Dogs, sled dogs, offered the only possible rescue for the dying people of Nome, Alaska. In the winter of 1925, Dr Welch, Nome’s only doctor, fought a diphtheria epidemic that threatened to wipe out everyone in Nome and the surrounding area. Through January he lost a few more patients every day. Without diphtheria antitoxin he would lose them all.
The hospital in Anchorage had a batch of the precious medicine and a train could carry it out to Nenana. But a relay of sleds pulled by dogs offered the only possible transportation over the last 700 miles to the dying patients in Nome.
The train carrying the precious fur-wrapped package, pulled into Nenana on the night of January 27, 1925. Wild Bill Shannon tied the package to his sled and headed his nine malamutes out on the first leg of the relay. At 60 below he couldn’t go full speed, dogs breathing too heavily would freeze their lungs. He, in turn, ran instead of riding, trying to keep himself warm. Fifty-two miles later he arrived in Tolovana, suffering from frostbite and hypothermia.
Another dog team and then another, and still others took over, averaging 6 miles an hour, 30 miles per leg, through the permanent night of northernmost Alaska. Only the moon, and sometimes the Northern Lights, lit the trail.
Leonhard Seppala and his team took the 91-mile leg across Norton Sound.
They rushed 170 miles down from Nome to meet the relay and pick up the package. Then they turned back north in the teeth of a raging gale across the heaving, cracking ice of the Sound, booming through the night as it threatened to break up altogether and float them out to sea.
Toga, Seppala’s 12-year-old Husky, made it happen. Struggling for traction on the ice, he led his team into the teeth of the gale, and they made the coast just hours before the ice broke up.
Stay tuned. Three relay legs remained between the coast and Nome.
(Note: this story used information from history.com; from The San Francisco Examiner, Feb 5, 1925; from the Vancouver Province, Feb 2, 1925;)
The movie was well done
Confession time. I didn’t know there was a movie. I’m going to check that out. Thank you.
There’s a movie done by Disney about them both very well done