thumb|450px|A map of the historical and current [[Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race|Iditarod trails. The route taken during the 1925 serum run is shown in green.]]

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 US territory of Alaska by 20 mushers and about 150 sled dogs across in days, saving the small town of Nome and the surrounding communities from a developing epidemic of diphtheria.

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. Balto, the lead sled dog on the final stretch into Nome, became the most famous canine celebrity of the era after Rin Tin Tin, and his statue is a popular tourist attraction in both New York City's Central Park and downtown Anchorage, Alaska. Togo's team covered much of the most dangerous parts of the route and ran the farthest: Togo's team covered while Balto's team ran .

Location and geography

thumb|upright=1.3|A view of Nome in 1916

Nome, Alaska, lies approximately two degrees south of the Arctic Circle, and while greatly diminished from its peak of 20,000 inhabitants during the Nome Gold Rush 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.

From November to July, the port on the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula of the Bering Sea was icebound and inaccessible by steamship. The only link to the rest of the world during the winter was the Iditarod Trail, which ran from the port of Seward in the south, across several mountain ranges and the vast Alaska Interior, to the town of Nome. In Alaska and other subarctic regions, the primary source of mail and needed supplies in 1925 was the dog sled. Within a decade, bush flying became the dominant method of transportation during the winter months.

Outbreak and call for help

In the winter of 1924–1925, Curtis Welch was the only doctor in Nome. He and four nurses, working at the small Maynard Columbus Hospital, served the town and the surrounding area. After discovering the hospital's entire batch of diphtheria antitoxin had expired, Welch placed an order for more.

Despite the quarantine, there were over 20 confirmed cases of diphtheria and at least 50 more at risk by the end of January. Without antitoxin, it was expected that in the surrounding region's population of around 10,000 people, the mortality rate could be close to 100 percent.

None of the other mushers received the same degree of attention, though Wild Bill Shannon briefly toured with Blackie. The media largely ignored the Alaska Native mushers, who covered two-thirds of the distance to Nome. According to Edgar Kalland, "it was just an everyday occurrence as far as we were concerned." The position is now known as Leonhard Seppala's Honorary Musher, the Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award is given to the musher who provides the best dog care while remaining competitive, and the Leonhard Seppala Heritage Grant is an Iditarod scholarship. The two races follow the same route from Ruby to Nome.

A reenactment of the serum run was held in 1975, which took six days longer than the 1925 serum run, or more than twice the total time. Many of the participants were descendants of the original 20. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan sent a letter of recognition to Charlie Evans, Edgar Nollner, and Bill McCarty, the only remaining survivors. Nollner was the last to die, on January 18, 1999, of a heart attack.

thumb|This depiction ran in papers in 1925.

The relay has been depicted in various media. Shortly before World War II, Czech teacher and writer was fascinated by the story, writing the novella Štafeta ("Relay") published in Czech in 1946. As an avid Esperantist, Omelka himself translated it into Esperanto, with subsequent translations into German, Dutch, Frisian, Icelandic, Chinese, Japanese, and English.

The serum run was featured in the 1949 animated short "Daffy Duck Hunt", where Daffy Duck describes his time in a freezer as though he were delivering serum on a dog sled.

In 1976, the story was retold in Race Against Death: A True Story of the Far North, by children's author Seymour Reit. Reit's book was featured in a 1978 episode of The Book Bird, a PBS program where host John Robbins illustrated key scenes from the book being discussed.

The 1995 2D hand-drawn animated film Balto with music composed by James Roy Horner was loosely based on the events of the final leg of the serum run, although all of the characters besides Balto are fictional for family and children entertainments. A detailed recounting of the people and events involved in the serum run, including the story of the native mushers and the local nurses who attended to the sick and dying, is included in the 2003 book, The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic, by Gay and Laney Salisbury. In 2013, a documentary titled Icebound – The Greatest Dog Story Ever Told, focused on the aftermath of the events. The Great Alaskan Race, a 2019 film, produced by Rebel Road Entertainment, is based on the serum run. Togo, produced by Walt Disney Pictures, debuted on December 20, 2019, on Disney+.

Sled dog credit

There is much controversy surrounding Balto's role in the serum run and the statue in Central Park. A premier musher, Seppala ran 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 , having run over across some of the most dangerous and treacherous parts of the run in total. He then handed the serum off to Charlie Olson. Olson carried it to Bluff where he turned it over to Gunnar Kaasen. 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.

According to Togo's musher, Leonhard Seppala, 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.

The Central Park statue of Balto was modeled after Balto,

Katy Steinmetz, writing in Time magazine,

Relay participants and distances

Mushers (in order) and the distances they covered.

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| rowspan="5" |January 30

!George Nollner

|Galena to Bishop Mountain<br />Newlywed George appears to have made the trip using the same team Edgar used to cover the previous 24 miles. Forty-eight-year-old Seppala, with his chosen team of his 20 best dogs, had left Nome with the intent of intercepting the serum at Nulato, unaware that the relays had been faster. Leaving Isaac's Point on the north side of Norton Bay that morning, he traveled the 43 miles to just outside Shaktoolik, meeting Ivanoff. He turned his team around into the wind with a temperature of and darkness. Seppala risked the 20 mile sea ice crossing between Cape Denbigh and Point Dexter in a blinding blizzard. Togo's sense of smell permitted them to stay on course and got them to their stopping point on the North shore of Norton Bay, at an Eskimo sod igloo. Seppala fed the dogs and warmed the serum, hoping the blizzard would lessen. Early Sunday morning with temperatures, deadly winds, and the storm not lessening, he reached Dexter's Roadhouse at Golovin with completely exhausted dogs. Forty-two-year-old Kaasen and his team of 13 of Leonhard Seppala's backup dogs were sent from Nome to Bluff to await the serum, while Ed Rohn was sent to Pt. Safety. With chest-deep snow drifts and glare ice, he was unable to see the trail and relied on Balto to guide the sled. A message was sent to the village of Solomon instructing Kaasen to wait out the storm there. Due to the severity of the storm, Kaasen missed the village as Balto kept them on the main trail passing to the south. While crossing Bonanza flat the sled was flipped by the wind, ejecting the serum. After searching in the dark on hands and knees, Kaasen found the package and continued. He arrived at Safety sometime after 2:00 am Sunday.

Musher Ed Rohn, who was supposed to take the serum the final leg into Nome, was asleep expecting Kaasen to be held up waiting out the blizzard. Kaasen, deciding not to wake Rohn and knowing the time it would take to prepare the dogs and sled for travel, began the final 21 mile leg. He arrived in Nome around 5:30 am for a total time of seven and a half hours.

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References

Sources

  • – from the official website of the Iditarod race organizers