The real heroes of the Arctic Circle: Togo and Leonhard Seppala

Winter sports let’s follow now. However, real winter bravery was experienced in Alaska a hundred years ago, when a dog sled saved an entire town from certain death.

In January 1925, a diphtheria epidemic threatened to break out in the remote small town of Nome on the border of the Arctic Circle.

Nome, located on the shores of the Bering Sea, was completely isolated in the winter, and the medical supply was out of date. Without an antidote, the disease would kill thousands.

But where to get medicine quickly? In winter, you couldn’t fly to Nome, and the nearest railway was a thousand kilometers away.

Only the alternative was to harness the dogs. The medicine ampoules were packed in a nine-kilogram metal cylinder, which was brought to Nenana station by train. The journey from there to Nome was 1,085 kilometers, through the frozen wilderness of Alaska.

The route was divided into 20 dog sleds, which always handed over the medicine to the next one. The frost was over 50 degrees at its worst. The dogs ran into the night.

In the blizzard of the dark desert, the journey was merciless. One driver’s hands froze on the reins and sometimes the medicine cylinder sank into the snow when the sled fell. The dogs froze to death.

Alaskan the most experienced teamster was a resident of Nome Leonard Seppala. Seppala was a Norwegian kveen by background, so distantly of Finnish descent. He trusted the Siberian Huskies, which at that time were a foreign breed in Alaska.

Seppala harnessed to the top his credit dog Togo. The 12-year-old husky was already old, but experienced. At first, its name was Northern Sami boozea puppy.

Seppala’s huskies, led by Togo, drove the longest distance, 420 kilometers. The longest day trip was 134 kilometers.

The medicines finally arrived in just five days. The city was saved.

Although Seppala and his dogs drove the longest distance, the last stretch to Nome Gunnar Haasen’s Balto-led by his dog.

Since it was Balto who brought the medicine cylinder to town, it became a celebrated hero dog in the United States, similar to Rin Tin Tin.

Later, Seppala and Togo have been remembered, even though a movie has been made about them.

Heroic the sleigh ride also made the Siberian husky known as a breed. A total of 150 dogs participated in the medical expedition.

Each of them would deserve a gold medal.