What is a miracle? When there is something Man cannot do, but does....that difference is a miracle.
The miracle this Blog will discuss is the Serum Run in Alaska in 1925.NOME
"Nome lies just two degrees south of the Arctic Circle, ... it was still the largest town in the northern half of Alaska in 1925 with 455 Alaska Native and 975 settlers of European descent...the port on the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula of the Bering Sea was icebound and inaccessible by steamship, Winter supplies were sent by train from the icefree port of Seward to Nenana, and then was transported the 674 miles (1,085 km) from Nenana to Nome by dog sled, which normally took 25 days."
THE EPIDEMIC
Nome only had one doctor, a Dr. Welch. In 1918, half the Native Americans around Nome had been wiped out by the Great Influenza epidemic of 1918. Now, Native American children were becoming ill with diphtheria. Welch used up all his diphtheria vaccine treating the Native Americans, but more became ill, and then white children began to become ill.
He sent this radio telegram:
| "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" |
A meeting was held. Fly it up, too dangerous, a blizzard was expected and no plane was likely to get through; the train could not make it because the tracks were blocked by massive drifts of snow, and the sea was ice bound so no ship could make it.
A man stood up, Leonhard Seppala and said two words "Dog sled". The meeting took Seppala seriously, for he had an infant child in Nome, and if the serum didn't get through, the probability was that she would die.
Dog sled it was.
THE WEATHER
"Temperatures across the Interior were at 20-year lows due to a high pressure system from the Arctic, and in Fairbanks the temperature was −50 °F (−46 °C). A second system was burying the Panhandle, as 25 mph (40 km/h) winds swept snow into 10-foot (3.05 m) drifts."
THE ROUTE
They were going to use the mail route to Nome, "The mail route from Nenana to Nome crossed the barren Alaska Interior, following the Tanana River for 137 miles (220 km) to the village Tanana at the junction with the Yukon River, and then following the Yukon for 230 miles (370 km) to Kaltag. The route then passed west 90 miles (140 km) over the Kaltag Portage and the forests and plateaus of the Kuskokwim Mountains to Unalakleet on the shore of Norton Sound. The route then continued for 208 miles (335 km) northwest around the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula with no protection from gales and blizzards, including a 42 miles (68 km) stretch across the shifting ice of the Bering Sea. In total, 674 miles (1,085 km)."
THE RELAY
Over three hundred men and their dogs volunteered to go into a blizzard, in January, to carry the serum to save the children and Eskimos of Nome. Twenty were chosen. They would mush 150 dogs.
'WILD BILL" SHANNON
The first musher was Wild Bill Shannon. He was one of the great mushers of his era, also a drunk. They found him drunk, in a brothel. As the serum was being loaded, he was plied wih coffee. Finally, as sober as Wild Bill could be, the serum was turned over to him. "Despite a temperature of −50 °F (−46 °C), Shannon left immediately with his team of 9 dogs,... The temperature began to drop, and the team was forced onto the colder ice of the river because the trail had been destroyed by horses. Despite jogging alongside the sled to keep warm, Shannon developed hypothermia. He reached Minto at 3 AM,with parts of his face black from frostbite. The temperature was −62 °F (−52 °C). After warming the serum by the fire and resting for four hours, Shannon dropped three dogs and left with the remaining 6. The three dogs died shortly after Shannon returned for them".
THE MOST DANGEROUS LEG
The serum moved on through the blizzard, every dog team lost a minimum of two dogs, every musher got some form of frostbite. But the relay went on.
They had reserved the most dangerous leg of the relay for Seppala; they figured,with his daughter in jeopardy, he had the most incentive.
As Seppala waited for the serum, Native American drivers were pushing their dogs through a white out," Jackscrew" to Victor Anagick, to his fellow Alaska Native Myles Gonangnan... "Gonangan saw the signs of a storm brewing, "the eddies of drifting, swirling snow passing between the dog's legs and under the bellies made them appear to be fording a fast running river." the gale-force winds drove the wind chill to −70 °F (−57 °C). "
The serum was now in Seppala's hands. He drove north to Nome......to a miracle. He and his team, led by his lead dog, Togo, had come to a fork in the trail. If he went right, it was safe, as safe as could be in a blizzard. It was the known trail over land. But it would add hours to the relay. If he went left, there was no trail, just dead reckoning. The trail left was across open sea, that looked frozen but maybe not. Safety versus time.
Seppala opted for safety, and pulled for the land trail. But Togo, a lead dog he had trained since birth, would not move. Togo was defying him; his lead dog was defying him. Seppala pulled right again, and the lead dog remained motionless.
Seppala took a long, LONG look at the open ocean; he and his team would be on the ice of an open ocean. If the ice was thin any where across the open ocean, he, his dogs and the serum would be lost forever. His daughter would surely die as would every Eskimo near the Arctic Circle.
Seppala, the Norwegian immigrant, said a little Lutheran prayer in Norwegian, and tugged left.
In an instance Togo was on the ice, across the open sea, on the way to Nome.
"gale force winds causing a wind chill of −85 °F (−65 °C). across the exposed open ice of the Norton Sound the wind chill with the gale force winds was −85 °F (−65 °C). Togo led the team in a straight line through the dark into the full power of the storm."
As Seppala neared land, he could see that the ice was getting thinner, and could perhaps crack under the weight of his sleigh. But he was in it, like the Israelites in the middle of the parted Red Sea. He could not go back, nor around. He forged forward, and made landfall. As he did he looked back; the sea, where he had been moments before, cracked.
BALTO
Another Norwegian, Gunnar Kaasen, was resting, waiting for the serum. He had many fine dogs, many fine lead dogs, but not Balto. He did not think much of Balto. Balto had never been a lead dog. As Kaasen waited, awake, he made his choice of another dog to be lead dog.
But when Kaasen dozed off, he dreamed that he should make Balto lead dog.
They woke him to tell him the serum was there for him; out of his daze, he told them that Balto would be his lead dog.
They set out with Balto as lead. They set out into a blizzard, into a whiteout. Kaasen could not see his hands. Halfway through, Kaasen went snow blind.
But he still retained control of the team, and was leading them into certain death. Kaasen could not see the Topkok River dead ahead. He kept mushing. Balto could see it, and stopped short. Balto stood there, til Kaasen felt his way up the team to his lead dog. Kaasem could hear and feel the river; he returned to the rear, and let Balto find a trail to Nome.
Balto did, and led his blind Master and the serum Into Nome. "Not a single ampule was broken, and the antitoxin was thawed and ready by noon."
The Serum Run was done in 5(FIVE) DAYS AND SIX HOURS.
Miracles happen.
"A statue of Balto, sculpted by Frederick Roth, was erected in New York City's Central Park on December 17, 1925, just 10 months after Balto's arrival in Nome. Balto himself was present for the monument's unveiling. ] The statue is loated on the main path leading north from the Tisch Children's Zoo. In front of the statue a low-relief slate plaque depicts Balto's sled team, and bears the following inscription:
“ Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925. Endurance · Fidelity · Intelligence.'
Balto was put down in 1933, at the age of 14.
"After Balto's death in 1933, his remains were mounted by a taxidermist, and donated to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. In 1998 the Alaska Legislature passed HJR 62- 'Bring Back Balto' resolution. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History declined to return Balto; however, in October 1998, Balto left for a five-month stay at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art which drew record crowds."
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