Diphtheria epidemic in Nome
In the winter of 1925, an epidemic of diphtheria broke out in the small town of Nome in remote northwestern Alaska . The only way to get medicines into the snow-covered city, surrounded by the frozen sea, was by dog sledding . The relay race of 20 mushers and their sled dogs over 1085 km from Nenana to Nome within five and a half days went down in history as the Serum Run to Nome or the Great Race of Mercy .
The mushers and their dogs received great attention on the then new medium of radio , and newspapers across the United States reported the progress of serum transport. Balto, the lead dog of the team that made the last stage to Nome, was honored with a statue in New York's Central Park .
In today's perception, a connection is often seen between the Serum Run and the Iditarod dog sled race . In its original orientation, however, the latter was carried out without reference to the Serum Run as an honorable commemoration of the historic Iditarod Trail and the men and dog sled teams who drove it. Only the last part of the Iditarod route from Kaltag is the same as the Serum Run .
history
At the time of the gold rush at the beginning of the 20th century, Nome had a population of 20,000. With 455 Indians and 975 European settlers, it was still the largest city in northern Alaska in 1925. From November to July, the Bering Sea in front of the harbor on the south coast of the Seward Peninsula is frozen and inaccessible to ships. In the 1930s " bush pilots " began to supply the remote city, but in 1925 the dog sled was the only means of transport through inland Alaska. The connection to the outside world in the winter months was the 1510 km long Iditarod Trail to the ice-free port of Seward on the Gulf of Alaska . Mail was first brought from Seward by train to Nenana, southwest of Fairbanks , and from there by dog sled over 1085 km within about 25 days to Nome.
The 1925 epidemic
With Curtis Welch, Nome and the surrounding area had only one doctor available in 1925, supported by four nurses at Maynard Columbus Hospital . In the summer of 1924 in stock had diphtheria - antitoxin passed its expiration date, but in Juneau requested re-order did not arrive in Nome before the freezing of the Bering Sea one.
Shortly after the last ship, the Alameda , left Nome before winter, a two-year-old Indian child from the nearby village of Holy Cross began to show symptoms of diphtheria infection. However, the doctor initially ruled out diphtheria because no one around the child showed any signs of the highly contagious disease, and diagnosed tonsillitis . The child died the following day, and there were three more deaths over the next few weeks. On January 20, 1925, the three-year-old Bill Barnett was given the first unequivocal diagnosis of diphtheria. However, Welch did not administer the antitoxin because he feared the expired drug might weaken the boy too much. This died the next day. On January 21, the doctor injected seven-year-old Bessie Stanley, who had advanced diphtheria, 6,000 of the 80,000 units in stock , but the girl died the same day.
On the evening of January 21, an emergency meeting was held under Mayor George Maynard, during which the city was placed under quarantine. Welch said he needed a million units of the antitoxin to prevent an epidemic. On January 22, telegraphed Welch to the Signal Corps and all the settlements of Alaska warned of the health risk. Another telegram was sent to the US Public Health Service in Washington , reporting an urgent need for antitoxin.
During the following days there were two more deaths and 20 diagnosed illnesses. Around 10,000 people lived in the possible contagion area in northwestern Alaska at the time. The death rate of infected people was almost 100%.
Planning the relief operation
Mark Summers, Health Inspector for Hammon Consolidated Gold Fields , suggested a squadron of two dog sleds to transport the antitoxin. One was supposed to deliver the serum from Nenana (a town accessible by rail from southern Alaska) to Nulato halfway to Nome. A second sled, started by Nome, was supposed to collect the medicines there and bring them back to the Seward Peninsula. The musher of the sled that was supposed to start from Nome was the Norwegian Leonhard Seppala with his lead dog Togo , who, based on his experience, was trusted to cover the distance of 507 km twice to Nulato and back.
Mayor Maynard voted for the antitoxin to be flown in. The first winter flight had taken place in Alaska just a year earlier. Carl Ben Eielson had commuted eight times between Fairbanks and McGrath with a De Havilland DH-4 from the US Postal Service , but had not traveled more than 418 km and had to make multiple emergency lands. The lowest temperature during one of the flights was −23 ° C and the winter equipment required for this brought the aircraft to its weight limit.
The only aircraft that had been available in winter 1925 in Alaska were three Curtiss JN-4 - biplane from World War II with open cockpits and water-cooled engines, which were unsuitable for cold conditions. Since the usual pilots of the machines were not in Alaska during this winter, an inexperienced pilot should have been used.
The Board of Health unanimously decided in favor of the dog sled relay. The US Public Health Service was able to provide 1.1 million units of the antitoxin from hospitals on the west coast. These were delivered to Seattle , from where they were to be shipped to Alaska. The Alameda , the closest ship north, was scheduled to reach Seattle on January 31st and would take six to seven days to get to Seward . On January 26th, Anchorage Railroad Hospital made 300,000 units available after chief surgeon John Beeson learned of the need from Nome. On January 27th, this supply reached Nenana. It wouldn't be enough to end the epidemic, but it would keep it in check until the main shipment arrives.
Temperatures in inland Alaska reached a 20-year low of −45 ° C in the winter of 1925. Governor Scott Cordelle Bone gave orders to set up a squadron of the best mushers and dog teams for the route to Nulato, which should be on the way day and night until the serum was handed over to Seppala.
The first season
The mail route from Nenana to Nome ran through the Alaska Interior , first following the Tanana River for 220 km and then the Yukon for 370 km and then through the forests and over the plateaus of the Kuskokwim Mountains to Kaltag , followed by 145 km through the Kaltag Portage , the valley of the Unalakleet River in the Nulato Hills , to Unalakleet on Norton Sound . From there the route followed for 335 km, 68 of which led across the pack ice of the Bering Sea, the south coast of the Seward Peninsula to Nome.
The squadron drivers were called to their positions on the route by the Northern Commercial Company by telephone or telegraph. Most of the drivers were athabasques . Bill Shannon picked up the 9 kg package on January 27th at 9 p.m. at the Nenana train station and immediately set off with nine dogs. The temperatures were below −40 ° C and he had to drive on the frozen river because the actual path had been made impassable for dog sleds by using horses. Although Shannon ran beside the sled to stay warm, he developed hypothermia . He reached Minto at 3 a.m. with severe frostbite on his face, where he rested for four hours and warmed the serum, which was not allowed to freeze. At around 7 o'clock he took three dogs out of the team and set off again with the remaining six dogs at −52 ° C.
Edgar Kallands had arrived in Minto the night before, but was sent back to Tolovana and had been 113 km on the day before his relay deployment. At 11 o'clock Shannon reached Tolovana and handed over the serum. Kallands set out at −49 ° C and reached Manley Hot Springs five hours later . News of the season had now reached New York and San Francisco. In Juneau more about 125,000 units of antitoxin had been found.
After further deaths in Nome, the call for transport by plane rose again. Several scenarios such as that of a flight in a large airplane over 3,200 km from Seattle were developed. Despite the support of these plans by various politicians and also the polar explorer Roald Amundsen , they were rejected by experienced pilots and the US Navy .
As a reaction to the criticism of the relay, Governor Bone had more dog sleds available for the second half of the way, which Seppala should originally have covered alone, so that he could drive through here without interruption. However, Seppala was already on the way to Nulato and could not be reached via the few telegraph stations on his route to inform him that he should wait in Shaktoolik . Another musher should intercept him on the route and inform him about the new planning.
The serum was transported from Manley Hot Springs by eight other dog teams until George Nollner handed it over to Charlie Evans on January 30 at 3 a.m. in Bishop Mountain . The temperatures dropped to -52 ° C. The Koyukuk River had flooded the Yukon ice sheet and Evans lost two dogs to frostbite because he forgot to protect their paws with rabbit fur . He reached Nulato at 10 a.m. and half an hour later Tommy Patsy went back with the serum.
The mushers "Jackscrew" and Victor Anagick brought the package as far as Unalakleet on Norton Sound, where Myles Gonangnan took over at 5 am on January 31 and decided against crossing the pack ice due to an approaching storm. In a hurricane-like storm and temperatures of −57 ° C, it reached Shaktoolik at 3 p.m. Seppala wasn't there, but Henry Ivanoff was waiting to replace him.
Seppala and his dog team with lead dog Togo had covered 274 km from Nome over the Norton Sound towards Shaktoolik from January 27th to 31st and still believed that he still had the 160 km to Nulato ahead of him. Ivanoff's dog sled collided with a reindeer immediately after leaving Shaktoolik. Seppala tried to leave the sound because of the approaching storm and met Ivanoff, who was able to stop him and give him the serum.
Despite the storm, Seppala decided to take the faster route back to Nome across the open ice of the Sound. The temperature was -35 ° C, the perceived temperature due to the storm was -65 ° C. Seppala and his dog team reached the roadhouse in Isaac's Point on the other side of the Sound at 8 p.m. in the dark . In one day they had covered 135 km at an average speed of 13 km / h. They rested for two hours and then set off again.
During the night the wind reached speeds of up to 105 km / h. Seppala first followed the coastline, then crossed Little McKinley Mountain , where he had to overcome an altitude of 1500 m, and handed over to Charlie Olsen on February 1 at 3 p.m. in the Golovin Roadhouse.
Welch wanted to stop the season until the storm subsided. He didn't want to risk losing the serum and informed Solomon and Point Safety before the lines broke. Olsen reached Bluff at 7 p.m. with severe frostbite, where Gunnar Kaasen, the next musher of the squadron, waited until 10 p.m. in the hope that the storm would subside, but then set off despite the growing storm because he feared drifts on the route .
Kaasen missed Solomon by 3 km, but did not turn back when he noticed it, but drove on. The wind was so strong that his sled overturned. The container of the serum fell into the snow and Kaasen got frostbite on his hands when he felt for it in the dark without gloves. He reached Point Safety at 3:00 a.m. on February 2nd. Ed Rohn, the musher who was supposed to drive the final stage, had expected the relay to be held up in Solomon. He hadn't counted on his work and in order to save preparation time and because the weather was getting better, Kaasen set off with his team and lead dog Balto for the last 40 km to Nome.
At 5:30 a.m. they reached Nome's Front Street. No ampoule was broken and the serum was not frozen. The teams had covered the distance of 1,085 km in 127.5 hours.
The second season
On January 31, the large shipment of over a million units of the antitoxin had left Seattle. Welch asked for half of them to be air-delivered from Fairbanks . A test flight was undertaken, but Governor Bone did not clear the delivery because deaths in Nome appeared to be on the decline. However, preparations for a flight continued.
On February 3, it began to appear that the 300,000 units of serum from the first shipment had contained and brought the epidemic under control. The shipment from Seattle arrived aboard the Admiral Watson in Alaska on February 7th . Governor Bone gave in to public pressure and approved a flight to Nome with half of the newly arrived serum. On February 8, the second dog sled relay started with the other half. The flight had to be canceled after several attempts due to technical problems. Under similar difficult conditions and for the most part with the same handlers as in the first season, the second reached Nome again on February 15.
aftermath
Everyone involved in the seasons received a letter of thanks from US President Calvin Coolidge . The territorial government rewarded the first season mushers with US $ 25 each.
Gunnar Kaasen, the musher of the team that drove the last stage to Nome, became famous, showed himself and his lead dog Balto on a year-long tour of the west coast of the United States and starred in a half-hour film entitled “Balto's Race to Nome ". On December 15, 1925, a monument to Balto designed by Frederick Roth was unveiled in New York's Central Park . In the children's book series The Magical Tree House , the memorial was mentioned in No. 34 "The Enchanted Unicorn / Blizzard of the Blue Moon" and the last stage of the relief effort was thematized in No. 52 "Race of the Sled Dogs / Balto of the Blue Dawn".
Balto and many other dogs in the relay were later presented as an attraction under adverse conditions. Thanks to a fundraising campaign by the Cleveland children , the dogs were able to find a permanent home in the city's zoo from March 19, 1927. After Balto's death on March 14, 1933, it was groomed and exhibited in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History .
Seppala and his lead dog Togo, who had covered the greatest distance in the course of the first season and transported the serum almost twice as far as each of the other teams, received significantly less attention than Kaasen and Balto. In late 1926, they showed up at events from Seattle to California and across the Midwest to New England . They performed at Madison Square Garden in New York for ten days and received a medal from Roald Amundsen . Togo had to be euthanized on December 5, 1929, was dissected and is now on display in the Iditarod Museum in Wasilla , Alaska. Seppala was honored with a memorial in his birthplace, the northern Norwegian village of Skibotn .
The other drivers, especially those of Native American descent, were largely ignored by the media despite having covered two-thirds of the distance.
The stories of the dogs Balto and Togo provided the templates for the films of the same name, Balto (1995, cartoon) and Togo (2019).
Stages of the first season
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| begin | Musher | route | distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 27th | Bill Shannon | Nenana after Tolovana | 84 km |
| January 28th | Edgar Kallands | Tolovana to Manley Hot Springs | 50 km |
| Dan Green | Manley Hot Springs to Fish Lake | 45 km | |
| Johnny Folger | Fish Lake to Tanana | 42 km | |
| January 29th | Sam Joseph | Tanana to Kallands | 55 km |
| Titus Nikolai | Kallands to Nine Mile Cabin | 39 km | |
| Dan Corning | Nine Mile Cabin to Kokrines | 48 km | |
| Harry Pitka | Cocrine after Ruby | 48 km | |
| Bill McCarty | Ruby to Whiskey Creek | 45 km | |
| Edgar Nollner | Whiskey Creek to Galena | 39 km | |
| January 30th | George Nollner | Galena to Bishop Mountain | 29 km |
| Charlie Evans | Bishop Mountain to Nulato | 48 km | |
| Tommy Patsy | Nulato to Kaltag | 58 km | |
| Jackscrew | Kaltag to Old Woman Shelter | 64 km | |
| Victor Anagick | Old Woman Shelter to Unalakleet | 55 km | |
| 31 January | Myles Gonangnan | Unalakleet according to Shaktoolik | 64 km |
| Henry Ivanoff | Shaktoolik until before Shaktoolik | 0 km | |
| Leonhard Seppala | Before Shaktoolik after Golovin | 146 km | |
| February 1st | Charlie Olson | Golovin after bluff | 40 km |
| Gunnar Kaasen | Bluff after Nome | 85 km |
literature
- Gay Salisbury and Lane Salisbury: Northwest to Nome . Berlin Verlag, August 2003, ISBN 3-8270-0398-9 .
Web links
- Jennifer Houdek: The Serum Run of 1925 (English)