In the 1980s, Ed Brechner, a carpenter working at the Shelburne Museum, discovered that an ugly plush dog was randomly abandoned at the top of the refrigerator in the storage room. If Brechner had no experience in raising sled dogs, perhaps he would not be interested in this badly worn dog.
He decided that he had to dig deep into its past. The results of the root cause surprised him. This seemingly humble Siberian Husky once led its sled dog team to complete the 1925 Serum Run to Nome (translated as the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, also known as the Great Race of Mercy) The longest and most difficult part of the journey. And its name is Togo.
In October 1913, in the town of Nome, 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle, the future hero dog Togo (1913-1929) was born. It was named after the Japanese admiral Togo Heihachiro (famous overseas for participating in the Russo-Japanese War).
At that time, from the appearance, the excellent genes of the Alaskan and Siberian Husky from the blood of his father Sugen were not inherited from it. It is thin, petite, mischievous, and suffers from a sore throat. Moreover, these traits, in the eyes of the male owner Leonhard Sepala (1877-1967), are flaws in the inability to become a sled dog. Although, like Togo, Sepala is the smaller one among its kind.
However, the hostess Constance will still gently hold it in her arms and apply a hot towel to her throat to help her relieve pain and prolong her life.
The kennel run by Sepala is a playful paradise in Togo. It likes to use its own spooky ideas on other sled dogs. Whenever Sepala takes his seeded players out of the kennel for training, Togo always finds ways to run around them. The frustrated sled dogs don’t know how many times they were distracted by Togo’s probes.
When it was six months old, there was a lady who was in desperate need of a watchdog. Sepala felt that the "averagely experienced" little Togo was just right, so he simply packaged the troublemaker and gave it to her. Unfortunately, he miscalculated Togo's stubbornness. No matter how good the lady is to Togo, a few weeks later, it still smashed the closed window of the lady's house without hesitation. It ran wildly for a long time, and finally found a home where he gave birth, a doghouse made by Sepala. After this incident, Sepala no longer thought about sending it away, but he and his sled dog team had to continue to endure Togo's naughty. Fortunately, this "tolerance" changed when Togo was eight months old.
On that day, at the request of the client, Sepala needed to travel far away. In order not to let the sticky spirit of Togo continue to harass his team, he tied it with a rope, hoping that it can stay for two days. However, the restless, Togo also. It is still thinking about an escape plan.
It looked at the 7-foot fence with its big ice blue eyes, and it decided to jump over. However, the wire mesh on the fence hooked its hind legs, and its wailing sound attracted Sepala's helper. When the screen was cut off, Togo did not repent and continued its "chase."
In the early morning of the sun, Sepala’s sled dog team started to change. When he wanted to find out the reason, he looked up, Togo had already rushed to the same kind, and he was not afraid to die and continued to bite the sled. The big ears of the dog leader. Oh, maybe it has forgotten at this moment, the tragic experience that it had been taught (bited) by a sled dog who was ashamed and angry.
Sepala had no other choice but to let Togo go on the road with them. In order to prevent it from chasing the reindeer, Sepala decided to make it a "sled dog" temporarily.
When the rope hung on Togo's neck, it began to become serious and serious. It tightened the rope and followed the correct trajectory. Even though it was still young and lush, its first trip to "community" still shocked Sepala's chin-it was able to rush to follow the footsteps of its companions for a long time.
Sepala removed its rope and moved it to the forefront position. He wanted to see how it would perform when it was responsible for leading the team? Although it was the first time that Togo truly became a member of the army that day, the explosive power it showed was amazing, and it ran a long 75 miles. Sepala couldn't help but admire: This is a rare little child prodigy! Isn't its natural leadership just what he has been looking for for a long time.
In December 1924, Nome, located on the Seward Peninsula, entered a long winter (7 months) as in previous years. The Victorian ship had already left the port, and other means of transportation were also impassable due to freezing. Before the sun in the coming year was warm enough to melt the glacier, the residents of the town seemed to be isolated from the world. However, when the two-year-old Eskimo boy died bizarrely on the second day of treatment, the town of Nome began its thrilling moment of life and death.
Curtis Welch has been practicing medicine in Nome for 18 years. As the only doctor in the town, he has never found a case of diphtheria in the town. At that time, without the consent of the boy’s parents, he had no right to perform an autopsy, and he could not conclude that the boy’s disease was diphtheria. Moreover, this susceptible case did not appear in the boy's three siblings.
In January 1925, when Dr. Welch was seeing another three-year-old boy, he confirmed that diphtheria, a terrible acute respiratory infection, had really come to the town. Even though he knew the cause, he watched helplessly as the little boy died the next day. Soon, after he decided to risk using expired antitoxins on the little girl who became ill, her young life was still irretrievable.
In fact, Dr. Welch had re-ordered antitoxins as early as last summer, but these life-saving drugs were not delivered in time. Doctors know that if there is no antitoxin, diphtheria will spread rapidly among the residents of Nome (975 whites, and 455 Eskimos), and no one may live in the end.
On January 22, 1925, Dr. Welch sent an emergency telegram to warn surrounding towns of the danger of the epidemic. Later, he telegraphed the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington, DC, telling them of the current difficulties faced by Nome Township. He emphasized that Nome Town urgently needs antitoxins.
However, it is not enough to get the antitoxin supply. How to deliver it safely to Nome Town is a big problem. The health committee of Nome got together to discuss various possibilities, and Mayor Maynard proposed to use the bush aircraft for transportation.
However, the water-cooled engine of the dilapidated aircraft has long been frozen in the ghostly weather of tens of degrees below zero. Its open cockpit is also not suitable for flying in cold and short days (in many attempts to transport the second batch of serum, this method has also proven to be infeasible). Moreover, the two pilots operating this type of aircraft have long since passed away. At the end of the meeting, it was determined that only the ancient transportation-the sled dog relay method was used to deliver antitoxins.
Looking back on this period of history, we will find that the entire sled relay race from south to north and then west, forming a horizontally long and vertical "7"-shaped route (pictured). The first batch of antitoxin supplies (about 300,000 units of serum) were packaged at the Anchorage Railway Hospital and transported northward by train to Ninana Station.
On January 27, 1925, Wilder Bill Shannon, the first person in the relay, received the nine-kilogram serum package at the station and continued northward. At that time, the outdoor temperature was below minus 50 degrees, and Shannon and 9 sled dogs were driving on the frozen Tanana River. He brought himself as close to the sled dogs as possible, hoping to get some warmth.
At three in the morning, Shannon arrived at Minto Station. At that time, some parts of his face were blackened with cold. He hurried into the room to warm the serum with fire. Four hours later, he reorganized his equipment, left the three injured sled dogs and continued to travel outdoors in the cold (two of them died on the way home).
On January 28, 1925, before noon, Shannon finally handed the package to the second team, Edgar Karllands and his sled dogs before exhausted. Karllands heated and thaw the serum again, and then took it through the forest. At four o'clock in the afternoon, they finally reached Manly Hot Springs after running 31 miles, but Karllands's hands were frozen firmly on the handles of the sled. When the hot water poured on the sticky part, his hands were released.
In this way, the nine kilograms of serum has just been removed from the previous relay team. After heating, it quickly followed the next relay team, and then passed Dan Green, Johnny Fogel, Sam Joseph, and Titus Nee. Gula...
The entire relay seemed tight and orderly, but in fact, there was a "fatal" risk here-Leonhard Sepala, who was in charge of the longest leg, was not aware of such changes. At that time, he still marched forward bravely with his sled dogs according to the original plan, striving to reach the agreed Nurato as quickly as possible, but the additional sled team had already crossed Nurato with the serum.
In 1900, Leonhard Sepala moved to Nome from an unknown village in northern Norway for the gold rush in his heart. However, as a newcomer, he can only work as a miner in Alaska, and also endure the roar of the Arctic Ocean from time to time.
Later, the sled dog brought him a new career direction. With his excellent athletic talent and good training skills, he became a well-known local sled rider. When he competes, this small mixed-race will even smoke a cigar leisurely, allowing his sled dogs to whizz past him under the enviable eyes of other contestants.
When the Norm authorities called up the sled dog team for the serum relay race, Sepala, who had won the Alaskan Malamute Championship from 1915 to 1917, stood out. He was obliged to immediately select the elite sled dogs from his dogs. Although Togo, who was 12 years old at the time, was not young, he still chose to let him be the leader.
They set off from Nome on January 27, 1925, headed east, and continued on after crossing the Norton Strait. Although they had traveled 170 miles and worked hard for three days and nights, he estimated that they would have to continue galloping for more than 100 miles before they could get the serum.
On January 31, 1925, on the way to Shaktorik, Sepala met another sled dog team. He saw that the sleigh rider in charge was trying to restore order to the chaotic members. However, he did not intend to step forward to help. He still has a "life-saving" task to complete. He does not know whether his eight-year-old daughter Sigrid has been on the doctor's list of infections. He pulled the distracted sled dogs back to the right path, reminding them to "dogs" keep driving forward.
However, this "passer-by" who he thought was insignificant was actually Henry Ivanov, who brought him the serum. Because he has been on the way, he has not received any telegram messages, so he is not aware of the existence of such a relay team. It's like he didn't know that he had missed out with several people who wanted to notify him because of taking shortcuts. Fortunately, Henry Ivanov hurriedly shouted at him: "Sera, serum, here I am!"
Thankfully, Sepala finally braked hard, allowing the serum in Ivanov's hands to be successfully transferred.
Originally, Ivanov wanted to follow the established route, hoping to meet Sepala. However, when a reindeer emerged, his sled dogs suddenly became a mess, and he had to stay in place. While reprimanding these naughty ghosts, he tried to untie the tangled rope. To be continued.
Ref: "The Cruelest Mile", written by Gay & Laney Salisbury, 2003
http://www.workingdogweb.com/Final-Journey-for-Togo.htm
https://life-with-a-husky.com/2017/12/17/togo-the-true-hero/
https://baltostruestory.net/togo.htm
https://www.polygon.com/disney-plus/2019/12/4/20995392/togo-review-disney-plus-streaming-willem-dafoe-release-date
https://www.animationsource.org/board/balto-togo-true-info-true-story-lots-of-photos-t7590.html
https://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/the-sled-dogs-that-stopped-an-outbreak-32260
Etc...
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