Togo. The Legend.
Musher: A person who controls a team of dogs pulling a sled over snow.
White-out: A weather condition so severe that the features of the terrain are indistinguishable due to uniform light diffusion.
In 1925 in Alaska, a serious bacterial infection known as diphtheria threatened the town of Nome. An epidemic loomed, and serum would be required to prevent the inevitable deaths.
There was, however, one major problem. The only available aeroplane was unable to take off due to the low temperatures. It was then decided that there was only one solution. A relay of sled dogs and mushers would attempt to deliver the medication. The teams were made up of 20 mushers and around 150 dogs and became known as the 1925 Serum Run.
The distance that needed to be covered was intimidating for a start. Six hundred seventy-four miles (1085km) to be precise. To put this distance into perspective, for UK readers, this is further than the entire length of the UK. The distance of Lands End to John O’Groats is 603 miles(970km) Every relay team would have to meet at a pre-arranged destination in order to hand over the cargo of drugs. This would take place in temperatures that are unimaginable to most of us. Minus 85F!!
Just to make life more difficult, the teams had to endure gale force winds which occasionally became hurricane force, plus whiteouts. For this enterprise to succeed, it would rely on the dedication of the mushers and the training of their dogs. The entire journey took 127.5 hours, and not a vial of the medication was lost or broken.
An Annual Celebration
This extraordinary feat is now celebrated with the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and the mushers who even received letters from Calvin Coolidge, the President of the United States of America.
Sadly one of the most amazing episodes in Alaskan history was then mired in recriminations as the media, needing a hero, decided to use the final musher who delivered the serum and his dog Balto as the object of their story. This was made worse as it is generally accepted that the lead dog that was in the team that actually delivered the serum was not even Balto but a dog called Fox, but the media, it appears, preferred the more exotic name Balto.
The media totally ignored the contribution of the Alaskan native mushers who covered two-thirds of the distance but as Edgar Kallard, one of the mushers, commented. “It was just an everyday occurrence as far as we were concerned.”
Togo
Of course, they were all heroes who collectively saved lives, both mushers and dogs, however, if a hero was required, then without a doubt, this accolade was due to Togo who at the time was a vastly experienced 12-year-old Siberian Husky.
Being a lead dog, he was the best of the best, and on one occasion, he had steadfastly refused to obey the command to move forward, only for Leonhard Seppala and his mushers to find that directly in front was a huge crack in the ice. Had not Togo stubbornly declined to move the entire dog team and Seppala would have drowned a horrible death under the ice.
A second event was even more remarkable. Stranded on a broken piece of ice, the only way out was for Togo to be released with a rope in his mouth and tow the entire dog team and Seppala back to safety. Unfortunately, the rope snapped. Togo jumped into the freezing water, grabbed the rope turned himself over twice this creating an improvised harness and dragged the entire team to safety.
The average length of the serum run for each musher was under 40 miles, and the longest distance was 53 miles. However, the stretch covered by Togo was 91, was done in blizzard conditions, over the most treacherous terrain, with constant white-outs. What is not appreciated is that Seppala and his dog team travelled a further 170 miles to be in position for the handover, which brought his distance to 261 miles, well in excess of 200 miles more than any other team. All this time, Seppala had as his lead dog the 12-year-old Togo.
It should be understood that a sled dog bears little resemblance to a pet. These dogs are tough beyond our understanding, and a lead dog in particular also has to be highly intelligent and be able to cope with any emergency. Not only are they highly trained, but their survival instinct comes to the fore when problems arise. In the same way that a Newfoundland dog instinctively knows what is expected and doesn’t always need instruction, a Siberian Husky sled dog, who is also a lead dog, is unique in his ability to instantly react to a dangerous situation.
In the conditions that they live in, you can’t just call 911 and wait for help.
Such were the conditions that some of the mushers suffered frostbite and a small number of dogs sacrificed their lives to complete the journey but saved countless human lives, most of which would have been children.
In the modern vernacular, the greatest are now called a G.O.A.T.
Greatest Of All Time
Mohammed Ali, and Madonna, to name but two. Though there will always be debates as to who was the greatest in any sport or endeavour, however, in the world of sled dogs, there is very little disagreement. The greatest of all time was Togo.
This dog is immortalized in the 2019 movie Togo starring Willem Dafoe, which is based on the 1925 Serum Run.
Togo RIP.
“Afterwards I thought of the ice and the darkness and the terrible wind and the irony that men could build planes and ships. But when Nome needed life in little packages of serum it took the dogs to bring it through.”
Leonhard Seppala