Mushing legend dies from apparent suicide

FAIRBANKS - Mushing legend Carl Huntington, who won the 1974 Iditarod, died Friday in an apparent suicide, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Huntington is best known for winning both the Open World Championship, also known as the Fur Rendezvous race, and the Iditarod Trail race.

It's an unusual feat because the Open World is a sprint race and the Iditarod is a distance race.

"It's never been done before and after," said musher George Attla of North Pole.

"There's nobody that has quite the record he has," said musher Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Iditarod.

Huntington, 52, from Galena, had been estranged from his family recently, said Trooper Darrel Christensen. He had recently been charged with sexual abuse of a minor, the trooper said.