Balto and Togo: the true story of the 1925 serum run to Nome

Part 1

What happened during the 1925 serum run

In January 1925, Nome's only doctor, Curtis Welch, found that children in the town were dying of diphtheria, a contagious infection that can choke off a patient's airway. The hospital's only stock of antitoxin had expired, and the port had frozen shut for winter, so no new serum could arrive by ship until spring. Welch and the town council set a quarantine and sent telegrams alerting other major towns in Alaska.

Officials first considered flying the serum in, but ruled it out because the open-cockpit planes available in Alaska in 1925 were unreliable in such extreme cold. Instead, they organized a relay of twenty mushers and about one hundred and fifty dogs to carry the antitoxin the six hundred and seventy four miles from the railhead at Nenana to Nome. You can imagine how your own dog would handle days of that kind of cold, let alone the miles these teams covered.

The trail crossed several mountain ranges, and Nenana reached fifty degrees below zero the night the relay began. The whole relay, from Nenana to Nome, was completed in about five and a half days.

Part 2

Togo's leg of the relay

The 630-mile round trip from Nome to Nulato and back went to Leonhard Seppala, a Norwegian musher, and his lead dog Togo, who was twelve years old at the time.

Togo's team had to cross the frozen Norton Sound, an inlet of the Bering Sea where shifting ice could open into channels of freezing water without warning. Togo is reported to have swerved his team away from one such opening in the ice, keeping them from breaking through. If your own dog has ever pulled you back from something you hadn't noticed yet, you know the kind of instinct that made Togo valuable on the trail.

• Togo's team covered 261 miles of the relay route, more than any other team.
• Balto's team covered 55 miles on the final stretch into Nome.
• The other teams in the relay covered about 31 miles each on average.

Part 3

Balto's final leg and the fame that followed

The last stretch into Nome went to musher Gunnar Kaasen, who chose Balto to lead his team for that final run. Kaasen and Balto carried the serum the rest of the way into Nome, finishing the relay that had begun in Nenana.

Balto became the most famous dog of the era after Rin Tin Tin, and his statue stands in New York's Central Park. A statue of Balto was unveiled in New York's Central Park in 1925, sculpted by Frederick Roth, and Balto himself attended the unveiling. Ask any dog owner, and they will tell you that fame can land on the dog who happens to finish, not always the one who worked hardest.

Part 4

Why Togo was overlooked for decades

Seppala was upset that the press gave Togo's achievements to Balto, since Togo and Seppala had covered the longest and most dangerous stretch of the whole trail.

Recognition for Togo came much later than for Balto. In 2001, Togo received his own statue, placed in New York's Seward Park. His story was retold in a 2019 film.

Part 5

What breed were Balto and Togo

These Siberian dogs were smaller than the Alaskan malamutes that had long been the traditional sled dogs, yet Seppala found they had real strength and resilience over long distances. Togo himself grew to about forty eight pounds as an adult, with a dark coat of black, brown, and grey.

Mushers of the time described the breed's ability to sense danger and adapt to changing conditions as a kind of adaptive intelligence.

Part 6

What happened to Balto and Togo after 1925

After the run, Seppala took Togo and his team on a tour across the United States, drawing large crowds and appearing at Madison Square Garden in New York. Togo died on December 5, 1929, at around sixteen years old. His body was preserved and mounted, and is displayed at the Iditarod Trail Headquarters Museum in Wasilla, Alaska, while his skeleton is kept at the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Balto's life after the run had its own ups and downs. That contrast between hard work and public fame is something you may still recognize today.