He used his paper to write scathing editorials. Thompson was gracious in his editorials. Seppala was notified that evening and immediately started preparations for the trip. In February 1924, the first winter aircraft flight in Alaska had been conducted between Fairbanks and McGrath by Carl Eielson, who flew a reliable De Havilland DH-4 issued by the U.S. Post Office on eight experimental trips. The temperature began to drop, and the team was forced onto the colder ice of the river because the trail had been destroyed by horses. Seppala entered into a partnership with Elizabeth M. Ricker in Poland Spring, Maine, where many of his dogs went to live in retirement and contribute to their breeding program of Siberian sled dogs, including Togo who sired many litters. Balto became famous, but the unsung hero was Leonhard Seppala's Siberian Husky, Togo. On February 8 the first half of the second shipment began its trip by dog sled, while the plane failed to start when a broken radiator shutter caused the engine to overheat. He was passing the team when Ivanoff shouted, "The serum! After warming the serum by the fire and resting for four hours, Shannon dropped three dogs and left with the remaining 8. Nome, Alaska lies approximately 2 degrees south of the Arctic Circle, and while greatly diminished from its peak of 20,000 inhabitants during the gold rush days, at the turn of the 20th century, it was still the largest town in northern Alaska in 1925, with 455 Alaska Natives and 975 settlers of European descent.[1](p16). US Dept of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service Anchorage, AK 6930 Sand Lake Road Anchorage, AK 99502 "[14] Because the pictures and video of Kaasen and Balto taken in Nome were recreated hours after their arrival once the sun had risen, speculation still exists as to whether Balto's position as lead dog was genuine, or was staged or exaggerated for media purposes. George feels that Jenny is his "true love", and he declares he will "build for my Jenny a honeymoon home" below the same mountain where gold was discovered. "[1](p205) With the report of Gonangnan's progress on January 31, Welch believed the serum would arrive there in February. He had previously made the run from Nome to Nulato in a record-breaking four days, won the All-Alaska Sweepstakes three times, and had become something of a legend for his athletic ability and rapport with his Siberian huskies. Not a single ampule was broken, and the antitoxin was thawed and ready by noon. Mushers (in order) and the distances they covered. The Central Park statue of Balto was modeled after Balto,[11] but shows him wearing Togo's colors (awards). He then handed the serum off to Charlie Olson. Together, the teams covered the 674 miles (1,085 km) in 127 ½ hours, which was considered a world record, done in extreme subzero temperatures in near-blizzard conditions and hurricane-force winds. The teams would travel day and night until they handed off the package to Seppala at Nulato. Togo's prowess as a sled dog, also led to his strengths being preserved through breeding, as the "Seppala Siberian Sleddog" line of huskies, a sought after sled dog line. [2] Several months earlier,[3] Welch had placed an order for more diphtheria antitoxin after discovering that the hospital's entire batch had expired. The two races follow the same route from Ruby to Nome. The three dogs died shortly after Shannon returned for them, and a fourth may have died as well. He reached Minto at 3 am, with parts of his face black from frostbite. The serum race helped spur the Kelly Act, which was signed into law on February 2. An unsurprising number of movies have been set in Alaska, as far back as the 1914 film “Spoilers” about the Nome Gold Rush. While not sufficient to defeat the epidemic, the 300,000 units could hold it at bay until the larger shipment arrived. The team ran across the ice while following the shoreline. Mushing was revitalized as a recreational sport in the 1970s with the immense popularity of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Shortly before WWII Czech teacher and writer FrantiÅ¡ek Omelka was fascinated by the story which resulted in novella Å tafeta (Relay) published in Czech in 1946. With the powerful blizzard raging and winds of 80 mph (130 km/h), Welch ordered a stop to the relay until the storm passed, reasoning that a delay was better than the risk of losing it all. Seppala was still scheduled to cover the most dangerous leg, the shortcut across Norton Sound, but the telephone and telegraph systems bypassed the small villages he was passing through, and there was no way to tell him to wait at Shaktoolik. [2] The Alameda would be the next ship north, and would not arrive in Seattle until January 31, and then would take another 6 to 7 days to arrive in Seward. Kaasen maintained that he decided to continue since there were no lights on in the cabin where Rohn was sleeping and he didn't want to waste time,[6] but many, including Rohn based on conversations the two men had before leaving Nome, and other decorated mushers in the surrounding area, thought his decision to not wake Rohn was motivated by a desire to grab the glory for himself and Balto.[12]. Since the weather was improving, it would take time to prepare Rohn's team, and Balto and the other dogs were moving well, Kaasen pressed on the remaining 25 miles (40 km) to Nome, reaching Front Street at 5:30 am. Leonhard Seppala and his dog sled team, with his lead dog Togo, traveled 91 miles (146 km) from Nome from January 27 to January 31 into the oncoming storm. The winds after Solomon were so severe that his sled flipped over and he almost lost the cylinder containing the serum when it fell off and became buried in the snow. Each musher during the first relay received a gold medal from the H. K. Mulford Company. The temperature in Nome was a relatively warm −20 Â°F (−29 Â°C), but in Shaktoolik the temperature was estimated at −30 Â°F (−34 Â°C), and the gale force winds causing a wind chill of −85 Â°F (−65 Â°C). Evans relied on his lead dogs when he passed through ice fog where the Koyukuk River had broken through and surged over the ice, but forgot to protect the groins of his two short-haired mixed breed lead dogs with rabbit skins. [citation needed] The 1995 animated film Balto was loosely based on the events of the final leg of the serum run, although all of the characters besides Balto, and subplots, are fictional. The primary source of mail and needed supplies in 1925 was the dog sled, but within a decade, bush pilots would become the dominant method of transportation during the winter months. Though Horton had sung several popular movie tie-in songs, this was the first one that was sung over the opening titles.. (Seppala traveled 91 miles with the serum, but also drove 170 miles from Nome to Shaktoolik to meet the serum for the turnaround of the relay; This makes his total miles covered 261 miles, the longest distance in the run by over 200 miles. Between November and July, the port into Nome on the southern shore of Seward Peninsula in the Bering sea was icebound and inaccessible by steamship. [4] His message to the Public Health Service said: AN EPIDEMIC OF DIPHTHERIA IS ALMOST INEVITABLE HERE STOP I AM IN URGENT NEED OF ONE MILLION UNITS OF DIPHTHERIA ANTITOXIN STOP MAIL IS ONLY FORM OF TRANSPORTATION STOP I HAVE MADE APPLICATION TO COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH OF THE TERRITORIES FOR ANTITOXIN ALREADY STOP THERE ARE ABOUT 3000 WHITE NATIVES IN THE DISTRICT[4], Despite the quarantine, there were over 20 confirmed cases of diphtheria and at least 50 more at risk by the end of January. The majority of relay drivers across the Interior were native Athabaskans, direct descendants of the original dog mushers. Technology improved and within a decade, air mail routes were established in Alaska. The quarantine had been obeyed but lack of diagnostic tools and the contagiousness of the strain rendered it ineffective. But you’ve heard this story. "[1](p203) The whiteout conditions cleared as he reached the shore, and the gale-force winds drove the wind chill to −70 Â°F (−57 Â°C). By mid-January 1925, Welch officially diagnosed the first case of diphtheria in a three-year-old boy who died only two weeks after first becoming ill.[4] The following day, when a seven-year-old girl presented the same tell-tale symptoms of diphtheria, Welch attempted to administer some of the expired antitoxin to see if it might still have any effect, but the girl died a few hours later. He arrived at 10 am; both dogs were dead. The temperatures across the Interior were at 20 year lows due to a high pressure system from the Arctic, and in Fairbanks the temperature was −50 Â°F (−46 Â°C). According to Edgar Kalland, "it was just an everyday occurrence as far as we were concerned."[1](p255). The mail route from Nenana to Nome spanned 674 miles (1,085 km) in total. I have it here!"[1](p207). "North to Alaska" is a 1960 hit song recorded by Johnny Horton that was featured in the movie of the same name. From November to July, the port on the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula of the Bering Sea was icebound and inaccessible by steamship. As an avid Esperantist, Omelka himself translated it into Esperanto with subsequent translations into German, Dutch, Frisian, Icelandic, Chinese and Japanese being published. Both the mushers and their dogs were … According to Togo's musher, Leonhard Seppala,[11] who was also Balto's owner,[13] Balto was a scrub freight dog that he left behind when he set out on the trip. Welch asked for half the serum to be delivered by aircraft from Fairbanks. On one day he covered 84 miles in a single drive.)[1]. He arrived at Bluff on February 1 at 7 pm in poor shape. On February 1, the number of cases in Nome rose to 28. The inscription reads, "Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin 600 miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through arctic blizzards, from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome. [5] Poems and letters from children poured in, and spontaneous fundraising campaigns sprang up around the country. By "1901" Sam was known as "a mighty man", and his partner George then tells him, "I'd trade all the gold that's buried in this land for one small band of gold to place on sweet little Jenny's hand." In October 1926, Seppala took Togo and his team on a tour from Seattle to California, and then across the Midwest to New England, and consistently drew huge crowds. [6][11] A premier musher, Seppala ran 170 miles (270 km) east from Nome to just outside Shaktoolik, where he met the serum runner (to his surprise, since he had anticipated having to go all the way to Nulato and back alone), took the handoff, and returned another 91 miles (146 km), having run over 261 miles (420 km) across some of the most dangerous and treacherous parts of the run in total. The 1.1 million units had left Seattle on January 31, and were not due by dog sled until February 8. Dog sledding remained popular in the rural interior but became nearly extinct when snowmobiles spread in the 1960s. [1](p263) Most legs were planned to be about 25 miles (40 km) long, generally accepted as an "extreme day's mush". The serum! Half-Athabaskan Edgar Kalland arrived in Minto the night before, and was sent back to Tolovana, traveling 70 mi (110 km) the day before the relay. After his death, Seppala had Togo preserved and mounted, and today the dog is on display in a glass case at the Iditarod museum in Wasilla, Alaska. "[11] In the last years of his life Seppala was heartbroken by the way the credit had gone to Balto; in his mind, Togo was the real hero of the serum race. The route then passed west 90 miles (140 km) over the Kaltag Portage to Unalakleet on the shore of Norton Sound. The only planes operating in Alaska in 1925 were three vintage Standard J biplanes belonging to Bennet Rodebaugh's Fairbanks Airplane company (later Wien Air Alaska) The aircraft were dismantled for the winter, had open cockpits, and had water-cooled engines that were unreliable in cold weather. The song's lyrics during the opening titles of the film provide a back story for the point where the film begins: Sam McCord left Seattle in 1892 with George and Billy Pratt, "crossed the Yukon river" and "found the bonanza gold below that old white mountain just a little southeast of Nome." Since both pilots were in the contiguous United States, Alaska Delegate Dan Sutherland attempted to get the authorization to use an inexperienced pilot, Roy Darling. The publicity also helped spur an inoculation campaign in the U.S. that dramatically reduced the threat of the disease. A second system was burying the Panhandle, as 25 mph (40 km/h) winds swept snow into 10-foot (3 m) drifts. Because of his age, Balto was euthanised on March 14, 1933, at the age of 14. The death toll from diphtheria in Nome is officially listed as either 5, 6, or 7,[6] but Welch later estimated there were probably at least 100 additional cases among "the Eskimo camps outside the city. Summers arranged for drivers along the last leg, including Seppala's colleague Gunnar Kaasen. They were featured at Madison Square Garden in New York City for 10 days, and Togo received a gold medal from Roald Amundsen. Messages were left at Solomon and Point Safety before the lines went dead. Shannon and his team arrived in bad shape at 11 am, and handed over the serum. During the Alaska gold rush, prospector George sends partner Sam to Seattle to bring his fiancée but when it turns out that she married another man, Sam returns with a pretty substitute, the … Different proposals included flying a large aircraft 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from Seattle to Nome, carrying a plane to the edge of the pack ice via Navy ship and launching it, and the original plan of flying the serum from Fairbanks. [4] A previous influenza pandemic of the so-called "Spanish flu" had hit the area in 1918 and 1919 and wiped out about 50 percent of the native population of Nome, and 8 percent of the native population of Alaska. A statue of Balto by sculptor Frederick Roth was unveiled in New York City's Central Park during a visit on December 15, 1925. The world famous Iditarod Race was not conceived to commemorate the serum run but as a race that the co-founders hoped would bring sled dogs back to the villages. It crossed the barren Alaska Interior, following the Tanana River for 137 miles (220 km) to the village Tanana at the junction with the Yukon River, and then following the Yukon for 230 miles (370 km) to Kaltag. [4] In the next few weeks, as the number of “tonsillitis” cases grew and four children died, whom Welch had not been able to autopsy, he became increasingly concerned about diphtheria.[1](pp33–36). [15] However, according to "The Cruelest Miles", Seppala just advised Kaassen to put Fox as a leader, while Kaassen ignored this and made Balto a lead dog instead. Tommy Patsy departed within half an hour. Both the mushers and their dogs were portrayed as heroes in the newly popular medium of radio, and received headline coverage in newspapers across the United States. The wind chill was −70 Â°F (−57 Â°C). I watched all the way through, excited to finally see these demonic aliens that were being alluded to the entire movie. Seppala still believed he had more than 100 mi (160 km) to the original relay point in Nulato to go and had raced to get off the Norton Sound before the storm hit. Forty-three new cases were diagnosed in 1926, but they were easily managed with the fresh supply of serum. The 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the Great Race of Mercy and The Serum Run, was a transport of diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled relay across the U.S. territory of Alaska by 20 mushers and about 150 sled dogs across 674 miles (1,085 km) in 5 ½ days, saving the small town of Nome and the surrounding communities from a developing epidemic.. While the first batch of serum was traveling to Nenana, Governor Bone gave final authorization to the dog relay, but ordered Edward Wetzler, the U.S. Post Office inspector, to arrange a relay of the best drivers and dogs across the Interior. Gunnar Kaasen and his team became celebrities and toured the West Coast from February 1925 to February 1926, and even starred in a 30-minute film entitled Balto's Race to Nome. A sixth death, probably unrelated to diphtheria, was widely reported as a new outbreak of the disease. The only link to the rest of the world during the winter was the Iditarod Trail, which ran 938 miles (1,510 km) from the port of Seward in the south, across several mountain ranges and the vast Alaska Interior before reaching Nome. The temperature was estimated at −30 Â°F (−34 Â°C), but the wind chill with the gale force winds was −85 Â°F (−65 Â°C). Balto and the other dogs later became part of a sideshow and lived in horrible conditions until they were rescued by George Kimble, who organized a fundraising campaign by the children of Cleveland, Ohio. [1](pp47–48) The council immediately implemented a quarantine. The nearest stores of medicine were hundreds of miles away, across the state’s snowy interior. Margaret Curran from the Solomon roadhouse was infected, which raised fears that the disease might spread from patrons of the roadhouse to other communities. Olsen was blown off the trail, and suffered severe frostbite in his hands while putting blankets on his dogs. They returned to shore to cross Little McKinley Mountain, climbing 5,000 feet (1,500 m). The 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the Great Race of Mercy and The Serum Run, was a transport of diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled relay across the U.S. territory of Alaska by 20 mushers and about 150 sled dogs across 674 miles (1,085 km) in 5 ½ days, saving the small town of Nome and the surrounding communities from a developing epidemic. In the winter of 1925, a deadly illness struck the city of Nome, Alaska. At 3 pm he arrived at Shaktoolik. After warming the serum in the roadhouse, Kalland headed into the forest. The mail carriers held a revered position in the territory, and were the best dog mushers in Alaska. The sled dog was the primary means of transportation and communication in subarctic communities around the world, and the race became both the last great hurrah and the most famous event in the history of mushing, before the first aircraft in the late 1920s and then the snowmobile in the 1960s drove the dog sled almost into extinction. In response, Bone decided to speed up the relay and authorized additional drivers for Seppala's leg of the relay, so they could travel without rest. [2] The supply was wrapped in glass vials, then padded quilts, and finally a metallic cylinder weighing a little more than 20 pounds (9 kg). The team rested, and departed at 2 am into the full power of the storm. The bill allowed private aviation companies to bid on mail delivery contracts. They took the shortcut across the Norton Sound, and headed toward Shaktoolik. More than 1,000 people died in northwest Alaska, and double that across the state. His journey, fraught with white-out storms, was the longest by 200 miles [320 km] and included a traverse across perilous Norton Sound — where he saved his team and driver in a courageous swim through ice floes.[17]. [2] Summers' employee, the Norwegian Leonhard Seppala, was chosen for the 630 mile (1,014 km) round trip from Nome to Nulato and back. Kaasen was supposed to hand off the serum to Rohn at Port Safety, but Rohn had gone to sleep and Kaasen decided to keep going to Nome. [2][6] In all, Kaasen and Balto ran a total of 53 miles (85 km). [5] Thompson's editorials waxed virulent against those opposing using airplanes. Train tours in Alaska can also be combined with car rentals and with bus tours to round out your Alaska travel experience. Seppala turned around and reached Ungalik with the serum after dark. A fifth death occurred on January 30. Wetzler contacted Tom Parson, an agent of the Northern Commercial Company, which contracted to deliver mail between Fairbanks and Unalakleet. The first musher in the relay was "Wild Bill" Shannon, who was handed the 20 pounds (9 kg) package at the train station in Nenana on January 27 at 9:00 pm AKST by night. [11] No record exists of Seppala ever having used Balto as a leader in runs or races prior to 1925, and Seppala himself stated Balto "was never in a winning team. In 1976, the story was retold in Race against Death: A True Story of the Far North, by noted children's author Seymour Reit,[citation needed] which was featured in a 1978 episode of The Book Bird, a long-running anthology of children's literature on PBS. The plane failed the next day as well, and the mission was scrapped. [1](pp47–48) Realizing that an epidemic was imminent, that same evening, Welch called Mayor George Maynard to arrange an emergency town council meeting.

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