In the winter of 1924-25, Dr. Curtis Welch treated the normal complaints of sore throats; it was nothing out of the ordinary and no cause for alarm. Yet, when two Inupiaq children died in December and an unusually higher number of cases of tonsillitis among the Native Alaskan children, Dr. Welch began to suspect and fear something far worse had arrived – Diphtheria.
Nome's Telegram
His suspicions were confirmed a month later in the death of a three year old boy, followed quickly by a seven year old girl. With only expired doses of antitoxin on hand, Dr. Welch telegraphed an SOS to all the major Alaskan towns, Governor Bone in Juneau and the United States Department of Health in Washington, D.C.
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 300 (sic) white natives in the district.
The response was quick, and a million units were located in Seattle, but the voyage would take over a week and the port of Nome was frozen over. 300,000 thousand units were found at the Alaskan Railroad Hospital in Anchorage and were immediately put on a train for Neana.
The original plan enlisted the top two mushers and their team of dogs to meet at Nulato, halfway between Nome and Neana. Yet, with the situation becoming dire, Governor Bone called on Edward Wetzler, the U.S. Post Office Inspector and arranged a relay of his mail carriers along the route from Neana to Shaktoolik and meet up with Leonard Seppala. The Northern Commercial Company had a network of telephones and telegraph stations in roadhouses along the trail, approximately thirty to forty miles apart which kept the mushers in contact with each other for the relay.
The Iditarod Trail in Five and a Half Days
To grasp the enormity of the weather situation, ‘Wild Bill’ Shannon with his lead dog Blackie, picked up the serum at the Neana train station on January 27 at 9am with the temperature reading 62 degrees below Fahrenheit. To keep warm he ran beside his sled for most of his leg of the run to Tolovana, a distance of fifty-two miles. He arrived with parts of his face frostbitten and two of his dogs' dead from exposure.
Leonard Seppala and his lead dog Togo had left Nome on the January 27th and by January 31st had traveled 170 miles towards Nulato unaware of the relay in place and that he was to stop at Shaktoolik and wait. Myles Gonangnam was coming from Unalakleet, forty miles south on the coast of Shaktoolik, saw the storm coming across Norton Sound. Instead of taking the risk of the shorter but more treacherous trail across the Sound, choose the long way around following the shoreline. He arrived at 3pm on January 31st at Shaktoolik in whiteout conditions and the temperature at 70 degrees below zero. Henry Ivanoff was there in case Seppala did not arrive. But Seppala had chosen to cross the frozen Sound and raced ahead of the storm. Not knowing anyone was there he did not hear Ivanoff until he called out, 'I have the serum, I have the serum.' Seppala took the antitoxin and immediately turned around and went back over Norton Sound amid the ice flows he and his team had just weathered. They arrived at Isaac's Roadhouse at 8:00 pm, exhausted, having traveled an additional 91 miles to the 170 already covered. On Februaryist, Kaasen and his lead dog Balto, picked up the serum in Bluff and ran the last 53 miles into Nome, arriving at 5:30am on February 2nd.
This story broke on every news desk across the country and for the first time people could follow the daily reports of 'The Race of Mercy' in the papers and on the radio as men and dogs saved the children from the strangler. As a result, inoculations for children became adopted nationwide.
Sources:
Earl J. Aversano www.balto'struestory.com
The Serum Run of 1925, by Jennifer Houdek
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