1925 Serum Run to Nome Alaska

In late January 1925 the entire nation and world followed the news of a diphtheria outbreak in Nome Alaska; a small town which sits on the southern tip of the Seward Peninsula jutting into the Bering Sea. Nome is only 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle and 160 miles from Siberia Russia. Nome was once Alaska's most populous city and it remains the most populous on Alaska's west coast (less than 5000 people.)

When diphtheria broke out among the Inuit residents of Nome in 1925 the weather was too bad to fly airplanes with serum from Anchorage and the port was closed due to ice. With five children already dead and, with a mortality of nearly 100%, more than 5000 additional people in danger if they didn't get inoculated the only thing left to do was to send sled dog teams out into the harsh climate. That's what Alaskan officials did.

While serum was transported by rail from Anchorage to Nenana just south of Fairbanks, officials used the telegraph and arranged for dog sled teams along the 675 mile mail route between Nenana and Nome. The first musher was handed the serum package on January 27, 1925. The race to save lives had begun.

Now the serum was in the hands of famed mushers such as "Wild Bill" Shannon and Leonhard Seppala who were dependent on lead dogs such as Blackie and Togo. At least three dogs died in the bitter cold during the first leg of the race; more dogs died before the run to Nome ended. None of the mushers suffered any severe injuries.

On the morning of February 2, 1925 a dog sled team and its musher carrying a precious cargo of diphtheria serum raced into Nome Alaska. It was the last of 20 relay teams that had mushed nearly 700 miles in five and half days through a bitter Alaskan winter in which wind chilled temperatures plummeted as low as minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

The lead dog of the last team, Balto, became a worldwide symbol of the courage and tenacity that saved the little arctic town of Nome from a diphtheria epidemic. According to the musher of the last team, Gunnar Kaasen, it was Balto who had kept the team on course to Nome during a blinding blizzard in which there were times when Kaasen couldn't even see Balto and the other dogs tethered to his sled.

In New York City stands a statue of Balto; a commemoration to the 20 men and 150 dogs that made the perilous run to Nome. As with all heroic feats there were and continue to be differences of opinions as to which team made the greatest contribution. In the end it made little difference to the people of Nome and Northwest Alaska. They received the serum. That's what counted.

The famed dog sled race, the Iditarod, is a re-creation of the 1925 Nome Serun Run

NOTE:
"Director Gavin Hood, whose best-known film is "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is negotiating to make an Alaska adventure film based on the 1925 Nome diphtheria serum run. The film would be based on the 2003 book "The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic," by Gay and Laney Salisbury" (Anchorage Daily News January 26, 2010)

Sources:
New York Times Archives
Wikipedia
Anchorage Daily News