A sculpture of Togo was dedicated by the Poland Spring Preservation Society in 2022. The bronze sculpture was created by Maine artist David Smus. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Though Maine has everything from a state fossil to a state ballad, it doesn’t have a state dog.

That may change if state Rep. David Boyer of Poland has his way.

Boyer said he will ask the Legislature next year to designate the Seppala Siberian sled dog as Maine’s official state dog.

The dogs are descended from the legendary Togo, the lead dog of a team that delivered a crucial vaccine across the Alaskan wilderness a century ago to international acclaim before spending his final years at Poland Spring Resort.

“It’s a great story that people should know more about,” Boyer said. “It highlights the ethos of Mainers and the resilience of Mainers.”

He said he is “cautiously optimistic” that his colleagues will back the proposal if enough of them learn what it’s all about.

Jonathan Hayes, a musher in St. Agatha in Aroostook County, said sled dogs are a key part of the state’s heritage.

He is bringing about 20 of his Seppala Siberian sled dogs to Alaska in January to follow in Togo’s pawsteps exactly a century after the historic run to Nome to help control a diphtheria outbreak that threatened the lives of many children in the remote town.

Poland Spring Resort owner Cyndi Robbins, left, Laura Brown, director of operations for the Poland Spring Preservation Society, and Maine state Rep. David Boyer of Poland are seen Nov. 27 around a sculpture of Togo, the legendary lead dog of a team that delivered a crucial vaccine across the Alaskan wilderness a century ago to international acclaim before spending his final years at Poland Spring Resort in Poland.  They are behind a proposal to make the Seppala Siberian sled dog the Maine state dog. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Thirteen states have official state dogs, ranging from the Chesapeake Bay retriever in Maryland to the American water spaniel in Wisconsin. Massachusetts singled out the Boston terrier for the honor back in 1979.

Three of the state dogs have Arctic roots: the Siberian husky in Connecticut, where it has long been the mascot for the state university; the Chinook in New Hampshire, where breeders once supplied polar explorer Robert Byrd with the dogs; and the Alaskan malamute in, not surprisingly, Alaska.

Hayes said Maine’s mushing history is second only to Alaska, where vast distances made roads and rail lines impractical.

He said the Seppala Siberian sled dogs, which have roots reaching back thousands of years, are the best option for mushers because of their natural inclination to run and readiness to please people.

“They have such a strong connection to humans,” he said, and lack the occasional vicious flare-ups in other Arctic breeds.

Illustrated chapters of Maine musher Jonathan Hayes’ storybook “The True Tails of Togo the Sled Dog” can be read along a trail at Poland Spring Preservation Park in Poland. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

“So much of it is heart. So much of it is spirit,” said Hayes, president of the International Seppala Siberian Sleddog Club.

“If any dog gets this honor,” he said, “it should be the descendants of Togo.”

They are happiest when they are working, he said, something “hard-wired into their DNA.”

They typically are harnessed at about eight months of age.

There are probably between 100 and 150 registered dogs with the Continental Kennel Club that fit the bill, he said, with about a dozen breeders involved in preserving the line.

“We’ve been keeping these guys distinct,” Hayes said.

It’s not easy to get the Legislature to rally behind the idea of singling out one breed, though.

In 2015, lawmakers considered naming the Labrador retriever as Maine’s state dog, but despite their joyful and goofy demeanor, the measure failed.

Its sponsor, former state Sen. David Dutremble of Biddeford, argued that Labs stand “for the very thing we as Mainers believe in: hard work, versatility and most of all a friendly demeanor.”

One supporter, Don Kingsbury of Boothbay Harbor, told legislators at the time that “it’s not an accident that L.L.Bean has a Lab in every catalog they have ever produced” because “they are all over Maine.”

But legislators heard from a good many owners of other breeds of dogs who thought Labs might not be the best choice, in part because they have no clear connection to Maine.

Others said the Legislature ought to have better things to do than pick a state dog.

But Boyer said it’s an issue that “doesn’t cost any money” and likely won’t anger anyone either.

Maybe, if supporters can tap the zeal and good fortune that drove Togo and his team across the frozen rivers and mountains of Alaska, Boyer can push the bill through to become law.