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Photos: Mushing legend George Attla

George Attla, the Huslia Hustler whose mushing achievements made him an Alaska rock star during the 1960s, '70s and '80s, died Sunday at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, a family member reported.

He was 81, and beloved across the state.

"May my Dad rest in peace," Amanda Attla wrote on her Facebook page Sunday evening. "He's at his happy hunting grounds. There's a party goin on up there. Right after he passed the biggest shooting star came down. He made it. My mom told me so."

Attla, an Athabascan who lived in the Interior village of Huslia until his hospitalization with bone cancer last month, gained fame and legions of fans with a sprint mushing career that began in 1958 and ended in 2011.

READ MORE: Famed Alaska musher George Attla dead at 81

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