where did the 1925 serum run start?

A two-year old Inuit boy from the native village of Holy Cross, near the gold-mining town of Nome becomes the first person to display symptoms of diphtheria. Dr. Curtis Welch, Nome’s only doctor, misdiagnoses the boy’s condition as tonsillitis (dismissing the possibility of it being diphtheria because no one else in the child’s family or the village shows any signs of the extremely-contagious disease). The child dies the next morning, but the child’s mother refuses to allow an autopsy of his body. As a result, an abnormally large number of cases of tonsillitis are diagnosed through December, including another fatality, 7-year old Margaret Solvey Eide, on December 28th. Subsequently, two more Inuit children die. (edited by Rayon Aviles on March 22, 2021) [2]

A relay of 20 teams was assembled, including that of Leonhard Seppala, Alaska’s most venerated musher. Amazingly, in just five and a half days, the “Great Race of Mercy” was completed and the lifesaving serum was delivered to Nome. While the lead dog of the 53-mile final leg, Balto, would become famous for his role in the run, many argue that it was Seppala and his Siberian Husky lead dog, Togo, who were the true saviors of the day. All told, the 12-year-old Togo and Seppala traversed an astounding 264 miles, compared to an average of 31 miles each for the other teams. (last revised 94 days ago by Brndon Dent from Dazhou, China) [3]

Based upon an article from si.com, venture back to the first two weeks of 1925, in the city of Nome, a remote Alaskan territory outpost on the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula, 160 miles from the Arctic Circle. A frontier town of 1,400, Nome sits closer to the Russian border than to the nearest Alaskan city. The only doctor in town examines a boy complaining of labored breathing and suspects tonsillitis—until the boy dies the next day. By which point other patients start to line up, describing similar symptoms. The doctor changes his diagnosis to diphtheria, a highly contagious bacterial infection that among Alaskan natives has an expected mortality rate of 100%. [4]

Iditarod.com goes on to explain that the Iditarod Trail had been used for years since its establishment in 1908 when gold was discovered at Iditarod. Used only in the winter, Harry Revell didn’t make the initial mail run from Seward to Iditarod until 1914, prior to then it was used mainly as a supply route. It served as a route for mail and supplies until 1963. By then the Iditarod trail had developed into an extensive route system, reaching all the way to Nome, and including connecting trails that reached all the way to Ruby and Anvik. However, as both technology and modes of transportation improved, the trail was being used less and less. The final delivery using sled dogs was made in 1963. At that point, the dogsled was completely replaced by the airplane and snow machine as the most sensible modes of transportation. Yet, in 1978, Congress established the Iditarod as a National Historic Trail, thus fulfilling Redington’s first goal. You can read more about the early history of the Iditarod Trail here: (credit to Avia Field from Curitiba, Brazil for telling us about this). [5]