Arleigh grew up in Southern Wisconsin, with a family consisting of his mom; Marian, his dad; Merlin, his younger brother; Duane, and his sister; Sharon. His family were dairy farmers, and all of his relatives lived within a half hour. When he was a young man, he learned everything from his older cousins, whose names were Roger and Phillip. Arleigh went to Darlington High School, and played baseball and ran track. After High School, he attended St. Olaf University in Northfield, Minnesota. At St. Olaf, he ran track and majored in philosophy. While he was in college, there was a lot of pressure from being drafted into the Vietnam war. Luckily, he was not. He soon decided after he got a major in Philosophy, that college wasn't the right fit for him. So in 1973, he moved to Grand Marais, Minnesota. He was able to build is own house that he bought from an old resort that only cost him $50. His first job in Grand Marais was a student counselor. Not long after that, he decided to fulfill his dreams of becoming a dogsledder. He got his first dogs from a lady whose name was Mable Hill. She was an elderly lady who decided it was time for her to retire from dogsledding. He had many ambitions on where to run the dogs, like Alaska, Canada, Washington or Ely. He soon decided to stay in Grand Marais because there was more logging roads. Although he ran his dogs in Minnesota, he also participated in events in Canada as well, like the Yellow Knife Sled dog race, which took three days to complete. One winter he traveled all around Canada racing dogs, and when he returned to Grand Marais, he ended with $50 in his wallet. His dream was to become a professional dog sled racer, but could never make it happen. He got several sponsors for dogsledding, from places including Holiday gas station and Perkins. Booties, which go on the sled dogs feet, had suddenly became popular while he was racing. So when he was racing in Canada, one of his friends, Doris McQueen, had made him 500 booties out of denim jeans, and they made a huge difference for the dogs. Although they worked well, he soon decided that he did not like using booties.
 
Arleigh has raised two kids in Grand Marais, his son Odin and his daughter, Anna. As of today, Arleigh does not run sled dogs, but still coaches baseball, and lives in the same house he had since 1973.