The purple finch is the state bird. The white tail deer is the state animal. And coming in 2009, the Chinook might be the lucky dog.

Seventh-graders from Bedford are the driving force behind a bill to declare the Chinook the New Hampshire state dog.

The recognition would celebrate the rare breed's origins and the state's rich sled dog history. Explorer and author Arthur T. Walden first bred the gentle workhorse of a dog on his farm in Wonalancet on Jan. 17, 1917.

He named his beloved lead dog Chinook, a mix of Greenland husky and mastiff/St. Bernard, after a favorite dog during his Gold Rush sledding days in Alaska.

"The kids are really thrilled," said Sen. Sheila Roberge, R-Bedford, who sponsored the bill for students from Ross A. Lurgio Middle School. "It was a wonderful idea for their teacher to have."

Their teacher, Jen Wells, is also the outgoing president of Chinooks of New England.

"We fell in love with them," she said.

Wells, who owns two Chinooks, Amarook and Kodiak Tundra, said the dog is one of few breeds from America. The Chinook, she said, has made the "Guinness Book of World Records'' as a most rare breed.

Wells said there are about 800 Chinooks in America, with most being in New England. In the mid-1980s, the Chinook population was about 60, according to the Chinook Dog Club of America.

The breed is most famous for hauling supplies for Adm. Richard Byrd's Antarctic expedition in 1929. The expedition was a success, but for one sad note: Chinook wandered off and was never found, and his death made news around the globe, according to the Chinook Owners' Association.

Rick Skoglund, a recreational musher and owner of the Perry Greene Kennel in Maine, owns one of Chinook's original harnesses. He plans to donate the harness, sleds and other historic artifacts and documents to the New Hampshire Historical Society this year.

"This is a significant part of New Hampshire history and its lost history," he said.

The Perry Greene Kennel, named for a prominent breeder in the middle of the 20th century, has bred Chinooks for more than 50 years.

If some Bedford schoolchildren have their way, Chinooks such as these will become New Hampshire's state dog. (COURTESY)

Chinook breeders and fanciers Leslie and John Donais, owners of Granite Hill Chinooks in Dover, are thrilled with the proposal for the official state dog. Leslie Donais said it was overdue and that naming Route 113-A as The Chinook Trail in honor of Walden and his dog is insufficient.

"All dog lovers love their dogs, no matter what their breed," she wrote by e-mail. "But the Chinook is the only dog which truly deserves distinction as the state dog for New Hampshire because of its true beginnings in New Hampshire and its deep roots in New Hampshire history."

Chinooks were instrumental in bringing the sport of sled dog racing to the region, and the New England Sled Dog Club, established in 1924, is still going strong and hosting popular races each year. In 1926, Leslie Donais noted, Walden and his Chinooks were the first to conquer Mount Washington by sled.

New Hampshire lawmakers have much heavy lifting each year, but lighter issues occasionally take center stage, a brief respite from decisions on matters of life and death.

Roberge, who owns Goober, a St. Bernard she picked up from a shelter, said the bill declaring the Chinook the state dog would give the students firsthand knowledge of the legislative process.

In 2006 -- the most recent Year of the Dog on the Chinese calendar -- the New Hampshire Legislature adopted the pumpkin as the official state fruit. Students at Wells Memorial Elementary School in Harrisville were behind that recognition.

Wells said it is a good way to connect with the students, many of whom have dogs or pets. Nine states have an official state dog, one of the many facts her seventh-graders have researched.

"It'll be fun for them," Wells said. "They will remember this for the rest of their lives."