If you look through the Associated Press archives, you'll come across a photo that stops time. Depicts Leonhard Seppala and his legendary huskies on October 12, 1928, in Alaska.
For those who have seen the 2019 film Togo, the footage may be "familiar". In Ericson Core's film, Seppala is played by Willem Dafoe. The film in question took us to the winter of 1925, in a difficult sled race to be carried out by a man led by his dog, Togo.
In fact, Seppala had made his first race led by his beloved dog, Suggen, in 1918, and in 1925 he managed to save many souls. He was a Norwegian dog breeder and trainer, and played a key role in sled racing. He is considered the man who introduced husky dogs to the western world. He immigrated to Alaska in 1900 in search of gold and settled in the town of Nom.
He began sled racing in 1913 and entered the All Alaska Sweepstakes in 1914, which he won three times in his career.
In 1925 he traveled in bad weather conditions with his sledge from Nome, to transport serum against diphtheria that had afflicted his fellow citizens. Without the serum, the lives of the 10,000 citizens of the prefecture were in absolute danger, despite the quarantine.
The closest destination where serum was available was the city of Nenana, 1,100 kilometers away. Thus, a real relay race was set up in the snow and in the most extreme conditions (-50 degrees), which went down in history as the "Serum Run". Seppala was the intermediate driver of the life relay, doing the most difficult route as he was considered the most experienced for such a thing. "Chief" in his own sled, he was the real Togo. In total, 20 people took part in transporting the serum, with five sled drivers and their dogs among them.
By 1921, more than 15,000 American citizens had died from diphtheria corynebacterium. The legendary "Oru Race" which lasted a total of six days, is celebrated every year in Alaska as an annual holiday. It is worth noting that Seppala was honored in New York for his contribution by Roald Amundsen himself, while a statue was erected in New York for Balto, the dog leading the last part of the "Serum Run" route.
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