackman said many were surprised at the opportunity.

“A lot people said ,’Oh, I haven’t put on a pair of skates in years, but I’m here, I might as well,'” she said. “It was a different type of audience, not our typical hockey crew.”

People found ample nearby parking a huge convenience.

“Parking was not an issue,” Jackman said. “We were kind of wondering how the parking would go, because we had barricades for only CopperDog event staff to come in and park in actual recreation area, but then we had a snow dump area cleared for general parking, so I think that went really well.”

Mushers, with their trucks and equipment, were also provided a designated parking area beside the arena building, Jackman said.

Jackman said the whole event felt like a well-oiled machine, and next year will be better, “because we won’t have the (DPW building) construction, so parking will be better, we’ll have a lot more space opened up.”

The entire event was a success, Jackman said.

“Everyone cheered, we took a team photo, and by 2:30, it was a wrap, CopperDog was a wrap,” she said. “The fences were taken down, the finish line was taken down. So, it was a very, very clean, well-oiled machine.”