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During the 1925 serum run, or the Great Race of Mercy to Nome, more than 20 mushers and 100 sled dogs relayed diphtheria antitoxin 674 miles (1,085 km) by dog sled across the U.S state of Alaska in just five and a half days, saving the small city of Nome and the surrounding villages from an incipient epidemic.

Nome lies just two degrees south of the Arctic Circle, and while greatly diminished from its peak of 20,000 during the gold rush days at the turn of the 20th century, with 455 Inuit and 975 settlers of European descent (Salisbury, 2005, page 16), it was still the largest town of any size in the northern half of Alaska in 1925. From November to July, the port on the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula of the Bering Sea was icebound and inaccessible by steamship, and the days began to shorten with the onset of the polar night. The only route during the winter was the Iditarod Trail, which ran 938 miles (1,510 km) from the port of Seward in the south, across the Alaska Interior and three mountain ranges, to Nome. While bush pilots would become the dominant method of transportation during winter months within the next decade, the primary route in 1925 for mail and needed supplies was the dog sled.

Start of the epidemic

The only doctor in Nome and the surrounding villages was Curtis Welch, who was supported by four nurses at the 24-bed Maynard Columbus Hospital. In the summer of 1924, his supply of 8,000 units of diphtheria antitoxin (from 1918) expired, but the order he placed with the health commissioner in Juneau did not arrive before the port was closed.

Shortly after the departure of the Alameda, the last ship of the year, a two-year old Inuit from the nearby village of Holy Cross became the first to display symptoms of diphtheria. Curtis' diagnosed it as tonsillitis, dismissing diphtheria because no one else in the child's family or village showed signs of the disease, which is extremely contagious. The child died the next morning, and an abnormally large number of cases of tonsillitis were diagnosed through December, including another fatality on December 28. The child's mother refused to allow an autopsy. In two more Inuit children died, and January 20 the first case of diphtheria was diagnosed in 3 year old Bill Barnett, who had grayish lesions on his throat and in his nasal membranes. Welch did not adminster his expired batch of antitoxin, because he was worried that it might weaken the boy. The boy died the next day.

Seven year old Bessie Stanley was diagnosed in the late stages of the disease, and was injected with 6,000 units of antitoxin. She died later that day. The same evening, Welch called Mayor George Maynard, and arranged an emergency town council meeting. Welch announced he needed at least one million units to stave off the epidemic. The council immediately implemented a quarantine, and on January 22, 1925, Welch sent a radio telegram by the U.S. Signal Corps to alert all major towns in Alaska including the governor in Juneau, and a second to the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington:

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 [sic] NATIVES IN THE DISTRICT

(Salisbury, 2003, page 47, image of archived telegram).

The disease is extremely contagious, and can survive for weeks outside the body. The number of people threatened in the area of northwest Alaska centered around Nome was about 10,000, and the mortality rate was close to 100 percent without the antitoxin. The previous influenza epidemic across the Seward Peninsula in 1918 and 1919 wiped out about 50 percent of the native population of Nome, and 8 percent of the native population of Alaska. More than a 1,000 people died in northwest Alaska, and double that across the state, and the majority were Inuit. The Native Americans had no resistance to either of these diseases. (Salisbury, 2005, pages 42, 50)

By January 24 there were two more fatalities, and 20 confirmed cases.

Transporting the serum

The closest supply of antitoxin was in Seattle, Washington, from where it was flown to Anchorage. However, the intense cold and snow made it impossible for aircraft at that time to fly any further.

Mail from the "Outside" was transported by train from Seward to Nenana, and normally took 25 days to transport by dog sled the 674 miles (1,085 km) from from Nenana to Nome.

The first batch of 300,000 units of serum was delivered by train from Anchorage to Nenana, Alaska, Together, the teams covered the 674 miles in 127 and a half hours, which was considered a world record, all done in incredibly subzero temperatures in near-blizzard conditions and hurricane-force winds. Some dogs froze to death during the trip.

Seppala and Togo

Leonhard Seppala and his dog sled team, with his lead dog Togo, traveled 170 miles (274 km) from Nome in three days, and picked up the serum from Henry Ivanoff just outside of Shaktoolik on January 31. The temperature was estimated at −30 °F (−34 °C), and the gale force winds causing a wind chill of −85 °F (−65°C).

The return trip crossed the exposed open ice of the Norton Sound, where Seppala and Togo were temporarily stranded after the ice they were crossing broke off and became an ice floe for several hours. When the ice drifted back to the solid sheet of ice crossing the bay, Seppala had Togo jump across the 5-foot (1.5 m) gap in harness to pull the floe closer to the shore. The harness snapped, and fell into water, but Togo took the traces in his jaw and pulled the floes together until it was safe for the rest of the team to jump. After reaching safety, a ground blizzard prevented Seppala from being able to see the path but Togo navigated to the roadhouse at Isaac's Point on the shore. After traveling 84 miles (134 km) in one day, the team slept for six hours before continuing at 2 AM in the morning.

During the night the temperature dropped to −40 °F (−40 °C), and the wind increased to 65 mi/h (105 km/h). The team ran across the ice, which was breaking up, while following the shoreline. They returned to shore to cross Little McKinley Mountain, climbing 5,000 feet (1,500 m). After descending to the next roadhouse in Golovin, Seppala passed the serum to Charlie Olsen, who in turn would pass it to Gunnar Kaasen and Balto. Kaasen and his team ran two legs when he found the next musher in the serum relay asleep, and finally delivered it to Nome through 80 mph winds and snow.

Balto, as the final dog to Nome, was later idolized as the hero dog of the trip, although Togo in fact covered more miles of the trip.

After the successful serum run, the slower freight dog Balto became the most famous canine of the run. But many mushers today consider Seppala and Togo to be the true heroes of the run as together they covered the longest and most hazardous leg. They made a round trip of 261 miles (420 km) from Nome to Shaktoolik and back to Golovin, and delivered the serum a total of 91 miles (146 km), almost double the distance of any other team.

Relay participants and distances

Mushers (in order) and the distance they covered included:

(Salisbury, 2003)
Start	Musher	Leg	Distance
January 27	"Wild" Bill Shannon	Nenana to Tolovana	52 mi (84 km)
January 28	Edgar Kallands	Tolovana to Manley Hot Springs	31 mi (50 km)
	Dan Green	Manley Hot Springs to Fish Lake	28 mi (45 km)
	Johnny Folger	Fish Lake to Tanana	26 mi (42 km)
January 29	Sam Joseph	Tanana to Kallands	34 mi (55 km)
	Titus Nikolai	Kallands to Nine Mile Cabin	24 mi (39 km)
	Dan Corning	Nine Mile Cabin to Kokrines	30 mi (48 km)
	Harry Pitka	Kokrines to Ruby	30 mi (48 km)
	Bill McCarty	Ruby to Whiskey Creek	28 mi (45 km)
	Edgar Nollner	Whiskey Creek to Galena	24 mi (39 km)
January 30	George Nollner	Galena to Bishop Mountain	18 mi (29 km)
	Charlie Evans	Bishop Mountain to Nulato	30 mi (48 km)
	Tommy Patsy	Nulato to Kaltag	36 mi (58 km)
	Jackscrew	Kaltag to Old Woman Shelter	40 mi (64 km)
	Victor Anagick	Old Woman Shelter to Unalakleet	34 mi (55 km)
January 31	Myles Gonangnan	Unalakleet to Shaktoolik	40 mi (64 km)
	Henry Ivanoff	Shaktoolik to just outside Shaktoolik	0 mi (0 km)
	Leonhard Seppala	Just outside Shaktooli to Golovin	91 mi (146 km)
February 1	Charlie Olson	Golovin to Bluff	25 mi (40 km)
	Gunnar Kaasen	Bluff to Nome	53 mi (85 km)

References

Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury (2003). The Cruelest Miles. ISBN 0-393-01962-4

External links

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 During the '''1925 serum run''', or the '''Great Race of Mercy to Nome''', more than 20 [[mushing|musher]]s and 100 [[sled dog]]s relayed [[diphtheria]] [[antitoxin]] 674 miles ([[1 E6 m|1,085 km]]) by [[dog sled]] across the [[U.S state]] of [[Alaska]] in just five and a half days, saving the small city of [[Nome, Alaska|Nome]] and the surrounding villages from an incipient epidemic.
-Nome lies just two degrees south of the [[Arctic Circle]], and while greatly diminished from the [[gold rush]] days in the early part of the [[20th century]], it was still the largest town of any size in the northern half of Alaska. From [[November]] to [[July]], the [[port]] on the southern shore of the [[Seward Peninsula]] of the [[Bering Sea]] was icebound, and the days shortened with the onset of the [[polar night]]. The only route during the winter was the [[Iditarod Trail]], which ran 938 miles (1,510 km) from the port of [[Seward, Alaska|Seward]] in the south, across the [[Alaska Interior]], to Nome. While [[bush pilot]]s would become the primary transportation during winter months within the next decade, the only route in 1925 for mail and needed supplies was the dog sled.
+Nome lies just two degrees south of the [[Arctic Circle]], and while greatly diminished from its peak of 20,000 during the [[gold rush]] days at the turn of the [[20th century]], with 455 Inuit and 975 settlers of European descent ([[#References|Salisbury, 2005, page 16]]), it was still the largest town of any size in the northern half of Alaska in 1925. From [[November]] to [[July]], the [[port]] on the southern shore of the [[Seward Peninsula]] of the [[Bering Sea]] was icebound and inaccessible by [[steamship]], and the days began to shorten with the onset of the [[polar night]]. The only route during the winter was the [[Iditarod Trail]], which ran 938 miles (1,510 km) from the port of [[Seward, Alaska|Seward]] in the south, across the [[Alaska Interior]] and three mountain ranges, to Nome. While [[bush pilot]]s would become the dominant method of transportation during winter months within the next decade, the primary route in 1925 for [[mail]] and needed supplies was the dog sled.
+== Start of the epidemic ==
-The only [[doctor]] in Nome and the surrounding villages was Curtis Welch, who was supported by four [[nurse]]s at the 24-bed Maynard Columbus Hospital. In the summer of 1924, his supply of diphtheria antitoxin expired, but the order he placed with the health commissioner in [[Juneau, Alaska|Juneau]] did not arrive before the port was closed.
+The only [[doctor]] in Nome and the surrounding villages was Curtis Welch, who was supported by four [[nurse]]s at the 24-bed Maynard Columbus Hospital. In the summer of 1924, his supply of 8,000 units of diphtheria antitoxin (from 1918) expired, but the order he placed with the health commissioner in [[Juneau, Alaska|Juneau]] did not arrive before the port was closed.
-On January 25, 1925, Nome sent an emergency radio signal announcing an outbreak of [[diphtheria]] and requesting a supply of [[antitoxin]] serum. The closest supply was in [[Seattle, Washington]], from where it was flown to [[Anchorage, Alaska|Anchorage]]. However, the intense cold and snow made it impossible for aircraft at that time to fly any further.
+Shortly after the departure of the ''Alameda'', the last ship of the year, a two-year old Inuit from the nearby village of Holy Cross became the first to display symptoms of diphtheria. Curtis' diagnosed it as [[tonsillitis]], dismissing diphtheria because no one else in the child's family or village showed signs of the disease, which is extremely contagious. The child died the next morning, and an abnormally large number of cases of tonsillitis were diagnosed through December, including another fatality on [[December 28]]. The child's mother refused to allow an autopsy. In two more Inuit children died, and January 20 the first case of diphtheria was diagnosed in 3 year old Bill Barnett, who had grayish lesions on his throat and in his nasal membranes. Welch did not adminster his expired batch of antitoxin, because he was worried that it might weaken the boy. The boy died the next day.
-The first batch of 300,000 units of serum was delivered by [[train]] from Anchorage to [[Nenana, Alaska]], where it was picked up by the first of twenty mushers and more than 100 dogs who relayed the serum a total of 674 miles (1,085 km) to Nome.
+Seven year old Bessie Stanley was diagnosed in the late stages of the disease, and was injected with 6,000 units of antitoxin. She died later that day. The same evening, Welch called Mayor George Maynard, and arranged an emergency town council meeting. Welch announced he needed at least one million units to stave off the epidemic. The council immediately implemented a quarantine, and on [[January 22]], 1925, Welch sent a radio telegram by the [[U.S. Signal Corps]] to alert all major towns in Alaska including the governor in Juneau, and a second to the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington:
+: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&cent;WHITE [sic] NATIVES IN THE DISTRICT
+::([[#References|Salisbury, 2003, page 47, image of archived telegram]]).
+The disease is extremely contagious, and can survive for weeks outside the body. The number of people threatened in the area of northwest Alaska centered around Nome was about 10,000, and the mortality rate was close to 100 percent without the antitoxin. The previous influenza epidemic across the Seward Peninsula in 1918 and 1919 wiped out about 50 percent of the native population of Nome, and 8 percent of the native population of Alaska. More than a 1,000 people died in northwest Alaska, and double that across the state, and the majority were Inuit. The Native Americans had no resistance to either of these diseases. ([[#References|Salisbury, 2005, pages 42, 50]])
+By [[January 24]] there were two more fatalities, and 20 confirmed cases.
+== Transporting the serum ==
+The closest supply of antitoxin was in [[Seattle, Washington]], from where it was flown to [[Anchorage, Alaska|Anchorage]]. However, the intense cold and snow made it impossible for aircraft at that time to fly any further.
+Mail from the "Outside" was transported by train from Seward to [[Nenana, Alaska|Nenana]], and normally took 25 days to transport by dog sled the 674 miles (1,085 km) from from Nenana to Nome.
+The first batch of 300,000 units of serum was delivered by [[train]] from Anchorage to [[Nenana, Alaska]],
 Together, the teams covered the 674 miles in 127 and a half hours, which was considered a world record, all done in incredibly subzero temperatures in near-blizzard conditions and hurricane-force winds.  Some dogs froze to death during the trip.