0:00:07 > 0:00:09January 1925.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16In Northwest Alaska, a legend was born.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23Gunnar Kaasen and his team of dogs, led by Balto,
0:00:23 > 0:00:28had braved the frozen wilderness to save a small, isolated town
0:00:28 > 0:00:30from a deadly outbreak of diphtheria.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39Their mission became a media sensation.
0:00:45 > 0:00:50All these elements of drama, of uncertainty, played into this.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55What are people imagining Alaska to be?
0:00:55 > 0:00:58And what are people imagining this journey to be like?
0:00:59 > 0:01:02There's a lot of unanswered questions.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07And stories tend to get better, I've learned, as the years go by.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24The story begins in Nome.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30Once a gold mining Mecca with a population of 20,000,
0:01:30 > 0:01:35it was now fading frontier town of fewer than 1,000.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40Located 160 miles east of Siberia, on the edge of the Bering Sea.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47With no roads in or out, it was, for much of the year,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50completely cut off from the rest of the world.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54The winters are seven months long.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59All transportation on the water ceases.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05The Bering Sea and the river start to freeze up.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09The last boat would leave in October.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16Along Nome's Front Street stood the Miners and Merchants Bank.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20The top floor was the home of the town's only doctor, Curtis Welch.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25For months, Dr Welch and his wife, Lula,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29had been troubled by the recent deaths of children.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31There were two in the autumn.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36And then seven-year-old Margaret Ida fell ill on Christmas Day.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39She died three days later.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45Then word came that a fourth child was dead - Billy Barnett,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48the infant son of a local mine official.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54Welch had diagnosed all four cases as tonsillitis.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58But now he feared it was something worse.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08For three days,
0:03:08 > 0:03:13Dr Welch and his wife told no-one of their suspicions.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18But then came news from his nurse, a fifth child - an Eskimo girl -
0:03:18 > 0:03:19was seriously ill.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25Welch immediately bundled up and headed out into the cold.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35The Eskimos of Nome lived on the Sandspit - a sliver of land
0:03:35 > 0:03:38jutting out into the Bering Sea, on the outskirts of town.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46Nome in the 1920s - racially segregated.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50There are separate restaurants, bars and schools.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Alaskan Natives weren't allowed to live in the boundaries of Nome.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03It was considered to be a healthier option than living with Nome whites.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08Once on the Sandspit, Welch entered a tiny one-room shack.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13As he peered into the mouth of his six-year-old patient,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16he realised he could no longer hide his fears.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23Later that same day,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27an emergency meeting of the city council was called.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Huddled in a small office on Front Street,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33a handful of Nome's prominent citizens
0:04:33 > 0:04:35listened intently as the doctor spoke.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43The town, he declared, was facing an outbreak of diphtheria.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49This was an extremely contagious respiratory kind of disease.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54Symptoms for diphtheria - extremely high fever, a very, very sore throat
0:04:54 > 0:04:56to the point where it's constricting your breathing
0:04:56 > 0:04:58and you have trouble swallowing.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00There was only one known cure -
0:05:00 > 0:05:05serum, or anti-toxin, made from horses' blood.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11Dr Welch went to see how much serum he had.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13But he only had a small amount.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Certainly not enough for more than a few people.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20But it was worse than that.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24The batch had expired five years earlier.
0:05:24 > 0:05:29Welch told the assembled men that he was too scared to use it.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41By the morning of January 22nd,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44the town of Nome had essentially shut down.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48They closed everything down.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50All the public libraries, schools...
0:05:52 > 0:05:54You couldn't have any visitors.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57And you couldn't go out of the house.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02We were super cautious and apprehensive.
0:06:02 > 0:06:08I remember my sister, Helen, and I would go by a house that had
0:06:08 > 0:06:13been quarantined, and the quarantine was posted on the door.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15Great big red card.
0:06:15 > 0:06:21And we'd hold our breath and walk real fast, or run past that house.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Nome's mayor was George Maynard.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36He was also the owner and publisher of the town's only newspaper -
0:06:36 > 0:06:39the weekly Nome Nugget.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44Deeply worried, Maynard put the outbreak on the front page.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49Soon, fearful residents began streaming into the small hospital
0:06:49 > 0:06:51with symptoms both real and imagined.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58By day three, Welch had six patients in his care
0:06:58 > 0:07:01who showed signs of diphtheria.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06Fearing there were no other options available,
0:07:06 > 0:07:11he began to privately administer experimental doses
0:07:11 > 0:07:14of the expired serum to a Native patient.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Welch had sent an urgent telegram
0:07:19 > 0:07:23to the nation's top health authority in Washington DC.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Now Nome could only wait while government officials scrambled
0:07:31 > 0:07:36to locate shipments of serum that could be redirected to Alaska.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45Then, on day five of the epidemic, came news that anti-toxin
0:07:45 > 0:07:51was discovered at a hospital in Anchorage, 1,000 miles away.
0:07:51 > 0:07:56It was only a small amount, barely enough to cure a handful of people.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00But it could still, possibly, keep the epidemic at bay
0:08:00 > 0:08:02until a larger shipment could be found.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09The question was, how to get the serum to Nome?
0:08:23 > 0:08:27I think, about that time, airplanes started to come over.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30The original World War I planes.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35I remember one time this biplane came in and circled over and over.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38Everybody in town went out there, and the plane went around
0:08:38 > 0:08:42and around, and looked over the field good before he came in to land.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49Aviation fever was sweeping the country.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52But in Alaska there were only a handful of aviators
0:08:52 > 0:08:55willing to brave the treacherous conditions.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00Most were based in the small town of Fairbanks.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06The town had established a small aviation business -
0:09:06 > 0:09:09The Fairbanks Airplane Corporation -
0:09:09 > 0:09:13funded in part by the town's merchants and businessmen.
0:09:14 > 0:09:15PIANO MUSIC
0:09:15 > 0:09:20But the company's biggest booster, and one of its founders,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24was the bigger-than-life editor of the Fairbanks' Daily News Miner -
0:09:24 > 0:09:26William Fendtriss Thompson.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33The most dynamic newspaper man there's ever been here
0:09:33 > 0:09:36was WF Thompson.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40Thompson was prone to exaggeration, prone to overconfidence
0:09:40 > 0:09:44and a tireless promoter of Fairbanks and aviation.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47So he saw a future for the community.
0:09:47 > 0:09:48They were past the gold-rush era,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51they were in the age of the Roaring '20s.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55This was the time in which, you know, Alaska was going to be modernised.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03Thompson envisioned flying the serum to Nome in just two days.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08But no-one had ever flown across the interior in the dead of winter.
0:10:12 > 0:10:13It was a risky business.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Instruments were minimal.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19You had a compass.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21And goggles.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25These are aircraft that are built out of wood,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29fabric and basically piano wire.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32They really weren't much more than a dog-sled
0:10:32 > 0:10:34with a big engine on the front. And wings.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Upon learning of Nome's plight, Thompson immediately ordered
0:10:40 > 0:10:44one of his planes - an open-cockpit, standard biplane -
0:10:44 > 0:10:46to be dragged out of storage.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50But Thompson would need approval from what he called
0:10:50 > 0:10:52"the federal bunch."
0:10:54 > 0:10:56The federal government's
0:10:56 > 0:11:01representative in the territory was the Governor, Scott C Bone.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Public health service - that's Bone's responsibility.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10And so the challenge was - can we get the serum over to Nome in time?
0:11:12 > 0:11:14Transportation by dog team is reliable.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18But how long is it going to take?
0:11:18 > 0:11:21The mail run used to take 30 days.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25Because the teams in those days would run about 30 miles,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27and they had roadhouses.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29You'd pull in, they'd put the dogs in the barn,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32and the next day you'd take off again.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36Speed is of the essence.
0:11:36 > 0:11:41That's the advantage of the airplane. But Bone didn't trust the airplane.
0:11:41 > 0:11:47He sees Thompson as nothing more than an irresponsible irritant out there.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53The Governor decided to go with the dogs.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02Bone proposed to transport the serum as far north as possible by train.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06And then, a nonstop dog sled relay would ferry the serum,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10night and day, across 700 miles of postal trail.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16Down in Anchorage, the serum was bundled securely
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and handed to a conductor waiting aboard an express train.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24They've got this serum packed in these little glass bottles,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27wrapped in a quilt, very carefully insulated,
0:12:27 > 0:12:31because these little glass bottles of serum could not freeze.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36The starting point would be the tiny village of Nenana -
0:12:36 > 0:12:38the last stop on the Alaskan railway.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44From Nenana, the trail followed the westward-flowing Tanana
0:12:44 > 0:12:47and Yukon rivers.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50The last stretch wound its way up the coast,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54around the frozen Norton Sound, and into Nome.
0:13:02 > 0:13:09At 9pm on the evening of January 27th, the train chuffed into Nenana.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15Temperatures in the interior were reaching record lows.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21Waiting at the station was William Shannon,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23the first musher in the run.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28He was a part-time mail driver with a reputation for hard drinking,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31earning him the nickname Wild Bill.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39In Fairbanks, Thompson still fought for his plan.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43In that evening's edition of the Daily News Miner, he lashed out.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47"Governor Bone has evidently taken charge,
0:13:47 > 0:13:51"and has ordered the anti-toxin sent to Nome by dog team.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58"Fairbanks must sit by the fire envisioning Nome babies and
0:13:58 > 0:14:02"their pioneering parents strangling and dying the most horrible deaths.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07"Should conflicting authorities change their mind,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11"Fairbanks is standing by, ready with airships and men,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14"to cut Nome's waiting time in half."
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Wild Bill strapped the precious 20lb bundle to his sled.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Then, with a shout to his nine dogs, he took off.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34Will Bill disappeared into the darkness.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45In Nome, early the next morning,
0:14:45 > 0:14:49in a small kennel towards the outskirts of town,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52one man was awake, readying his team of dogs.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57Leonhard Seppala, an immigrant from Norway,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01worked as a musher for the Hammond Consolidated Gold Mining Company.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05But he was also a racing champion.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Once referred to as "the king of the trail."
0:15:11 > 0:15:16Leonhard Seppala was always competitive. That's what drove him.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19And he loved the spotlight.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22Seppala used Siberian Huskies.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26People call them Siberian rats because they're so small
0:15:26 > 0:15:29compared to these 150lb Malamutes that were out there
0:15:29 > 0:15:31pulling these massive sleds.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40Seppala was to take his best team and head east down the trail
0:15:40 > 0:15:44for 300 miles, until he reached the village of Nulato.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49There he would meet the relay of mushers heading west,
0:15:49 > 0:15:54and turn around to deliver the life-saving serum to Nome.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58The 600-mile round trip journey would be daunting to most mushers,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01but Seppala relished the challenge.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09That morning, Leonhard Seppala didn't hesitate
0:16:09 > 0:16:14to select as his lead a 12-year-old dog named Togo.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21In a lifetime of driving dogs, you'll have a great leader.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24You'll have one dog that will excel.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Togo was Leonhard Seppala's greatest dog.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35As Seppala and his team were leaving Nome,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Wild Bill was making his way west.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40He'd had a long, tough night.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47The Yukon interior is one of the two coldest points
0:16:47 > 0:16:50in the northern hemisphere. Colder than the Arctic itself.
0:16:52 > 0:16:57As Wild Bill followed the trail along the bank of the Tanana River,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59the temperature dropped to -54.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04Nobody moves in that kind of weather.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08No animal, no creature, nobody goes anywhere.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10There's an enemy without.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15And if you let him in through your parka or through your mukluks
0:17:15 > 0:17:17or whatever it might be,
0:17:17 > 0:17:21I mean, you've let a real enemy in. And it could destroy you.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33By morning, the bitter cold had taken its toll.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Will Bill's team of nine was reduced to six
0:17:38 > 0:17:42by the time he handed off the serum to the next musher.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50In Nome, the situation had grown more dire.
0:17:50 > 0:17:55By now, Dr Welch had tried the expired serum on several patients,
0:17:55 > 0:17:59and their conditions seemed to improve.
0:17:59 > 0:18:04But there were five new suspected cases in just two days.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12In the midst of all this, George Maynard, as both mayor
0:18:12 > 0:18:18and editor of the local paper, wrote a simple but pointed dispatch
0:18:18 > 0:18:20and sent it out to the Associated Press.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33The story was immediately picked up by dozens of papers.
0:18:37 > 0:18:43You had the mayor of Nome sending out a reasonably terse
0:18:43 > 0:18:45and factual report.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48There was a need for the serum.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52And there was a sled run that was going to get the serum
0:18:52 > 0:18:55from point A to point B. All of those things are true.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01But now it reaches the media in the lower 48.
0:19:03 > 0:19:10The race against time is one of the oldest and hoariest cliches,
0:19:10 > 0:19:15but you layer on top of that this other element of Alaska itself,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18well, it's no wonder that this grows.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25There had been generations of epidemics.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28A lot of Alaskan Natives died.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31But I think white America looked at Native populations
0:19:31 > 0:19:33within a historic framework -
0:19:33 > 0:19:36Native peoples are supposed to be vanishing,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40so another wave of epidemics is tragic but somehow natural.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44But the reason why the story mattered
0:19:44 > 0:19:47was it was happening to white children.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00Across the Yukon Valley, word of the relay spread rapidly
0:20:00 > 0:20:03from one signal core cabin to the next.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08All of the next mushers in the interior
0:20:08 > 0:20:12would be half or full-blooded Koyukuk or Yukon Indian.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20They were mostly young men with an unparalleled stamina -
0:20:20 > 0:20:25forged from the daily struggle to survive the long sub-zero winters.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32After Wild Bill, 20-year-old Edgar Kallands,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36a part-time mail driver for the Northern Commercial Company,
0:20:36 > 0:20:40made the 31-mile journey to Manley Hot Springs.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47Later that day, Johnny Folger carried it from Fish Lake.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Overnight, the serum was in the hands of Sam Joseph
0:20:53 > 0:20:56who descended from the fiercest tribe in the region.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03Harry Pitka, who had lost a dozen siblings to a previous epidemic
0:21:03 > 0:21:07of tuberculosis, picked up the serum in Kokrines.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21By January 29th, the serum had reached the town of Ruby.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28It was the home of Bill McCarty, the ninth musher in the run.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35Word came over to the telegraph station in Ruby that
0:21:35 > 0:21:41they needed mushers to relay this serum to Nome.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44My dad, at the time, was kind of like a handler.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46You know, he took care of the dogs.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46Somewhere along the stretch, he ran into the whiteout.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54It's kind of scary.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58It comes right into your face and you can't see where you're going.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06He just relied on the leader. The leader's name was Prince.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15The dogs, you had to totally understand them.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21If a dog goes over one trail, you take him
0:23:21 > 0:23:25over that same trail five years later and he won't lose the trail.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28A dog never forgets.
0:23:35 > 0:23:3930 miles down the river, another musher was waiting.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47My dad, Edgar Nollner, was a young man when they asked him
0:23:47 > 0:23:50to run that serum run.
0:23:51 > 0:23:58He started from Whiskey Creek, which is about 25 miles behind me,
0:23:58 > 0:23:59up on the river there.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12He said that as he was going along, when he looked at his dogs,
0:24:12 > 0:24:16there was steam coming from the dogs' breath.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44As he neared the village of Galena,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Edgar saw his brother, George, waiting.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49He told his leader...
0:24:49 > 0:24:51HE SPEAKS A COMMAND
0:24:52 > 0:24:57They did an about-face and George got on the sled
0:24:57 > 0:24:59and kept on going down to Bishop Mountain.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06TRADITIONAL NATIVE MUSIC
0:25:14 > 0:25:18As George Nollner and the team raced down the river,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21the Northern Lights began to dance overhead.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32George had told his brother that he wanted to make the run
0:25:32 > 0:25:35because he had a girlfriend in the next town.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48The 12th musher in the relay, Charlie Evans,
0:25:48 > 0:25:51was waiting at Bishop Mountain.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55The grandson of one of the last great Athabascan chiefs,
0:25:55 > 0:25:57Evans was just 22.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50Evans' destination was just 30 miles down the Yukon.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55But now the temperature had dropped even further,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59reaching a devastating -64.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07In such conditions, exposed skin blisters,
0:27:07 > 0:27:09lungs become scorched.
0:27:11 > 0:27:17As Evans made his way, he could hear the sound of trees cracking,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19popping like pistol shots.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29Most people don't drive dogs in this cold.
0:27:29 > 0:27:30He didn't really push them or anything,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33just let them go at their own pace.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37Let them got at a trotting pace, at their own speed.
0:27:37 > 0:27:38That way, you don't hurt them.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46Ten miles into his run,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Evans came to the place where the Koyukuk River flows into the Yukon.
0:27:57 > 0:28:03Deceptively beautiful, it was as dangerous as a minefield.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08The fast-running suppressed waters of the converging rivers
0:28:08 > 0:28:11had eroded away the surface ice.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17You're going along,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20and pretty soon you feel the whole works starting to sink,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24just kind of collapsing under the weight of the team and yourself.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29You get wet, you freeze up real fast.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33You get to a point where you can't take care of yourself or your dogs.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37If you fall into the river, it sweeps you right under the ice
0:28:37 > 0:28:39and you're gone.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50Evans had to wind his way around the open water,
0:28:50 > 0:28:53carefully dodging the exposed ice.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00But, a few miles later, his two lead dogs began to stiffen up.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04Then both dogs collapsed.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11With no other options, Charlie Evans hitched himself to the team
0:29:11 > 0:29:13and helped pull the sled.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18He had become his own lead dog.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40By January 30th, three days into the run, the serum
0:29:40 > 0:29:47was in the hands of the last Athebascan musher - Jack Nikolai.
0:29:47 > 0:29:52Small, muscular and tough, he was legendary throughout the Yukon,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55known simply by his nickname, Jackscrew.
0:29:58 > 0:30:04It was growing dark as Jackscrew began to traverse the Kaltag Divide.
0:30:10 > 0:30:15Finally, at 9pm, he saw a light piercing the darkness.
0:30:15 > 0:30:20A lantern hanging outside the cabin called Old Woman Shelter.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Jackscrew waited inside.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Soon, he heard the sounds of an approaching sled.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42It was Victor Anagick - a native Inupiat Eskimo who had been sent
0:30:42 > 0:30:46from a village on the coast to meet the serum.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Together, Jackscrew and Anagick
0:30:54 > 0:30:57warmed the serum in front of the fire.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08The serum was still 240 miles away from Nome.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12And now there were 16 suspected cases.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17Dr Welch had rationed the expired anti-toxin,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19but there was almost none left.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25I was brought to the hospital. I had a very high fever.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29I was given 6,000 units of anti-toxin.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35My second brother, Goodman, was probably the next to get sick.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39And then Johnnie.
0:31:42 > 0:31:43Mother was very sick,
0:31:43 > 0:31:49and the doctor wanted her to have what serum there was left.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54And she refused to take it because she wanted Johnnie to have it.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58So Johnnie got the last of what serum there was.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02And Mother had to wait for the new serum to arrive.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09There was no guarantee they were going to make it.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13And that fuelled the story, coupled with the belief
0:32:13 > 0:32:16that if the diphtheria outbreak wasn't stopped,
0:32:16 > 0:32:21it could spread to every village along the coast of the Bering Sea.
0:32:23 > 0:32:28This is a period of the introduction of the tabloid newspaper.
0:32:29 > 0:32:36And this mushrooms as editors pick it up and add their own twists to it.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45Unable to get photos from the frozen north,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48some newspaper editors created their own.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53The newspapers were put together rapidly.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55They were put together hurriedly.
0:32:55 > 0:32:59Whoever was writing the headlines or laying out the stories
0:32:59 > 0:33:03in New York or Boston would be relying on the information
0:33:03 > 0:33:05they obtained from someone in Alaska.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09On the morning of January 30th,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Governor Bone received a private query
0:33:12 > 0:33:16from the Universal News Syndicate in California.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21"Please rush picturesque story," it said.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26"Would like dope about famous mushers. Will pay good rate."
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Essentially what the telegram invites him to do
0:33:29 > 0:33:32is to create the story.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34To imagine what was going to happen.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44Bone had received periodic updates on the westward relay
0:33:44 > 0:33:48by telegraph. But no-one had heard from Leonhard Seppala,
0:33:48 > 0:33:51who was now two days into his journey east.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56Bone wrote about the champion musher anyway.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03"In a race for life, Leonhard Seppala,
0:34:03 > 0:34:08"the most famous musher of the northland, has skirted Norton Sound.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11"And crossed the tundra over land to Kaltag."
0:34:16 > 0:34:22In fact, the relay of other mushers had long since passed Kaltag,
0:34:22 > 0:34:24and would soon reach the coast.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29Though they were each told to expect Seppala's approach at any point,
0:34:29 > 0:34:31he was nowhere to be seen.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47On the morning of January 31st, the Eskimo musher, Victor Anagick,
0:34:47 > 0:34:51carried the serum through the Kaltag Portage,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55across open tundra, climbing as the trail followed the twists
0:34:55 > 0:34:58and turns of hill-borne streams.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04Then, just before sunrise,
0:35:04 > 0:35:09he finally descended until he reached the Bering Sea.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25The serum had now travelled more than half the distance to Nome
0:35:25 > 0:35:27in just over three days.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35But the trail would undergo dramatic changes.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39The mushers would now have to battle the legendary howling winds
0:35:39 > 0:35:43along the exposed, tree-less shoreline of the frozen ocean.
0:35:47 > 0:35:52By late morning, 28-year-old Eskimo Myles Gonangnan
0:35:52 > 0:35:54had the serum safely in his sled.
0:35:55 > 0:36:00In Shaktoolik, Henry Ivanoff - a half-Russian, half-Eskimo musher -
0:36:00 > 0:36:02was waiting.
0:36:02 > 0:36:08My dad had his team ready. They just handed it from one sled to the other.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13He took off before he even had time to drink a cup of hot coffee.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15That's what he said.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Just as Ivanoff set out, Leonhard Seppala,
0:36:21 > 0:36:25who had already mushed 43 miles since morning,
0:36:25 > 0:36:28was approaching Shaktoolik from the north.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32When Leonhard Seppala left Nome, he thought that he was doing
0:36:32 > 0:36:35this whole halfway distance and back on his own.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41And so he was making his way, thinking he was going to be
0:36:41 > 0:36:44going up the Yukon River towards Nulato,
0:36:44 > 0:36:49and he hears this...shouting.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54And he sees a man, you know, waving his arms.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Surprise, surprise. The serum's there.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00He really didn't expect the serum to be there.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07With the serum in hand, Seppala and the team turned around
0:37:07 > 0:37:10and began to retrace their route back to Nome.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16After just a few miles, they came to the shoreline of Norton Sound.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22The shortest route to Nome lay in a northwest course
0:37:22 > 0:37:25straight across the sound.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27But a storm was brewing
0:37:27 > 0:37:33and Seppala would be mushing through 20 miles of open, windswept ice.
0:37:35 > 0:37:41Seppala had received a warning from Mark Summers, his boss at the mine.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44With the lives of the entire population of Nome at stake,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48speed was secondary to safety.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52Under no circumstance was Seppala ever to put the serum at risk.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56Now he faced a hard decision.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02The sun is setting.
0:38:02 > 0:38:03It's getting darker.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05It's getting colder.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07The wind is building.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09WIND WHISTLES
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Seppala's looking out, he tells Togo, "Let's go."
0:38:14 > 0:38:18Togo puts that first foot out on Norton Sound and they begin to cross.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25They were given orders, go on land. Do not cross Norton Sound
0:38:25 > 0:38:27because it's high-risk.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30He disobeyed my father's orders.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40Seppala tried to listen for the tell-tale crack of ice breaking.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44But he could only hear the constant roar of the wind.
0:38:49 > 0:38:55Seppala now would have to trust the more basic instincts of Togo.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59Togo was a 12-year-old dog.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03This is ancient for a race dog.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09But he had been through all kinds of things with Seppala.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12There was a real bond between them.
0:39:19 > 0:39:24The wind is blowing into their face, sweeping the snow right off the ice.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Seppala's desperate to get off this water.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32He got to Isaac's Point
0:39:32 > 0:39:36and put the dogs up in an Eskimo kennel for the night.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45When they woke up in the morning, all that ice they'd crossed was gone.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47It had all floated out to sea.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Though the storm was growing, Seppala set out again.
0:39:58 > 0:40:05For 13 hours, he mushed on. He had covered more than 200 miles in all.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12He would now hand the serum over to another musher.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17It's not a mystery that when he finally did make it back to Golovin
0:40:17 > 0:40:20that he was bushed, and his dogs were bushed.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27The next musher, Charlie Olson, had a short run.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30And by evening had reached the roadhouse in Bluff.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35Waiting inside was Gunnar Kaasen.
0:40:38 > 0:40:43Gunnar Kaasen, like Seppala, was a Norwegian immigrant.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47And also worked for the Hammond Mining Company in Nome.
0:40:47 > 0:40:53Though at 43 he was only a few years younger than the famous musher,
0:40:53 > 0:40:56Kaasen worked as his assistant.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59And was often overshadowed.
0:40:59 > 0:41:05Gunnar was modest. Kind of quiet. He stayed in his own area.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09Once that they decided they needed more relay people
0:41:09 > 0:41:13from Golovin into Nome, they asked Kaasen if he could do it.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18But he did not have a team. So he went and asked Mrs Seppala
0:41:18 > 0:41:21if he could take some dogs from Seppala's kennel.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23For some reason, he selected Balto.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Balto was just a freight dog.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36He belonged to Seppala, but Seppala felt he lacked sufficient speed,
0:41:36 > 0:41:40and Balto was never selected for his racing teams.
0:41:42 > 0:41:47Balto was not as intelligent as Togo.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50Not that much of a leader. He was a follower.
0:41:50 > 0:41:51A dependable dog.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59It was 10pm on the evening of February 1st
0:41:59 > 0:42:02when Kaasen, Balto and the team started out.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08The blizzard had grown in intensity.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11Kaasen had never felt winds this heavy before.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23The storm had gotten so bad that he couldn't even see his wheel dogs
0:42:23 > 0:42:26on the back of the team, which were right in front of the sled.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32He couldn't call directions to Balto, as to where to go,
0:42:32 > 0:42:34where to turn, to gee or haw...
0:42:38 > 0:42:39The storm attacked.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Kaasen had no choice but to follow blindly and trust his leader.
0:42:48 > 0:42:53Then, 22 miles into the run at Bonanza Flats...
0:42:53 > 0:42:55disaster struck.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01He hits some rough terrain.
0:43:01 > 0:43:07And the combination of terrain, wind, bad visibility...
0:43:07 > 0:43:12it flips his sled over. And he goes to upright the sled...
0:43:13 > 0:43:15..and the serum is gone.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24It's blizzard conditions. Very little light.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28And he's groping on the ground, takes his mittens off, tries to feel.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30It's dark.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36Amazingly, he found this bump on the ground.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39It was the package.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42He strapped it back on.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55Some time after two o'clock, Sunday morning,
0:43:55 > 0:44:00Kaasen neared his destination - Point Safety.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04There, he would hand over the serum to the last musher in the run,
0:44:04 > 0:44:06Ed Rohn.
0:44:08 > 0:44:14Rohn was also a known resident and, like Seppala, a champion racer.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18He owned the fastest dog team for short runs in the entire country,
0:44:18 > 0:44:22and was an obvious choice for the final sprint.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43Just before dawn on February 2nd,
0:44:43 > 0:44:47a lone musher made his way up the beach toward Nome.
0:44:50 > 0:44:55At 5.30, he swung up onto Nome's deserted Front Street.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00Dr Welch was startled awake by a pounding on his front door.
0:45:00 > 0:45:06He was stunned to see that the serum had made it through the blizzard.
0:45:06 > 0:45:12But moreover, he was shocked to see who the musher was.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16The entire town had expected to welcome Ed Rohn.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22Instead, before him stood Gunnar Kaasen.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS
0:45:35 > 0:45:41And so what did Gunnar Kaasen do instead of stopping at Safety
0:45:41 > 0:45:45to let Ed Rohn have the last run in?
0:45:45 > 0:45:47He didn't stop. He just kept coming.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54The story I've heard was the lights were out at the cabin.
0:45:54 > 0:45:59He thought, "Why should I take that precious time to wait for this musher
0:45:59 > 0:46:03"to get up, to get dressed, get the dogs harnessed
0:46:03 > 0:46:05"when I'm already going? We're almost there."
0:46:05 > 0:46:09But I can see Gunnar Kaasen. I can see his mind.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14You know, the only guy they're gonna really appreciate
0:46:14 > 0:46:17is the guy that puts the serum in the doctor's hands.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22At the signal core office, the wires buzzed with queries
0:46:22 > 0:46:27from the press about the unexpected musher and, in particular, his dogs.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33Kaasen's team had arrived with a double lead.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37Balto had been paired with another dog, Fox,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40for the final push into Nome.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43One newspaper reporter didn't want to use the name Fox,
0:46:43 > 0:46:46because he thought the readers would be confused
0:46:46 > 0:46:49that a fox was leading the dog team into Nome.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53So he said to Gunnar, "What's the name of your other lead dog?"
0:46:53 > 0:46:55"That's Balto."
0:46:55 > 0:46:59He says, "I'll use Balto. That'll be the name I'll use in my story."
0:47:11 > 0:47:15Local cameramen rushed out to Front Street to take photographs
0:47:15 > 0:47:18and even film footage of Kaasen and Balto.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26But as the media celebrated the new heroes of the serum run,
0:47:26 > 0:47:29the town of Nome was still in crisis.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35The first amount of serum that arrives is only about a quarter
0:47:35 > 0:47:37of what the doctor had said was needed.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42So now Bone has to do the serious work of getting more serum
0:47:42 > 0:47:45out of Seattle, getting it up to Anchorage,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48getting it on the train, and getting it up to Nenana.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51And more dog sleds.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55This is when Thompson thought that he had a great opportunity
0:47:55 > 0:47:57to get in on it.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01"The optimism we registered yesterday
0:48:01 > 0:48:05"is a mess of pessimism for Nome tonight.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08"The airship way is the only way."
0:48:09 > 0:48:12Thompson's trying to build up his story.
0:48:12 > 0:48:18He rallies folks to contribute money in Fairbanks to pay for the fuel.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22And he's in touch with Washington, trying to generate pressure.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27Thompson's persistence was rewarded.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31The US Public Health Service overrode the governor.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36Of the new batch of one million units of anti-toxin,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39half would go by dog team and half by air.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49On February 8th, the second relay took off on schedule from Nenana
0:48:49 > 0:48:51with half of the serum.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54Some of the same drivers participated.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01In Fairbanks, the other half of the serum was packaged and ready to go.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07Thompson and his mechanics scrambled to get their plane in the air.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13They were really trying hard to get an airplane ready,
0:49:13 > 0:49:17but they were having one problem after another with it.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22The dogs were a full two days ahead
0:49:22 > 0:49:25by the time the plane was finally ready to take off.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32They turned on the magnetos and the guy gets out to prop the airplane.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38Big prop and he gets halfway down and there's a backfire.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42And it threw the guy ten feet into the air.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47It's a complete disaster.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50And they can't pull it off. They can't do anything.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05But the relay of dog teams was averaging a steady 10mph.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12The new batch of serum was due to arrive in just a few days.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20WF Thompson wrote a rueful editorial.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28"All the world likes to put in with the winner and laugh at the loser.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31"The only satisfaction is that we have never worried
0:50:31 > 0:50:37"whether you laughed WITH us or AT us, so long as you laugh.
0:50:37 > 0:50:43"The airship will go on when it can. We take our hat off to the dog."
0:50:52 > 0:50:57Ed Rohn, the driver Gunnar Kaasen had bypassed the first time,
0:50:57 > 0:51:00ran the final leg of the relay.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04He arrived in Nome on the evening of February 15th.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08The serum was quickly put to use.
0:51:11 > 0:51:16Six days later, Dr Welch lifted the quarantine.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21It was almost exactly a month since the first diagnosis.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44On June 4th, 1925, under sunny skies,
0:51:44 > 0:51:47hundreds of Nome's residents
0:51:47 > 0:51:50crowded the shores of the Bering Sea.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53The town welcomed the SS Victoria,
0:51:53 > 0:51:55the first ship of the season.
0:51:58 > 0:52:03That spring, the eagerly-awaited first photographs of the serum run
0:52:03 > 0:52:06finally appeared in newspapers around the country.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12Screenings of the film footage followed shortly thereafter.
0:52:40 > 0:52:45A few weeks later, on a snowy mountain just outside of Seattle,
0:52:45 > 0:52:50Gunnar Kaasen and his team once again re-enacted their run.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53This time for Hollywood cameras.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00Balto's Race To Nome toured the Lower 48.
0:53:01 > 0:53:07At the end of each screening, Gunnar Kaasen would step out on stage,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10then, to great applause,
0:53:10 > 0:53:12out would trot Balto.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18Balto, the hero of the serum run, was a piker.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22The reason he didn't go with Seppala was that he wasn't good enough.
0:53:26 > 0:53:31It does explain Leonhard Seppala's bitterness
0:53:31 > 0:53:34right to the very end of his days
0:53:35 > 0:53:38Togo wasn't statuised.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42Togo didn't have movies made of him.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47This was the last really significant run that that dog would make
0:53:47 > 0:53:50and to come to the end of his career
0:53:50 > 0:53:54and then to be outshone by some second-rater,
0:53:54 > 0:54:01I think there was some real, real, authentic...remorse over that.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07The serum run heralded the end of the dog sled era.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12On the very day the anti-toxin was delivered,
0:54:12 > 0:54:16the US Congress passed the Kelly Act, which encouraged
0:54:16 > 0:54:20the awarding of mail contracts to commercial airplane companies.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29The publicity from the Nome epidemic also focused attention
0:54:29 > 0:54:35on the importance of inoculation and soon diphtheria was relegated
0:54:35 > 0:54:39to a minor position on the nation's roster of dread diseases.
0:54:41 > 0:54:46But Alaska still struggled in its fight against illness.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49Though Doctor Welch's official report
0:54:49 > 0:54:54indicated only five fatalities from the epidemic that winter,
0:54:54 > 0:54:58native deaths were never scrupulously recorded.
0:55:00 > 0:55:06I remember the death of a woman
0:55:06 > 0:55:11who lived across the way on the Sandspit from diphtheria.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15She was Eskimo and this was, of course, in February.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23Only a few years after the serum run, the Eskimo village of Sinik,
0:55:23 > 0:55:28just 50 miles up the coast from Nome, was wiped out by illness.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32The town disappeared...
0:55:32 > 0:55:35without mention in the newspapers.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47By 1926, Balto and six other dogs had been sold
0:55:47 > 0:55:53and soon found themselves virtual prisoners far from the snowy tundra
0:55:53 > 0:55:57in Sam Houston's dime-a-look Museum of Oddities.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03They're put in this hot little room in hot Los Angeles
0:56:03 > 0:56:06and they're hooked up to their gang harness most of the time
0:56:06 > 0:56:10on display with not a lot of people going in and out of there.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12They start to lose weight, their fur gets matted.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16They are basically neglected almost to death.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22But the dogs' fame would prove to be their saviour.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25- ARCHIVE VOICEOVER:- Here's dog team pulling Alaskan sleigh through
0:56:25 > 0:56:27streets of Cleveland, Ohio.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31In lead is Balto, hero of fantastic drive
0:56:31 > 0:56:33to snowbound ice-imprisoned city of Nome
0:56:33 > 0:56:37when that Arctic metropolis was struck by epidemic.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41In 1927, a travelling salesman from Cleveland
0:56:41 > 0:56:45happened upon the sideshow and was moved to take action.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50With the help of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the citizens
0:56:50 > 0:56:56and children of the city raised 2,200 to rescue the dogs.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02So they brought the dogs to the Cleveland Zoo
0:57:02 > 0:57:04and they lived out their natural lives.
0:57:05 > 0:57:10And, when Balto died, he was stuffed.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16And, to this day, is in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Every so many years, they bring him out, dust him off
0:57:19 > 0:57:21and they have a big deal.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35There are still no roads that link Nome
0:57:35 > 0:57:38and the interior native villages to the rest of Alaska.
0:57:41 > 0:57:47The town and much of the surrounding region remains largely unchanged.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03The legend of the serum run lingers,
0:58:03 > 0:58:05but as a faded memory.
0:58:17 > 0:58:23We would like to think that history is a thing that exists
0:58:23 > 0:58:25and we access it.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29No, no, no, no.
0:58:29 > 0:58:33History is a thing we construct
0:58:33 > 0:58:37out of an incredibly imperfect,
0:58:37 > 0:58:41fallible, piecemeal record
0:58:41 > 0:58:44which is incredibly dependent
0:58:44 > 0:58:48on whatever piece of information got documented
0:58:48 > 0:58:52and whatever piece of information somebody THINKS they remember.