A testament to hope, the spirit of the volunteer, teamwork and the nature of man's best friend.

As a dog person through and through, in fact I'm convinced I was not a wolf but a dog in a previous life -a shout out must be done to the dogs (and the riders) if you please:

1. Togo! The Legend! The infant prodigy. You magnificent pooch. Born to lead, born to run. born to save that town of Nome, Alaska in the worst winter of that era. Big facts: Leonard Seppala and all 19 of your pack would have died on that ice without you. I cried so much at your bravery. Hope you get tons of treats and pets over that rainbow.
2. Blackie, Sally, Jimmy, Princess, Jack, Jet, Bear and Bob. This one is bittersweet. You started the relay bright and early and going against the rule of -40 you followed "Wild Bill" Shannon all the way and you succeeded even though it cost your pack four lives. Your are my heroes little furballs.
3. Bolto, you did your best in the very last stretch and in the end you sought no praise, to fame and no glory - that was all Gunner Kaasen. You got to the end in conditions that had already killed dogs along the relay. Good Boy!
4. The Relay Riders (Mushers) who could have died on the trail: Leonhard Seppala, Wild Bill Shannon, Edgar Kallands, Charlie Evans, George and Edgar Nollner, Curtis Welch, Titus Nickolai, Johnny Folger, Sam Joseph, Harry Pitka, Tommy Patsy, Myles Gonangnan, Vicktor Anagick, Henry Ivanoff, Dan Green, Charlie Olsen and Gunner Kaasen - such an amazing fete that saved lives.

Alright, in the words of "Wild Bill" Shannon": Hell Weltz, if people are dying ... let's get started.

I can't imagine what our 21st century pandemic would have done to the community of Nome, Alaska. The description of that Diphtheria disease sounded way to close to the past 3 years and that virus that set peoples lives back by about 3 years. And yet, without the resources we have to day - their death toll was actually only 5 in a span of 10 days. The sense of urgency and the work done by Governer Bone, Dr Welch, Emily Morgan and the Health Council of Nome could definitely teach our world a thing or two..

There were so many heroes, I have to single out the first relay team with the 300 000 units of the serum. Faced with this daunting task, some had just returned from a very long mail haul, heard they were needed to save the lives of children in the neighboring sister-town and they just went out, got their sleds ready and did it. Something about being brave in that time hits differently to our time. Maybe it's the overexposure of everything on all media platforms today but in the 1900s, facing all but certain death on the ice, these sledding teams did what was virtually impossible. For that and that alone, I will brave the cold Alaskan weather and come visit some tourist destinations dedicated to them.

Seriously though having just come out of a 3 year pandemic - when is earth going to stop trying to annihilate the 8 billion humans like we're parasites in the bloodstream? I mean it's already heating up like a fever on this surface. Sigh...will they be telling our story in the next 100 years and will it be as inspiring and unbelievable as this one? Or one big cautionary tale of dread, disappointment and warring ideologies?

Yeah if the immortality scientists could get a move on with the fountain of youth I'd be able to hang around until then.
( )

I just finished reading The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic
by Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury. This book was unexpectedly fascinating on many levels. The book is nominally about the carriage of diphtheria antitoxin from the railhead near Fairbanks, Alaska to the coast at Nome, through some of the coldest temperatures that state has experienced, and in unusually fierce blizzards. Nome had already been decimated by the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, described in The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry. The book includes in its bibliography another book about the Arctic I read and enjoyed, Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez.

The story of the race would have been exciting on its own. The book paints a vivid picture of early 20th Century Alaska, in the throes of the decline after the Klondike and Alaska Gold Rush of approximately 1897-1901. The book also contained descriptions of the history of the Eskimos (Eskimo, contrary to urban legend apparently refers to snowshoes, not "Eaters of Raw Flesh" and is not a derogatory term). Much of that description was surprisingly familiar; I remember it from Mrs. Boyle's Fourth Grade class in academic 1966-7.

The people behind the heroic rescue of Nome take second fiddle in the book to Man's Best Friend. The book subliminally makes the case that man's development, in Alaska at least, would have been impossible without the domestication of the dog from its ancient lupine ancestors. I have always thought that all human development from mere animals to the species we are would not have occurred without domestication of the dog.

Man could really accomplish things if they didn't have to keep a lookout for predators bigger and stronger than them, chief among those wolves. In the Arctic, dogs fulfill the vital function of providing transportation. Having a "doggedly" loyal and intelligent leader made travel over some very hazardous areas possible.

A solid five stars on Goodreads for this. ( )

The authors reveal their passion for Dr. Welch and the many mushers who helped bring the anti-toxin to Nome during the 1925 diphtheria outbreak. This is where the story of "Balto" comes from, but his story is really one of many dogs' stories. This goes right to the heart. ( )

If you want to read an exciting story about Alaska in the early 20th century and learn a bit about dog mushing as well, this is a must read. Excellent page turner. ( )

nonfiction (dog sledding to Nome, Alaska in 1925 local history)
interesting history. ( )