English

Verb

freighting

1. present participle of freight

Freighting refers to the hauling of cargo, historically, using a dog team to mush goods cross-country. During the North American gold rushes, such as the Klondike Gold Rush, dogs were valuable draft animals, going where horses could not and withstanding harsher weather.

Dog teams were commonly used for transportation, and in Canada and Alaska were used to deliver the mail during the winter. Large teams of sturdy dogs were required to haul the heavy loads. With the advent of air mail in the 1920s, freighting by dog team became outmoded, and gradually the mail runs became fewer until the last regular mail freighting route in Canada was shut down in the 1960s.