Meet Deke
Deke naaktgeboren
Deke Naaktgeboren (pronounced Deek Naak-t-ge-boren) was born in Pella, Iowa – home of Pella Windows, Tulip Time and the Dutchmen!
At 19 years of age, he left Pella to attend Western Stage College in Gunniston, Colorado.
In his first year of college he purchased a Siberian Husky and named him Nautique.
How it started
One day, Deke encountered a dog sled team whilst skiing on the trails. He waited at the musher’s truck for him and his dogs to return. Deke then pleaded with him to let me help him out with his team of dogs so that he could learn about mushing. Nautique and Deke ended up helping him out at his kennel for the rest of the winter! Nautique passed away unexpectedly in the fall of 2006. He was only three-years-old.
In 2007, Deke took an extended 3 month trip to Europe, and ended up traveling to Arctic Sweden where he became very good friends with a 70-year-old Swedish Man named Helge. Helge introduced him, to a musher there. One year later, Deke was back in Sweden managing a 45 dog kennel, 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle!
After the winter of handling, training, running and operating sled dog tours, he knew without a doubt that he would be a musher one day, but he also new it would be with his own team of dogs. The following year, Deke moved to Seward, Alaska which is located along the coast, to work for the summer and to find out what Alaska was like.
nautique sky kennel
Deke was employed as a Law Enforcement Ranger for the National Parks. A permanent job opened in Florida, so his next move was naturally to move to the Florida Everglades! Although Florida was the wrong direction geographically, it was a smart stepping stone in his career. After spending just shy of 3 years in Florida, Deke drove back to Alaska, but to Fairbanks, in the Interior, this time. This area is known for some of the best mushing in the World!
He moved into an off-the-grid house, 30 miles north of Fairbanks, where he knew someday he would be able to house a dog team. Deke didn’t care so much about the house or the property, but he fell in love with his backyard which was millions, literally millions, of acres of public land with trails, public use cabins and freedom!
In 2013, Deke bought his first Alaskan Husky, a 6-month-old sprint sled dog named Kali. Two days later, he bought a distance sled dog puppy named Luna. Luna and Kali were house dogs for about 6 months until the fall of 2013 when Deke received a phone call from a musher moving to Germany. He said, “Would you like to buy my kennel?”
The next day, Deke drove home with 13 dogs, combined with Luna and Kali, he had his first team of 15 dogs!