Sept. 15, 2025

Spitcicles: The 1925 Serum Run

Spitcicles: The 1925 Serum Run
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The frigid winter of 1925 brought more than just bitter cold to Nome, Alaska—it delivered a deadly diphtheria outbreak that threatened to devastate the isolated town of 1,400 people. With the harbor frozen solid and no roads connecting them to civilization, Nome faced a terrifying reality: their antitoxin supply had expired, and without fresh medicine, hundreds could die from what was grimly known as "the strangling angel of children."

What followed was an extraordinary feat of human and canine endurance that would capture the world's attention. When officials in Anchorage received Dr. Curtis Welch's desperate telegram, they organized a relay of twenty mushers and their dog teams to transport precious serum across 674 miles of Arctic wilderness in conditions that seemed impossible to survive. Temperatures plunged to -50°F, with winds creating a windchill of -85°F, as these teams raced against time through blizzards, across frozen rivers, and over mountain passes.

At the heart of this epic journey was Leonhard Seppala and his 12-year-old lead dog, Togo, who tackled the most perilous section—a 261-mile stretch that included crossing the treacherous ice of Norton Sound during a raging blizzard in complete darkness. Through pure instinct, Togo navigated where no human could see, saving his musher's life when ice began breaking behind them. While Gunnar Kasson and Balto would complete the final dramatic sprint into Nome and receive most of the glory, it was Togo's remarkable feat that truly made the difference between life and death for Nome's residents.

The "Great Race of Mercy," as it became known, was completed in just 127.5 hours—setting a world record for overland travel in such conditions. This incredible story not only saved a town but inspired the famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and demonstrated the extraordinary bond between humans and dogs when faced with seemingly impossible odds. Listen as we uncover the true heroes of this remarkable journey and set the historical record straight on one of the most inspiring rescue missions ever undertaken.

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00:00 - Introduction and Cat Updates

05:55 - Making Cocktails and Bradley's Head Injury

11:28 - The Diphtheria Outbreak in Nome

19:43 - Desperate Plans to Deliver Antitoxin

29:38 - The Serum Relay Begins

41:26 - Togo and Seppala's Dangerous Journey

54:22 - Balto's Final Run to Nome

01:12:24 - The Aftermath and Legacy

WEBVTT

00:00:16.088 --> 00:00:20.312
oh, hey there, oh hey there I am already fogging up.

00:00:21.972 --> 00:00:30.838
Hey, I'm bradley I'm kate we're the history buffoons and it's very warm oh my gosh.

00:00:30.838 --> 00:00:35.192
Very warm, so we had a nice little um I.

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I don't want to call it a cold snap, but I guess that's what it kind of was.

00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:39.963
It was glorious.

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It got down to like.

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It was like low 40s in the morning, didn't get much past 71 ish give or take um.

00:00:48.061 --> 00:00:50.167
There was, I think, a couple days only in the 60s.

00:00:50.207 --> 00:00:53.902
It was so nice so beautiful and um, they had said that was going to happen.

00:00:53.902 --> 00:01:00.665
They said it was going to warm back up, I think it's for like the next week or so, but then they said it was gonna be another little cold spell.

00:01:00.665 --> 00:01:03.770
So here's the hoping.

00:01:03.770 --> 00:01:06.493
Yeah, because we're recording.

00:01:06.493 --> 00:01:14.391
We have to turn off the ceiling, fan blast and instantly I got warm and started.

00:01:14.430 --> 00:01:23.045
We've also been laughing well, yeah, so not a trade secret to sync up the sound and the video.

00:01:23.045 --> 00:01:34.641
A tip I saw a while ago when, like preparing to do all this, is you do a clap and then what I have to do is I literally have to match the clap within the video and the audio.

00:01:34.641 --> 00:01:37.025
I apparently can't clap.

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Today I think we've done five or six like trying, and then we fucked around and went.

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So anyways, unnecessary warmth coming through my body because I tried to clap too much.

00:01:52.745 --> 00:01:54.891
Holy balls.

00:01:55.111 --> 00:01:55.953
Okay so.

00:01:56.072 --> 00:01:56.233
Yeah.

00:01:57.641 --> 00:02:01.531
I know everybody's been waiting on Bated Breath to find out what our four KDs are named.

00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:02.924
Well, you can breathe again.

00:02:03.828 --> 00:02:04.069
Okay.

00:02:04.069 --> 00:02:06.090
Yeah, out what our four kitties are named.

00:02:06.090 --> 00:02:06.974
Oh, you can breathe again, okay, yeah.

00:02:06.974 --> 00:02:20.002
So for those who don't know, I put my senior cat down and within 30 minutes of being home from that appointment, that horrible appointment horrible four kittens showed up at me and my husband's back door which is just fucking wild.

00:02:20.443 --> 00:02:25.013
So wild it just I can't believe the timing that they showed up.

00:02:25.013 --> 00:02:26.866
Yes, I mean, what a sad day.

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And then kittens.

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Yeah, what the fuck?

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How did that even happen?

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Yeah.

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That's just wild.

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So one of the calicos, calico females, and one.

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He is an orange male, very, very light male, like a blondish orange, an orange male a very, very light male, like a blondish.

00:02:48.723 --> 00:03:02.106
He went to our good friend tara and she named them, benny and june, yeah, which is great yes, and I was like I, I love benny, I can't quite see her as a june, and then my husband started calling her j bug.

00:03:02.106 --> 00:03:11.665
I was like oh my God, she's like okay, okay, I can, I got it I got it Like, it clicked for me, so not like June bug Freaking, love it.

00:03:11.887 --> 00:03:12.348
That's awesome.

00:03:13.110 --> 00:03:17.009
And um so we have Bradley's two kittens still here.

00:03:17.229 --> 00:03:23.912
Yep, so we're waiting on a couple of things, um, because they got tested by the vet and everything.

00:03:24.112 --> 00:03:24.332
Yes.

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Being kittens.

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They were outdoors, obviously could get things.

00:03:28.115 --> 00:03:33.948
So we're letting some things clear up before they move down to my house, because I already have cats don't want to pass anything.

00:03:33.948 --> 00:03:37.349
We're almost there, not too much longer.

00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:43.673
Yeah, about two more weeks, I think Two more weeks, and we came up with names, though, yes.

00:03:43.673 --> 00:03:52.368
So we are big fans of the Brewers, so we watch a lot of games and I'm like I need to name one, sal.

00:03:52.368 --> 00:04:00.669
So I have a male and a female that I'm getting as well, and so we named after Sal Freelick, the outfielder for the Brewers.

00:04:00.669 --> 00:04:01.693
So his name is Sal.

00:04:02.040 --> 00:04:04.108
So he is the black and white male.

00:04:04.269 --> 00:04:05.365
Yep, and then for the brewers.

00:04:05.365 --> 00:04:06.169
So his name is sal, so he is the black and white male.

00:04:06.100 --> 00:04:10.152
Yeah, and then, um, we have a, you have a darker, calico, uh, female yeah as well.

00:04:10.212 --> 00:04:12.716
I love like the half spot on her nose too.

00:04:12.716 --> 00:04:20.113
It's so cute, yeah, but uh, so I am a big fan of I've said this many episodes ago and rice.

00:04:20.113 --> 00:04:21.639
She did a mayfair witches series.

00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:31.307
Um, you and I were spitballing names and whatever, and I really like Stella and you're like that's the name on my list for old timey names for cats.

00:04:31.307 --> 00:04:33.387
I love Stella, so much.

00:04:33.728 --> 00:04:41.372
There's a Stella in the Mayfair, which is a very prominent character actually and then she said that I'm like, well, fuck it, let's, I'll call her Stella, cause I I always liked that name too.

00:04:41.632 --> 00:04:41.853
Yeah.

00:04:42.173 --> 00:04:53.944
And, um, I like naming cats after characters I enjoy and such and whatever, so, uh, so Sal and Stella kept it in the S's, but, uh, they officially have names.

00:04:54.185 --> 00:04:59.560
Yeah, oh and they're so cute, so it's, it's funny because I don't know.

00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:00.684
I just weird like this.

00:05:00.684 --> 00:05:05.629
All my life with having animals, I've always uh given my animals middle names too.

00:05:05.629 --> 00:05:21.764
So we're gonna let the the kiddos uh give them middle names, because I just didn't want a weird random first name for for either cat, because I'm not gonna be like, hey, frickle puss, come here, you know, or whatever perfect perfect.

00:05:21.764 --> 00:05:24.430
Yeah, you liked that one, didn't you hey?

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Purrface no Nope.

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Nope, nope, nope, nope, or Fluffy, or whatever.

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So I took charge of naming the animals.

00:05:33.310 --> 00:05:35.427
So the kitty cats, I should say.

00:05:35.427 --> 00:05:41.523
And that's okay, they can deal, they'll just all they'll have to know is they came with names.

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There you go they.

00:05:41.882 --> 00:05:42.923
All they'll have to know is they came with names.

00:05:42.923 --> 00:05:43.185
There you go.

00:05:43.185 --> 00:05:46.908
They don't need to know otherwise, and Sarah's all on board with both names.

00:05:46.908 --> 00:05:52.196
She likes them both, so she actually came up with the idea of letting the kids give them middle names.

00:05:52.196 --> 00:05:55.526
So I'm like.

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I'm good with that.

00:06:00.288 --> 00:06:01.550
My underarm itches.

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That's what.

00:06:05.382 --> 00:06:06.908
Kate looks like out in the wild, okay, okay.

00:06:06.908 --> 00:06:15.327
So we decided on making ourselves a cocktail today for a change and nothing grandiose yeah.

00:06:15.327 --> 00:06:18.781
So I was like we don't, we don't like spending a ton of money.

00:06:18.781 --> 00:06:21.165
So I was like I really don't want to go, just buy a bunch of liquor.

00:06:21.165 --> 00:06:27.680
But my husband had some like rum and um a and w rip beer the other day.

00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:29.886
So I was like, oh, we've got rum at home yeah.

00:06:29.925 --> 00:06:32.052
So we decided to do something nice and simple.

00:06:32.052 --> 00:06:32.821
So I there's.

00:06:32.821 --> 00:06:42.749
I had I've gone through like liquor phases, yeah, and one of them was a rum phase and I had mentioned to you that one of them was um picardi limoneite.

00:06:42.749 --> 00:06:49.130
So we don't have limone, but we put lemon in there for the limone portion.

00:06:49.339 --> 00:06:55.148
So I put a slice of lemon in and then a slice on the rim, but I did not squirt any of the lemon in.

00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:57.185
If you want to do, that for the one that's on the rim.

00:06:57.185 --> 00:06:59.230
I certainly do, yeah Same.

00:06:59.230 --> 00:07:04.230
Um, the funny thing is like limone and like Spanish is like lime or something.

00:07:05.341 --> 00:07:05.862
I don't know.

00:07:05.862 --> 00:07:06.966
Should we have gotten a lime?

00:07:07.300 --> 00:07:11.735
No, because I always thought it was like a citrusy taste, which lime is, but I don't know.

00:07:11.735 --> 00:07:13.125
I never got lime notes out of it.

00:07:13.762 --> 00:07:14.485
I could be wrong.

00:07:14.545 --> 00:07:15.247
I'm not Spanish.

00:07:15.247 --> 00:07:21.343
I went heavy on the rum.

00:07:21.343 --> 00:07:22.829
You did Wow.

00:07:22.829 --> 00:07:26.500
I did not expect that from you making these Goddamn.

00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:27.903
Normally you go pretty light.

00:07:27.903 --> 00:07:29.790
It's not bad.

00:07:29.790 --> 00:07:33.827
It's no Bacardi Limon, but do you remember what kind of rum it was?

00:07:33.827 --> 00:07:35.653
By chance or no Bacardi?

00:07:35.653 --> 00:07:38.168
It was just straight up Bacardi rum, yeah, okay.

00:07:38.821 --> 00:07:40.848
I didn't see, I love the lime.

00:07:40.848 --> 00:07:41.800
I need more Sprite.

00:07:43.504 --> 00:07:46.550
You should have brought the Sprite in so you could have topped it off.

00:07:46.550 --> 00:07:48.713
That's okay, okay Anywho.

00:07:49.134 --> 00:07:53.908
So we started with cats, but now we're going to go to dogs.

00:07:54.550 --> 00:07:55.932
What the what, what the what.

00:07:55.932 --> 00:07:57.564
That doesn't make any sense.

00:07:57.939 --> 00:07:59.165
We are going to talk about.

00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:01.408
I'm glad you glossed over the scratch on my head.

00:08:02.721 --> 00:08:08.081
You have a scratch on your head More than a scratch.

00:08:08.081 --> 00:08:11.367
Okay fast story, because this is a long story, all right, well, go on.

00:08:11.389 --> 00:08:28.536
No, um, so bradley has a chunk of his skull missing I don't know if you can, maybe I'll try and zoom in on this, but I don't know, if you can see it, or not it's there it hurts.

00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:30.283
It's a big chunk.

00:08:30.303 --> 00:08:31.528
Oh, it hurts too.

00:08:31.528 --> 00:08:39.929
Yeah, holy balls, it's warm, so I may have been mowing my lawn the other day.

00:08:42.102 --> 00:08:43.668
At least it wasn't anything nefarious.

00:08:44.100 --> 00:08:45.711
No, it wasn't anything nefarious.

00:08:45.711 --> 00:08:46.577
No, it wasn't anything crazy.

00:08:46.577 --> 00:08:51.009
But sarah and I have lived at this house for well over a decade.

00:08:51.009 --> 00:08:59.148
We've never done anything with this, but the previous owners and yes, I'm putting blame on them because, fuck them, a tree branch fell in this tree.

00:08:59.148 --> 00:09:02.984
It got caught up by another branch that's still attached to the big branch, so it's sticking out.

00:09:02.984 --> 00:09:07.715
So all they did is they sliced it, but for some reason they sliced it into a fucking point.

00:09:07.715 --> 00:09:13.394
Now I have lived there for a while and, yes, it's my fault that I haven't taken care of it since we've been there.

00:09:14.197 --> 00:09:19.070
I can guarantee you now it is no longer in the tree, because I was mowing my lawn.

00:09:19.070 --> 00:09:30.610
I was going right around the branch, or the trunk, I mean, and when I got around to where that branch is is what I was going to say I thought I ducked, and you've made a good observation of me.

00:09:30.610 --> 00:09:33.355
Sometimes I don't know my size.

00:09:33.355 --> 00:09:36.844
I am what you would call a large man.

00:09:36.844 --> 00:09:38.946
Um, I'm six, three.

00:09:38.946 --> 00:09:43.990
Yes, I'm not the tallest, but still pretty tall, big dude, and I'm ducking.

00:09:43.990 --> 00:09:48.917
And it went to a point, and I can tell you this.

00:09:48.917 --> 00:09:54.948
As soon as that happened, I was done mowing the lawn for the day.

00:09:54.948 --> 00:10:03.931
So I instantly drove to the house and I slapped a paper towel wet paper towel on it to try and sop up the blood.

00:10:03.990 --> 00:10:09.087
It blood pretty good too yeah, I mean you basically shaved off a layer of skin.

00:10:09.087 --> 00:10:17.451
Yeah, a large layer of skin I was trying to scalp myself, yeah and there is a cut to it, but there's also like shave, yeah, shaved marks.

00:10:17.832 --> 00:10:21.484
So the funny thing is like skid marks only no why'd you have to make it weird?

00:10:22.024 --> 00:10:24.268
Anyways, not like that, I know, I know.

00:10:24.268 --> 00:10:29.995
So, uh, I, I, I cut my own hair cause I don't need to pay someone to do this.

00:10:29.995 --> 00:10:30.875
It's really fucking easy.

00:10:30.875 --> 00:10:40.370
And I did this on Wednesday and I always cut my hair on Thursdays every two weeks and I'm like, oh boy, that's gonna that's gonna be interesting.

00:10:40.370 --> 00:10:42.062
And I remember taking a shower Thursday morning.

00:10:42.062 --> 00:10:43.403
That fucking hurt.

00:10:43.403 --> 00:10:44.245
And I got home.

00:10:44.245 --> 00:10:59.868
Because I get home early, because I start early, I'm still doing it that hurt and now it's bruised as well as scabbed over, but yeah, sarah thought instantly I had a concussion and I'm like no, I'm good, I didn't.

00:11:00.428 --> 00:11:02.883
Didn't even see stars or anything, but fuck that hurt.

00:11:02.883 --> 00:11:03.926
Did you see moons?

00:11:03.926 --> 00:11:04.586
I did.

00:11:04.586 --> 00:11:11.956
Yeah, it was the weirdest thing anyways okay, so you're going from cats should I?

00:11:11.956 --> 00:11:14.823
Should I put a remember that picture I sent to you that I took of the moon?

00:11:14.823 --> 00:11:19.346
Should I put that in in the video here so they can see that with the car chasing by?

00:11:19.346 --> 00:11:21.215
Remember it was really bright, full moon.

00:11:21.235 --> 00:11:24.403
Oh yeah, yeah, no you, actually, you did take a very nice picture.

00:11:24.464 --> 00:11:30.155
It was a good picture I, I can even put by bradley acres copyright, copyright bradley acres 2025.

00:11:32.561 --> 00:11:41.969
Okay, so we are going to talk about the 1925 serum run serum like s-e-r-U-M, mm-hmm.

00:11:41.989 --> 00:11:42.308
Okay.

00:11:43.509 --> 00:11:48.274
Made by Togo and Balto.

00:11:48.754 --> 00:11:50.677
Oh Balto, like the Disney movie.

00:11:50.677 --> 00:11:52.504
Yes, this is really rummy.

00:11:53.341 --> 00:11:54.346
I'm so sorry.

00:11:55.380 --> 00:12:00.522
If you put some gin in it, would it be gin rummy Dad jokes.

00:12:00.522 --> 00:12:02.144
Am I right, jesus?

00:12:02.144 --> 00:12:03.467
No, it I right, jesus?

00:12:03.467 --> 00:12:08.524
No, it should have been cheesy.

00:12:08.924 --> 00:12:10.710
Cheesy Okay.

00:12:11.451 --> 00:12:11.932
Balto.

00:12:11.932 --> 00:12:13.342
And what was the first one?

00:12:13.342 --> 00:12:14.386
Togo, togo, okay.

00:12:14.768 --> 00:12:18.288
Yes, okay, so it's January 1925.

00:12:18.288 --> 00:12:18.688
Right.

00:12:18.889 --> 00:12:19.932
And this is up in Alaska.

00:12:20.059 --> 00:12:34.985
This is Nome Alaska, okay, yeah, so if this was Alaska and this is like the trail of you know, the islands, islands and Juneau's down here, nome is like right here.

00:12:35.942 --> 00:12:38.988
I went to On the coast Right.

00:12:38.988 --> 00:12:42.729
I went to when I was in elementary Well, I think she was.

00:12:42.729 --> 00:12:43.269
No, she was.

00:12:43.269 --> 00:12:51.745
She moved, I don't remember what year, fourth grade maybe but there was a girl from Juneau, alaska, that came to my school and she ended up.

00:12:51.745 --> 00:12:53.448
I ended up graduating with her.

00:12:53.448 --> 00:12:54.893
But, um, yeah, her name was Crystal.

00:12:54.893 --> 00:12:57.008
I always remember that she was the girl from Alaska.

00:12:57.168 --> 00:13:00.528
Yeah, I've been to Fairbanks, which is right in the center of the state-ish.

00:13:00.528 --> 00:13:01.671
You've been to.

00:13:01.671 --> 00:13:06.061
Alaska state-ish.

00:13:06.061 --> 00:13:06.523
You've been to alaska?

00:13:06.523 --> 00:13:07.466
Yeah, oh, I didn't know that that's awesome.

00:13:07.466 --> 00:13:08.831
Um, I was dating someone and his parents had moved there, like the.

00:13:08.831 --> 00:13:20.285
Oh, I think you told me that yeah, his parents moved there for a job and he stayed in nebraska to finish out his college degree and him and I were dating and they invited me up, and that's right.

00:13:20.346 --> 00:13:23.312
It was really great yeah, I, I would love to go.

00:13:23.312 --> 00:13:25.447
My parents did the whole alaskan cruise thing or whatever.

00:13:25.447 --> 00:13:26.292
Uh, once they said it was really great.

00:13:26.292 --> 00:13:26.813
Yeah, I, I would love to go.

00:13:26.813 --> 00:13:27.980
My parents did the whole Alaskan cruise thing, or whatever.

00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:29.605
Uh, once they said it was really cool.

00:13:29.605 --> 00:13:30.528
I'd love to do that.

00:13:30.528 --> 00:13:34.924
I'm not a big cruise guy, but, uh, I would just like I'd love to go up to Alaska someday.

00:13:34.924 --> 00:13:35.265
I hope.

00:13:35.265 --> 00:13:36.129
I hope to make it there.

00:13:36.129 --> 00:13:49.951
Yeah, and it's really weird that you bring this up, because at work, this guy, uh, keith, uh, at work, was showing some of the other people, so I just happened to be there too.

00:13:49.951 --> 00:13:52.518
He has a friend that he's known like almost 45 years or whatever.

00:13:52.518 --> 00:13:53.941
He said no, he actually said 45.

00:13:53.941 --> 00:13:55.605
I'm like that's how old I am anyways.

00:13:55.605 --> 00:14:06.267
Um, she lives up in alaska and she was just out for a run and took a whole bunch of pictures of just bears playing, jumping out of the water like a ton of fucking bears and that literally just happened today.

00:14:06.287 --> 00:14:09.244
So, hey Alaska, that's amazing, it's like a kismet.

00:14:09.804 --> 00:14:14.288
Okay, so at night Jesus she is me.

00:14:14.288 --> 00:14:16.918
So January 1925 in Nome, alaska.

00:14:16.918 --> 00:14:22.852
It's a fairly tiny, isolated town right on the edge of the Bering sea.

00:14:22.852 --> 00:14:27.131
Now if you've ever watched Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel.

00:14:27.131 --> 00:14:30.326
All these ships are going on the Bering.

00:14:30.326 --> 00:14:32.549
Sea fishing for crab.

00:14:32.990 --> 00:14:33.753
Crab fishing.

00:14:33.873 --> 00:14:43.413
Yes, so the sun crawls basically right above the horizon for a few hours each day in winter.

00:14:43.413 --> 00:14:46.768
Right, right, the air hurts your face.

00:14:46.768 --> 00:14:50.200
Um, we're talking negative 50 degrees on.

00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:51.503
Like a good day it's.

00:14:51.783 --> 00:15:04.011
It's cold up there well, it is pretty fucking north and so and in fact it's only two degrees below the arctic arctic circle that was tough.

00:15:04.011 --> 00:15:08.041
It really was Arctic Circle.

00:15:08.041 --> 00:15:10.384
That's all I have to say about that.

00:15:11.164 --> 00:15:21.355
Nome is so remote that from November until July its harbor is sealed shut with ice.

00:15:21.355 --> 00:15:22.376
That's fucking wild.

00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:26.010
Cutting off any access for ships From when to July November.

00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:27.865
November until July.

00:15:27.945 --> 00:15:28.486
So that's what?

00:15:28.486 --> 00:15:30.130
Eight months, nine months.

00:15:30.220 --> 00:15:31.426
I don't remember when I went there.

00:15:31.426 --> 00:15:33.342
It had to have been in the summer then.

00:15:33.524 --> 00:15:34.264
I would imagine.

00:15:34.405 --> 00:15:34.765
Yeah.

00:15:35.006 --> 00:15:35.769
That would make sense.

00:15:35.769 --> 00:15:38.073
Yeah, holy shit, so.

00:15:38.073 --> 00:15:41.424
So can you only get there by like little prop plane.

00:15:41.664 --> 00:15:44.288
Plane and sled dogs.

00:15:44.288 --> 00:15:45.431
Well, yeah.

00:15:45.431 --> 00:15:47.133
Sled, good old Balto.

00:15:47.133 --> 00:15:49.582
Yeah, would you just call them sled dogs.

00:15:49.582 --> 00:15:51.668
Sledding, yeah, sled dogs, sled dogs.

00:15:52.029 --> 00:15:52.471
I believe.

00:15:52.471 --> 00:15:54.446
I think that's the official term.

00:15:54.525 --> 00:15:56.270
Yeah, there's no boats, there's no roads.

00:15:56.270 --> 00:15:59.089
You can't get Amazon delivered up there Like you can't.

00:15:59.089 --> 00:16:06.919
You need.

00:16:06.940 --> 00:16:07.601
Doc Brown where we're going.

00:16:07.621 --> 00:16:11.070
We don't need bros exactly, so that's two in a row the only sorry, that's okay, you can just talk over me.

00:16:11.070 --> 00:16:11.230
Great.

00:16:11.230 --> 00:16:22.629
So the only lifeline um in or out during winter is a 939 mile dog sled male trail called the I did a rod trail.

00:16:22.828 --> 00:16:23.769
Oh, the Iditarod yeah.

00:16:23.870 --> 00:16:24.370
You know that.

00:16:24.510 --> 00:16:25.633
Well, that's a famous.

00:16:25.633 --> 00:16:27.495
They do a race, the Iditarod Race.

00:16:27.495 --> 00:16:28.135
Yeah, yeah.

00:16:28.255 --> 00:16:41.254
Yeah, so, and that winds through like mountain ranges and frozen tundra, yeah, and if something vital is a thousand miles away, you, just you literally cannot hop on a plane and just deliver it.

00:16:41.254 --> 00:16:42.605
It's a whole thing.

00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:44.635
Well, especially in 1925.

00:16:44.635 --> 00:16:47.407
Right, that's the year we're talking about, right?

00:16:47.407 --> 00:16:50.369
I mean, that's literally a hundred fucking years ago.

00:16:50.369 --> 00:16:54.849
So much rum, so much rum.

00:16:54.849 --> 00:16:56.200
Do we need to do a quick pause?

00:16:56.200 --> 00:16:58.003
And you go get the Sprite.

00:16:58.003 --> 00:17:04.815
Hold please, hold please, and we're back.

00:17:11.222 --> 00:17:21.409
So we added some Sprite, so it's not as roomy, okay, so, oh my okay I was on purpose and I apologize no one necessary no, that point.

00:17:21.409 --> 00:17:26.576
Now, nome is home to about 1,400 people at this time.

00:17:26.576 --> 00:17:31.632
Okay, roughly 455 are Alaskan natives.

00:17:32.201 --> 00:17:35.451
Do you know how many people are there today for comparison?

00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:37.090
I don't, but I can look that up real quick.

00:17:37.090 --> 00:17:38.440
That's fine, continue.

00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:48.582
And so 455 are about I can look that up Alaskan natives yeah, and about 975.

00:17:48.582 --> 00:17:49.663
That's very specific.

00:17:50.025 --> 00:17:51.768
That is extremely specific.

00:17:51.768 --> 00:17:53.411
Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that, but okay.

00:17:54.011 --> 00:18:03.218
They are of European descent, so most of them are toughing it out in these like wood heated cabins, trying to find reasons not to go outside until spring.

00:18:03.218 --> 00:18:06.798
So how many natives did you say about 455?

00:18:08.123 --> 00:18:09.586
but you said it was about 1400.

00:18:09.586 --> 00:18:16.488
That doesn't add up anyways, it's that would.

00:18:16.627 --> 00:18:23.405
That would be more I said about I know I said about, that is about continue.

00:18:23.445 --> 00:18:37.833
I apologize, I didn't mean to derail your whole fucking brain so a few children started showing up at maynard columbus hospital okay with sore throats and fevers.

00:18:38.433 --> 00:18:46.490
Oh dear, in late 1924 okay and the town's only doctor, curtis, welch saw all this.

00:18:46.611 --> 00:18:55.821
He notices he was the doctor, he was the only doctor well, I can't imagine there was a plethora of doctors in gnome alaska how many people are we talking now?

00:18:55.821 --> 00:19:00.890
Uh, so the latest census from 2023, I guess this would be.

00:19:00.890 --> 00:19:03.114
I don't know if it was an official census, but that's.

00:19:03.114 --> 00:19:06.519
What that shows is 3649.

00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:11.426
Nice, so in a hundred years it gained 2200 people, that's awesome.

00:19:11.426 --> 00:19:16.885
I mean that's not much, but again it's a remote area so it is so much better Okay.

00:19:16.885 --> 00:19:18.190
Yeah, it is definitely better.

00:19:18.289 --> 00:19:18.530
Okay.

00:19:18.530 --> 00:19:27.402
So at first he figured it was just tonsillitis or like a nasty cold, okay.

00:19:27.402 --> 00:19:35.712
But more kids started like falling gravely ill and none of them had like these, none of them were getting better with the usual treatments.

00:19:35.953 --> 00:19:36.273
Okay.

00:19:36.875 --> 00:19:40.067
Okay, so Dr Walsh was starting to grow some concern.

00:19:41.602 --> 00:19:42.606
So I mean fuck.

00:19:44.901 --> 00:19:45.102
What.

00:19:45.864 --> 00:19:46.826
I said rightly so.

00:19:46.826 --> 00:19:49.433
Yes, are you okay?

00:19:49.594 --> 00:20:04.951
no, too much rum nah, nah what the fuck is happening right now what he discovers is it is diphtheria dip.

00:20:05.112 --> 00:20:07.074
I've heard of that, I'm unfamiliar.

00:20:07.074 --> 00:20:11.923
Uh, throw me some knowledge it is a bacterial infection.

00:20:11.942 --> 00:20:25.028
Okay, so nasty it, it earned the nickname the strangler, sorry, the strangling angel of children that sounds fucking terrible.

00:20:25.028 --> 00:20:39.601
Yes, that sounds like a death metal band yes diphtheria it produces a toxin that creates a thick grayish film in your throat can you scrape it out?

00:20:39.601 --> 00:20:48.983
And it can literally choke off your airway from the inside boy, that sounds fucking awful yeah, victims and this only happens in kids.

00:20:49.765 --> 00:20:56.003
No, it can't happen in adults it can happen in adults okay just the kids were the ones getting sick first.

00:20:56.304 --> 00:21:07.381
Oh, I see okay so victims would struggle to breathe, um, as diphtheria would kind of squeeze their windpipes and without treatment they would suffocate.

00:21:07.381 --> 00:21:08.143
Essentially.

00:21:08.143 --> 00:21:24.852
So in the early, early 20th century, diphtheria was pretty much the parents worst nightmare, a major killer of children, mostly children, some adults, but mostly children, because vaccines weren't hadn't come along yet right okay.

00:21:24.852 --> 00:21:34.611
So even with treatment, fatality rates could reach 20 for young kids damn so dr welch knew this.

00:21:34.852 --> 00:21:48.796
He also knew something that made his stomach drop gnome's stash of diphtheria antitoxin that he had was expired I was gonna say it was past its date.

00:21:48.796 --> 00:21:57.034
The town's only supply of this serum, basically antibodies harvested from horse blood.

00:21:57.034 --> 00:21:58.602
I'm not really sure why.

00:21:58.602 --> 00:22:01.307
I'm not a scientist, but it had gone.

00:22:01.307 --> 00:22:09.465
That's, that's perfectly clear you're welcome, um, but it had gone bad months before okay, so he didn't order a new batch.

00:22:09.546 --> 00:22:14.284
I mean, shouldn't he be like on top of quality control and inventory hold the phone.

00:22:14.765 --> 00:22:25.608
Welch had ordered a new batch, oh, but the shipment didn't arrive before the port iced over oh shit, okay, yeah, at least he was on his game.

00:22:25.709 --> 00:22:26.790
We'll give him that he was.

00:22:26.790 --> 00:22:27.492
What's his name again?

00:22:27.492 --> 00:22:28.614
Welch, yes.

00:22:29.896 --> 00:22:31.423
Okay, curtis, welch, yes.

00:22:31.423 --> 00:22:47.210
So by the time the first local child showed telltale signs of diphtheria in December, welch was essentially fighting with this deadly disease empty handed.

00:22:47.210 --> 00:22:49.647
Okay so how long.

00:22:50.340 --> 00:22:55.709
I don't know if you came up across this when you're looking at this, how long from when they get it.

00:22:55.709 --> 00:23:01.311
Obviously, I know things can be different for people until they really kind of showed signs of having this.

00:23:02.119 --> 00:23:04.166
I think it's fairly quick, is it Okay?

00:23:04.166 --> 00:23:08.500
Yes, signs of having this.

00:23:08.500 --> 00:23:09.743
I think it's fairly quick, is it okay?

00:23:09.763 --> 00:23:16.885
yes, and I think death could be like, within like a month, month and a half, two months, yeah, like yeah, it's, it's not a long time but it doesn't really go away unless you have this treatment.

00:23:16.965 --> 00:23:23.267
Basically, yeah otherwise it just like, continues to grow, grow and like close off your, your windpipe.

00:23:23.307 --> 00:23:24.568
Yeah, more or less so.

00:23:25.250 --> 00:23:39.161
That's fucking terrifying so the town thinks that, with the like last shipments coming through, that someone had diphtheria and ended up passing it on to the people of gnome oh, so you can pretty much just pick it up from other people.

00:23:39.161 --> 00:23:42.306
So it's transferable oh gotcha okay.

00:23:43.567 --> 00:23:47.355
I mean that makes sense being a virus like that because it's considered a virus right.

00:23:47.355 --> 00:23:50.146
Bacterial infection Okay.

00:23:51.140 --> 00:23:56.972
So through December and early January a few people in Nome or, excuse me, a few children in Nome did die.

00:23:56.972 --> 00:24:04.816
Oh, fever, throat swelling and a very quick decline Okay and a very quick decline.

00:24:04.816 --> 00:24:11.230
Okay, and Welch hesitated to call it diphtheria, because confirming that would mean a little bit more of a panic situation happening.

00:24:11.641 --> 00:24:13.249
So he was trying to alleviate that.

00:24:13.539 --> 00:24:20.392
Yes, and he wanted to alleviate like a full-blown epidemic and panic.

00:24:20.392 --> 00:24:20.653
Basically.

00:24:20.693 --> 00:24:22.539
Panic, exactly, okay.

00:24:23.240 --> 00:24:34.695
But after a three-year-old boy just two weeks after falling ill, and then a seven-year-old died just hours later, oh, boy.

00:24:34.695 --> 00:24:39.171
Welch tried administering the expired antitoxin.

00:24:39.372 --> 00:24:39.692
Yeah.

00:24:41.900 --> 00:24:50.820
And basically he decided we can no longer deny that this is diphtheria, Right?

00:24:50.820 --> 00:24:52.584
Oh, I see it was in gnome.

00:24:52.584 --> 00:25:03.789
It was about to have a field day with these, this unvaccinated population, and Dr Welch alerted the town on January 22nd 1925.

00:25:03.789 --> 00:25:06.258
So some of these people felt ill in December.

00:25:06.618 --> 00:25:06.880
Right.

00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:11.049
And then, like by January 22, they're like we need to do something.

00:25:11.330 --> 00:25:34.255
Yes, gotcha um so uh, the gnomes mayor at the time um called an urgent meeting the council, if you will if you will, um the council enacted a quarantine that very same day, basically telling everyone stay in your cabins, don't share cups, don't spit in the street, don't do anything of that nature.

00:25:34.255 --> 00:25:36.759
Have you seen a baseball game?

00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:39.490
They spit all the time okay, but let me.

00:25:39.630 --> 00:25:42.815
let me run this by negative 50.

00:25:42.815 --> 00:25:55.378
Is that going to be frozen by the time it hits the ground, spitzicles Stop it, stop it right now Should that, I know.

00:25:55.378 --> 00:26:02.515
So a little side note I'm getting to know Kate, one of the hosts here.

00:26:02.515 --> 00:26:04.337
She cannot so like we, like to watch baseball.

00:26:04.337 --> 00:26:06.701
She cannot stand.

00:26:06.801 --> 00:26:07.603
I like this drink.

00:26:07.603 --> 00:26:12.132
It's better now with a little more Sprite.

00:26:12.132 --> 00:26:12.973
You did little heavy-handed on the rum.

00:26:12.993 --> 00:26:14.959
My apologies now it's better anyways.

00:26:14.959 --> 00:26:23.632
She does not like when people spit, so she has a hard time with sometimes in baseball games where she just sees the people spit all the time.

00:26:23.632 --> 00:26:25.673
So it's it's kind of funny.

00:26:25.673 --> 00:26:28.455
But I think the title of the episode is Spitzicles.

00:26:30.097 --> 00:26:35.022
What's ironic is I like sunflower seeds and I use them to keep me awake while driving.

00:26:35.163 --> 00:26:36.003
And you spit them out.

00:26:36.064 --> 00:26:36.964
And I spit them out.

00:26:36.984 --> 00:26:39.267
But that's you, that's yourself, yeah.

00:26:42.630 --> 00:26:44.982
You, seeing somebody else spit is a completely different thing.

00:26:44.982 --> 00:26:47.473
Or when someone has a cold and they're like, okay, let's move on.

00:26:48.269 --> 00:26:50.133
Hold on, I gotta spit real quick, please don't.

00:26:50.974 --> 00:26:52.676
So, quarantine or not?

00:26:52.676 --> 00:26:57.404
Dr Welch knew that isolation alone would not stop the disease's spread.

00:26:57.404 --> 00:27:10.083
So more kids and even some adults were falling ill pretty much every day and by late January at least 20 cases were confirmed in Nome, with 50 plus more at risk of imminent infection.

00:27:10.182 --> 00:27:28.719
and that's just from like family members so they well, because so they were close quarters kind of thing, and they might have shown some symptoms or whatever, yeah, okay gotcha so 1400 people, a very short amount of 14 like 30 Of Mount of 14, like 30, but whatever.

00:27:28.778 --> 00:27:31.901
Jesus Christ Potential massacre.

00:27:33.162 --> 00:27:37.865
I mean, if, especially a hundred years ago, this gets any further.

00:27:37.865 --> 00:27:41.351
1,400 people, this is fucking gone, gone.

00:27:41.351 --> 00:27:48.298
So it wouldn't take long, because they're so isolated too, yes, so it's like, oh fuck, what do we do?

00:27:54.289 --> 00:27:54.430
too, yes.

00:27:54.430 --> 00:27:55.412
So it's like oh fuck, what do we do?

00:27:55.412 --> 00:27:58.117
Without any antitoxin, the death cult could be near 100 catastrophic.

00:27:58.117 --> 00:27:59.441
Yeah, yes, not a statistic.

00:27:59.441 --> 00:28:00.682
We want to test.

00:28:00.682 --> 00:28:07.494
So no, so send in the dogs exactly so the only hope is to get fresh antitoxin serum to gnome ASAP.

00:28:07.955 --> 00:28:09.218
And what is the nearest town?

00:28:10.700 --> 00:28:14.325
Oh, there's lots of little tiny hubs here and there.

00:28:16.150 --> 00:28:18.233
What's the nearest big town?

00:28:18.233 --> 00:28:19.214
How far away is that?

00:28:19.375 --> 00:28:20.336
Lord have mercy.

00:28:20.336 --> 00:28:24.584
It's probably at least 700 miles away.

00:28:25.450 --> 00:28:25.631
Oh dear.

00:28:25.631 --> 00:28:28.840
Well, you said the Iditarod is 939 miles.

00:28:28.840 --> 00:28:29.395
Is that what you said?

00:28:29.395 --> 00:28:30.055
The iditarod is 939 miles, something.

00:28:30.055 --> 00:28:30.384
Is that what you said?

00:28:30.384 --> 00:28:30.548
Something like?

00:28:30.548 --> 00:28:40.538
that and um that trail, which, um, I'll talk a little bit about, right isn't like straight across no, you know mountains and curves and whatever.

00:28:40.597 --> 00:28:41.058
It's just like a.

00:28:41.058 --> 00:28:44.931
A railroad track wasn't just fucking straight.

00:28:44.931 --> 00:28:46.894
They had to go around the terrain and everything.

00:28:46.954 --> 00:28:56.781
So really, it could be as much as that long to the next town, to the next big town that would potentially have this antitoxin.

00:28:57.030 --> 00:29:01.153
As the crow flies, though Is that an idiom?

00:29:01.153 --> 00:29:03.603
I think so, all right.

00:29:03.603 --> 00:29:06.278
I'm starting to second guess myself sometimes when I say things.

00:29:06.278 --> 00:29:08.356
Is it an idiom or does it have something else?

00:29:08.396 --> 00:29:17.972
Yeah, because I feel like everything's a fucking idiom so gnome was a hub for many of the like native villages in the area.

00:29:17.972 --> 00:29:21.700
Yeah, so an outbreak, it really outbreak could.

00:29:21.700 --> 00:29:28.723
Could outbreak could explode across alaska jesus fucking.

00:29:29.625 --> 00:29:32.616
But if it wiped out an entire town, wouldn't it just die with that town?

00:29:34.010 --> 00:29:36.454
Not if villagers came in.

00:29:36.454 --> 00:29:38.461
Put up signs.

00:29:39.430 --> 00:29:40.695
Quarantine, quarantine.

00:29:40.809 --> 00:29:47.660
Get the fuck off of properties For those of you who do not know, please reference the bubonic play that we talked about.

00:29:47.660 --> 00:29:51.213
What was it?

00:29:51.213 --> 00:29:54.461
32 delta 32 was it I believe.

00:29:54.501 --> 00:29:56.173
So look at you go.

00:29:56.173 --> 00:29:57.096
Am I right?

00:29:58.098 --> 00:30:01.849
I don't know, let's find out oh no, I gotta fucking oh, I got it up already.

00:30:01.849 --> 00:30:08.878
Yeah, um, let's see here delta gene, delta 32.

00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:17.175
Keep an eye on your boob bombs it is episode 30 god, that was a lot of episodes ago episode 30 what episode are we on?

00:30:17.175 --> 00:30:17.798
Do you know?

00:30:17.998 --> 00:30:23.569
like 51, 52, 52 oh, my word doesn't matter.

00:30:23.569 --> 00:30:26.375
Moving on, we are getting on tangents today.

00:30:26.375 --> 00:30:27.477
This is is a long story.

00:30:27.477 --> 00:30:28.659
This is episode 59.

00:30:28.659 --> 00:30:31.242
God, where have I been?

00:30:31.242 --> 00:30:33.772
Not with it.

00:30:33.772 --> 00:30:37.787
Dr Welch sent out radio telegrams on January 22nd.

00:30:38.489 --> 00:30:38.670
Yeah.

00:30:39.991 --> 00:30:47.175
So he said diphtheria epidemic raging in gnome no serum, urgently need help.

00:30:47.175 --> 00:30:49.478
Please advise, okay.

00:30:49.630 --> 00:30:54.219
And then I go stop the message reached Anchorage.

00:30:54.219 --> 00:30:54.921
Oh sure.

00:30:55.289 --> 00:31:00.517
And officials sprang into action right away, Like they had no qualms.

00:31:00.517 --> 00:31:01.656
They're just like, let's do it.

00:31:01.950 --> 00:31:02.653
Well, they need to.

00:31:02.653 --> 00:31:04.618
I mean these fucking people need help.

00:31:04.670 --> 00:31:06.155
It could go across Alaska for all we know.

00:31:06.415 --> 00:31:08.911
As far as we know, unless it freezes to death.

00:31:09.872 --> 00:31:11.894
They located a small supply.

00:31:11.894 --> 00:31:16.317
Oh shit Around 300,000 units at a hospital in Anchorage.

00:31:16.317 --> 00:31:26.166
It wasn't a huge amount, but it could treat a few dozen people in Nome, 300,000 units could treat just a few dozen people.

00:31:26.166 --> 00:31:32.570
So how many units per person, then?

00:31:32.570 --> 00:31:32.832
I don don't.

00:31:32.852 --> 00:31:37.762
I did not look up that specific information because doesn't that seem like a lot of units for 1400 people?

00:31:37.762 --> 00:31:44.345
I mean it's a lot, I don't know just saying what's a unit?

00:31:44.766 --> 00:31:49.819
well, I'm seeing that's what I'm curious about is like I think a unit is only like a couple of milliliters.

00:31:51.172 --> 00:31:53.917
Oh, so it's got a specific size, or?

00:31:53.958 --> 00:31:54.980
whatever Maybe.

00:31:55.721 --> 00:31:57.816
Okay, don't call me on this.

00:31:57.816 --> 00:32:00.458
Oh, I don't call you on shit.

00:32:00.950 --> 00:32:07.806
But yeah, this 300,000 unit, units and maybe not all 300,000 were available.

00:32:07.826 --> 00:32:08.145
Were were given?

00:32:08.165 --> 00:32:09.710
Yeah, Well, because maybe were given Right.

00:32:09.849 --> 00:32:13.738
Well, because maybe they kept some Exactly Case it got to them or something.

00:32:13.769 --> 00:32:18.424
But it was the difference between life and death for the patients of Nome.

00:32:18.424 --> 00:32:19.809
So Right.

00:32:19.809 --> 00:32:22.362
The challenge, of course, was how to get it to Nome.

00:32:22.362 --> 00:32:27.902
Oh, of course, it is roughly a thousand miles in absolute dead of winter.

00:32:28.342 --> 00:32:28.542
Right.

00:32:29.310 --> 00:32:34.962
So Alaska did indeed consider airplanes okay.

00:32:34.962 --> 00:32:45.136
So governor scott bone and other officials debated flying the serum by aircraft just dropping it I.

00:32:45.136 --> 00:32:46.219
They would land.

00:32:46.219 --> 00:32:47.883
They wouldn't like airdrop it.

00:32:47.883 --> 00:32:56.681
You don't know that the only planes available were open cockpit black biplanes that hated cold weather I wonder why?

00:32:56.701 --> 00:33:00.897
because their pilot would freeze pretty much.

00:33:00.897 --> 00:33:02.522
I mean negative 50 on the ground.

00:33:02.804 --> 00:33:12.132
Think about it, you know, even a thousand feet up but also alaskan winters in 1925 are actually making new records oh, really for their temperature.

00:33:12.132 --> 00:33:29.675
Yes, so it was even colder, than normal, gotcha so the governor's staff looked at crazy options like flying a bigger aircraft from seattle or sending a navy ship to the edge of the ice and launching a plane from it oh boy, boy, sure, yes Wow.

00:33:29.675 --> 00:33:40.686
But experienced navigators basically refused saying that, flying in an Arctic blizzard in the dark at negative 50 degrees, with 1920s aircraft.

00:33:40.890 --> 00:33:43.376
That's pretty much a death sentence there, exactly.

00:33:43.376 --> 00:33:44.721
Wow, that's crazy.

00:33:45.109 --> 00:33:52.760
So no planes, no planes that left railroads and dog sleds.

00:33:53.210 --> 00:33:56.467
Did they have a prominent railroad too?

00:33:56.467 --> 00:33:58.375
They had, or in the vicinity.

00:33:58.710 --> 00:33:59.673
Not near Nome.

00:33:59.953 --> 00:34:02.280
Okay, at least, but to Anchorage, I'm sure.

00:34:02.730 --> 00:34:07.941
So they had a train from Anchorage to Nanana.

00:34:07.941 --> 00:34:09.503
Nanana, yeah, sounds like someone's.

00:34:10.005 --> 00:34:11.528
Nanana, nenana, nenana.

00:34:11.528 --> 00:34:12.230
Yeah, sounds like someone's.

00:34:12.731 --> 00:34:13.775
Nenana Bobana.

00:34:14.036 --> 00:34:15.179
Not where I was going, okay.

00:34:17.291 --> 00:34:17.894
So it is.

00:34:17.894 --> 00:34:25.036
So it's in the Alaskan interior, so Anchorage is South Alaska and then.

00:34:25.036 --> 00:34:32.701
Nenana is into the interior yes, and it is still about 674 miles from Nome.

00:34:33.409 --> 00:34:34.797
That's quite a distance yeah.

00:34:35.420 --> 00:34:35.663
Yes.

00:34:36.427 --> 00:34:36.909
Nanana.

00:34:37.771 --> 00:34:45.101
They could take the serum on the train to Nanana and then it had to be sled dogs all the way to Nome.

00:34:45.661 --> 00:34:49.045
Oh wow, really, yes, that's crazy.

00:34:49.045 --> 00:34:55.134
Gnome oh wow, really, yes, that's crazy.

00:34:55.134 --> 00:34:55.375
I don't.

00:34:55.375 --> 00:35:00.311
I mean it's funny like thinking about this because obviously we've been, we've had cars our entire life so like to be like, fuck, how do we get this here?

00:35:00.311 --> 00:35:01.914
It's like we just drive it there.

00:35:01.914 --> 00:35:04.382
No, these people had to deal with a lot of weird shit.

00:35:04.382 --> 00:35:13.463
Yeah, I mean, that's just wild that you, you had to go through all this just to figure out how to get this shit to your remote town.

00:35:13.463 --> 00:35:14.851
Yeah, I don't know, it's just.

00:35:14.851 --> 00:35:16.978
I can only imagine what they had to deal with.

00:35:18.512 --> 00:35:21.757
So the plan of the dog sets.

00:35:21.757 --> 00:35:31.800
They basically created a relay, a real relay, a relay relay, and it is known as the Great Race of Mercy.

00:35:32.541 --> 00:35:32.742
Yeah.

00:35:33.610 --> 00:35:40.583
So Governor Bone and other officials approved the relay plan, released the hounds.

00:35:42.150 --> 00:35:43.376
Unleashed the hounds.

00:35:44.411 --> 00:35:50.840
So they recruited 20 of the best dog mushers in the territory.

00:35:51.543 --> 00:35:52.784
Hey, do you not a mush Sure?

00:35:53.050 --> 00:36:01.335
Including several Alaska native male carriers and trappers who knew the trail back and forth.

00:36:01.576 --> 00:36:01.958
I'm sure.

00:36:02.971 --> 00:36:05.219
And they positioned themselves.

00:36:05.219 --> 00:36:05.659
At dinner.

00:36:05.659 --> 00:36:07.916
Different intervals along the trail.

00:36:07.916 --> 00:36:09.521
Oh, okay, okay.

00:36:09.521 --> 00:36:12.731
Cells at dinner.

00:36:12.731 --> 00:36:14.235
Different intervals along the trail oh, okay, okay.

00:36:14.235 --> 00:36:16.885
Each team would run a segment and then hand off the 20 pound package of serum.

00:36:16.885 --> 00:36:20.974
Like it, like it's one of those, like olympic batons, you know no, for sure.

00:36:21.034 --> 00:36:41.735
So setting this all up, I mean that that probably had to take some major coordination, because if you're putting these people all throughout, you know the territory the territory and to did they basically do that to like alleviate, so they could didn't have to rest?

00:36:41.735 --> 00:36:43.795
Give it to the next person, cause they can go.

00:36:43.795 --> 00:36:45.561
Yes, okay, yes, yes, yes.

00:36:45.849 --> 00:36:48.679
The relay was so they didn't have to run from start to finish.

00:36:48.679 --> 00:36:52.681
That would be way too long and all those dogs would die Absolutely, oh for sure.

00:36:52.681 --> 00:36:55.896
So the relay was started, nanana.

00:36:56.398 --> 00:36:57.018
Nanana.

00:36:57.360 --> 00:37:08.487
Okay, after the train ride, and they would go all the way to Nome, covering 674 miles of forest, mountains and sea ice in the middle of the Arctic winter.

00:37:08.487 --> 00:37:19.985
Wow, a dog sled mail run from Nenana to Nome usually took 25 days in decent weather.

00:37:20.489 --> 00:37:21.715
Holy balls.

00:37:22.670 --> 00:37:27.762
These guys needed to do it in five to six days, jesus Okay.

00:37:28.003 --> 00:37:28.262
Okay.

00:37:29.835 --> 00:37:31.804
So news of this plan spread.

00:37:31.804 --> 00:37:34.592
Newspapers around the world were following the story.

00:37:34.592 --> 00:37:53.565
1925 radio is a newer thing, right, newspapers are king and the epic quest to save children was like making this a media sensation, right, um, as one gnome reporter dramatically put it, he said all hope is in the dogs and their heroic drivers.

00:37:53.565 --> 00:37:56.597
Gnome appears to be a deserted city.

00:37:57.639 --> 00:37:58.240
That's crazy.

00:37:59.610 --> 00:38:07.023
So Alaska in 1925 had plenty of tough mushers up to the task.

00:38:07.023 --> 00:38:16.692
Tough mushers up to the task, tough mushers trappers, mail carriers, natives, uh, veteran racers they all stepped forward.

00:38:16.692 --> 00:38:22.963
Right, these men and their dogs were, were really the unsung heroes of this story?

00:38:22.963 --> 00:38:27.157
I mean, I feel like they are pretty sun already they delivered mail like Like.

00:38:27.757 --> 00:38:29.661
Jesus who, the fuck does that?

00:38:31.123 --> 00:38:31.844
Mail carriers.

00:38:31.844 --> 00:38:36.340
On January 27th the relay began.

00:38:36.340 --> 00:38:41.641
So remember, january 22nd is when Dr Welch sent out a telegram, yeah, basically.

00:38:41.641 --> 00:38:45.197
Yes, five days later the relay began.

00:38:46.072 --> 00:38:48.039
So how did they coordinate that?

00:38:48.039 --> 00:38:53.797
Because obviously it had to start from the beginning and the get to gnome he may call.

00:38:53.797 --> 00:38:59.436
He made that call telegram or telegraph, excuse me, um, on the 22nd.

00:38:59.436 --> 00:39:03.769
So I mean, how did they set all those people up along the way?

00:39:03.769 --> 00:39:05.693
How did they communicate that?

00:39:05.793 --> 00:39:10.400
well, there's a dog sled like church.

00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:14.873
There's a dog sled church that they all attend in anchorage.

00:39:14.873 --> 00:39:22.644
And he went to the church and he was like hey, we need some volunteers.

00:39:22.644 --> 00:39:27.538
And they're all like I'm gonna go all the way to my section and I'm just going to wait.

00:39:28.760 --> 00:39:30.965
Now open your hymnal to verse 23.

00:39:30.965 --> 00:39:32.416
Exactly so.

00:39:32.416 --> 00:39:36.097
Do you want to know the population of Nanana in 2023?

00:39:36.769 --> 00:39:37.612
2025?

00:39:37.632 --> 00:39:38.677
2023?

00:39:38.677 --> 00:39:38.677
.

00:39:39.278 --> 00:39:39.418
Yeah.

00:39:40.911 --> 00:39:41.715
What's your best guess?

00:39:43.231 --> 00:39:44.135
500 or less.

00:39:45.798 --> 00:39:49.074
I need a number, not a fucking estimate 500.

00:39:49.074 --> 00:39:55.659
342, I, I'm sorry.

00:39:55.659 --> 00:39:59.572
You were going on about some weird fucking dog church so I had to.

00:39:59.572 --> 00:40:06.530
I had to occupy myself because that was really weird okay yes a shipment of diphtheria.

00:40:06.550 --> 00:40:08.699
Did you say a shipment, a shipment, okay.

00:40:08.699 --> 00:40:10.405
Thank you for clarifying diphtheria.

00:40:10.425 --> 00:40:11.168
Did you say a shipment?

00:40:11.168 --> 00:40:11.489
A shipment Okay.

00:40:11.869 --> 00:40:12.590
Thank you for clarifying.

00:40:12.590 --> 00:40:21.826
Diphtheria antitoxin was packed in a metal cylinder wrapped in protective padding and furs to prevent it from freezing.

00:40:22.269 --> 00:40:23.375
Do you know what kind of furs they were?

00:40:23.731 --> 00:40:28.411
Jesus Christ Bradley the questions.

00:40:32.594 --> 00:40:35.277
Beaver pelts Bear.

00:40:35.277 --> 00:40:37.338
What else you got?

00:40:37.338 --> 00:40:39.820
Maybe some deer, maybe some elk.

00:40:45.585 --> 00:40:47.208
Okay, nanana.

00:40:47.208 --> 00:40:49.637
The serum was rushed to Nanana by train.

00:40:49.637 --> 00:40:55.554
Our first musher is waiting.

00:40:55.554 --> 00:40:56.516
What's his name?

00:40:56.516 --> 00:40:57.556
Wild bill shannon.

00:40:57.556 --> 00:41:04.610
Oh, at 9 pm that night is when it arrived in negative 50 50 degrees temperatures.

00:41:04.610 --> 00:41:05.672
That's wild.

00:41:05.672 --> 00:41:09.621
Shannon took possession of the cargo and hit the trail with his dog team.

00:41:10.550 --> 00:41:12.619
So you said it was wrapped.

00:41:12.619 --> 00:41:14.597
It was in the cylinder, wrapped in furs and stuff.

00:41:14.597 --> 00:41:16.454
Could this basically freeze?

00:41:17.056 --> 00:41:17.737
It can still freeze.

00:41:17.737 --> 00:41:18.440
Yes, okay.

00:41:18.960 --> 00:41:19.282
Gotcha.

00:41:20.230 --> 00:41:45.094
So he immediately plunged into the Yukon River ice, because the usual trail was destroyed and the ice was the only path and he, he sank no oh so you said plunge, so I I did say plunge he you can understand my confusion there he ran across the river the dogs ran.

00:41:45.213 --> 00:42:00.983
He was on the sled so we've got howling wind, we have dogs, we have wild bill all running with the sled to keep warm, and in fact, shannon did get off the sled and run with the dogs to keep warm.

00:42:00.983 --> 00:42:04.833
Okay, he's jogging next to them how slow are they going?

00:42:06.396 --> 00:42:07.436
how many dogs did he have?

00:42:07.436 --> 00:42:17.052
Bradley I'm curious, was it eight, eight dog team we're gonna say two, four, six, seven.

00:42:17.092 --> 00:42:18.215
We're gonna say seven.

00:42:18.215 --> 00:42:19.677
That's weird, is it?

00:42:19.677 --> 00:42:27.898
It's odd so, despite shannon's effort of running by the sled I didn't pay attention.

00:42:27.898 --> 00:42:28.719
Okay, go on.

00:42:29.822 --> 00:42:30.463
Fucking hell.

00:42:31.130 --> 00:42:39.481
So Shannon still developed hyperthermia and severe frostbite during his 52-mile run.

00:42:40.123 --> 00:42:41.083
That's not surprising.

00:42:41.704 --> 00:42:42.385
No, it's not.

00:42:42.385 --> 00:42:45.902
And by the time he handed off the serum at 3 am 52 miles.

00:42:45.838 --> 00:42:46.315
you said yeah, is where he went.

00:42:46.315 --> 00:42:47.170
Yeah, 3 am 52 miles.

00:42:47.170 --> 00:42:47.603
You said yeah, is where he went.

00:42:47.603 --> 00:42:47.673
Yeah, okay.

00:42:48.150 --> 00:42:55.903
And by the time he handed off the serum at 3 am, parts of his face literally had turned black from frostbite, I know.

00:42:56.230 --> 00:42:59.139
So 3 am, so he was doing this for six hours.

00:43:00.309 --> 00:43:05.682
And three of his dogs ended up collapsing, and they did end up dying from the cold.

00:43:05.909 --> 00:43:08.139
Succumbing to the cold that sucks.

00:43:08.139 --> 00:43:12.072
This was the first leg of the journey.

00:43:12.092 --> 00:43:27.621
I know that's the sad part, because you can only imagine that this will continue so the the serum kind of zigzagged through the interior of alaska, changing hands and paws every few hours.

00:43:27.621 --> 00:43:40.824
The re the relay was so meticulously planned that no team had to run more than 50 to 70 miles okay, okay, so they had that many people set up.

00:43:41.025 --> 00:44:19.579
Yes, and it was normally like an extreme days type of run right, so like it wasn't super excessive or anything right okay well, I mean it makes sense, because if it was super excessive, these people would literally they'd have to rest, their dogs would have to rest, they would have to rest, especially the dogs, because they're they're just exerting so much effort to do this and if you relied on less teams you would be fucked, yes, so yes makes sense so at each handoff, the musher would warm up the serum by the fire just enough to keep it from freezing, and then they would tuck it back into the new sled, and then they'd go off again.

00:44:19.778 --> 00:44:20.541
Oh wow, okay.

00:44:20.541 --> 00:44:28.938
So they drove through forests where the only light was literally the stars and the moon, that's crazy.

00:44:28.938 --> 00:44:36.706
Um, and hopefully the blizzard didn't have a bunch of clouds that would cut them off.

00:44:36.849 --> 00:44:39.193
If it's blizzarding out, I'm sure that I'm sure it was.

00:44:39.193 --> 00:44:41.099
The visibility wasn't very fucking great.

00:44:42.112 --> 00:44:47.804
And one of the earlier legs, a musher named Edgar Calland, arrived at his handoff.

00:44:48.045 --> 00:44:49.409
Edgar Okay.

00:44:49.610 --> 00:44:56.561
Edgar Calland arrived at his handoff with his hands frozen to the sled's handlebar.

00:44:57.164 --> 00:44:59.436
Oh my God, did he not have gloves on?

00:45:01.050 --> 00:45:02.255
I'm betting he did.

00:45:02.255 --> 00:45:15.838
Oh, jesus Christ, I wonder if they got wet or something A roadhouse owner had to pour boiling water on his hands to free them just uh word of advice don't ever do that to a car windshield.

00:45:17.222 --> 00:45:19.289
Oh, do you know what happens cracks.

00:45:19.289 --> 00:45:24.965
Oh yeah, I've never done it, I've just seen videos and that would be bad I've.

00:45:25.146 --> 00:45:27.262
I've done hot water before, but not boiling water.

00:45:27.231 --> 00:45:28.092
You're not supposed to even do that.

00:45:28.092 --> 00:45:28.452
Don't ever do that.

00:45:28.452 --> 00:45:29.231
I think, yeah, I've done hot water before, but not boiling water.

00:45:29.231 --> 00:45:30.139
You're not supposed to even do that, don't ever do that?

00:45:30.139 --> 00:45:31.983
I think, yeah, I've done that once.

00:45:32.224 --> 00:45:32.925
Yeah, don't do it again.

00:45:33.349 --> 00:45:38.041
Okay, so another handoff, Charlie Evans.

00:45:38.291 --> 00:45:40.699
Okay, so this is the next guy after Edgar.

00:45:42.351 --> 00:45:48.152
So I don't have the names of each musher but, eventually, there's just another musher named Charlie Evans.

00:45:48.172 --> 00:45:48.972
Okay, sure, gotcha.

00:45:49.291 --> 00:45:55.494
He was a negative 64 degrees Fahrenheit, without windchill, oh hey that's something.

00:45:55.494 --> 00:46:03.518
Two of his lead dogs were short haired, half breeds, had frostbitten groins.

00:46:03.818 --> 00:46:04.338
Oh boy.

00:46:04.900 --> 00:46:08.820
Because he forgot to put their little rabbit fur underpants on.

00:46:09.481 --> 00:46:11.603
Oh, did they actually put that on the dogs?

00:46:11.603 --> 00:46:13.103
Oh wow, I never knew that.

00:46:13.103 --> 00:46:15.905
Oh man, that's sad yeah.

00:46:17.045 --> 00:46:19.586
So the pups collapsed from pain and.

00:46:19.586 --> 00:46:23.068
Charlie had to hook himself onto the sled and pull.

00:46:26.929 --> 00:46:28.574
So he forgot two of them but not the rest.

00:46:28.594 --> 00:46:32.344
I don't know if it was just the two that got frostbite.

00:46:32.344 --> 00:46:34.750
That's fine Either way, yeah, okay.

00:46:34.750 --> 00:46:42.543
So Evans made it to the next stop with both of the dogs badly injured, and they did not survive.

00:46:42.670 --> 00:46:43.894
They succumbed to their injuries.

00:46:43.894 --> 00:46:45.039
Yes, gotcha.

00:46:46.172 --> 00:46:47.597
And now we're only halfway through.

00:46:47.597 --> 00:46:50.838
Halfway through like to Nome Right.

00:46:50.838 --> 00:46:53.474
So back in Nome.

00:46:53.474 --> 00:46:55.039
The situation is still pretty dire.

00:46:55.039 --> 00:46:56.536
It's January 30th.

00:46:56.536 --> 00:46:59.597
Five people have died, a number are still sick.

00:46:59.597 --> 00:47:04.222
The local hospitals without antitoxin, completely helpless.

00:47:04.222 --> 00:47:06.597
The whole town is on lockdown.

00:47:07.150 --> 00:47:09.338
No, schools no gatherings.

00:47:09.338 --> 00:47:11.393
Why would you allow that?

00:47:11.393 --> 00:47:12.456
That's insanity.

00:47:12.657 --> 00:47:13.619
It's like COVID.

00:47:14.762 --> 00:47:15.063
Whatever?

00:47:17.452 --> 00:47:18.114
I think you have to pee.

00:47:18.916 --> 00:47:19.597
You have to pee?

00:47:19.597 --> 00:47:23.197
All right, we are going to take a short pee break.

00:47:23.197 --> 00:47:27.641
Bradley needs another cocktail and we'll be right back.

00:47:27.641 --> 00:47:38.275
All right, bladder's emptied, emptied drinks filled.

00:47:38.295 --> 00:47:39.057
Let's do this, okay.

00:47:39.057 --> 00:47:52.838
So newspapers had picked up on the story and they kind of dubbed it the serum run, or the race against death, or the mercy race, or yeah, I mean even the lower 48,.

00:47:52.838 --> 00:48:00.646
They were all experiencing like crazy cold winters, oh so it wasn't just North, it was it was everybody.

00:48:00.646 --> 00:48:04.797
It was in the States, the lower contiguous.

00:48:04.797 --> 00:48:05.920
I picked up Amos and now I'm like covered in hair.

00:48:05.940 --> 00:48:06.583
Yeah, imagine that.

00:48:07.184 --> 00:48:22.704
Okay, so the most dangerous section of the route was coming up it was a shortcut, crossed across the norton sound, which is water well, yeah, that's what a sound is.

00:48:22.704 --> 00:48:28.380
Yep, yes, frozen water oh boy an inlet of the bering Sea.

00:48:29.902 --> 00:48:30.864
Do you have any idea?

00:48:30.864 --> 00:48:34.197
Did you come up across anything like how thick the ice was?

00:48:35.952 --> 00:48:36.193
No.

00:48:36.193 --> 00:48:40.371
However, it was thin enough to break.

00:48:41.233 --> 00:48:45.894
Oh, dear Cause, like I, the, I grew up in Pewaukee, wisconsin.

00:48:45.894 --> 00:48:57.097
We have a pretty, you have a good lake, big lake, yeah, and um, actually and I think I've said it on this podcast, maybe even, um, I know I've told you, but you probably forgot, so I'll tell you again real quick.

00:48:57.097 --> 00:49:07.130
Um, obviously, obviously, we're not very far from milwaukee.

00:49:07.130 --> 00:49:08.173
It's about 20, 25 minutes, whatever.

00:49:08.173 --> 00:49:11.105
Um, they used to come to biwaki lake and cut chunks of ice to bring to milwaukee for ice cubes, and you know ice and shit.

00:49:11.105 --> 00:49:13.989
So, um, why don't they?

00:49:15.313 --> 00:49:17.677
why don't they just go to lake michigan for that?

00:49:17.777 --> 00:49:19.626
like michigan doesn't really freeze like that.

00:49:19.626 --> 00:49:23.670
Oh, I suppose because it's a giant fucking lake all right, all right anyways.

00:49:23.670 --> 00:49:30.418
Um so my brother, oldest brother, ryan, loves ice fishing.

00:49:30.418 --> 00:49:34.889
I do not like going on ice, I can't fucking do it.

00:49:34.889 --> 00:49:38.916
People who drive their cars onto ice to me are fucking dumb.

00:49:38.916 --> 00:49:41.548
To each their own, I just will not do it.

00:49:41.548 --> 00:49:44.896
I'm not saying they're actually dumb and my brain is like that's fucking dumb.

00:49:44.896 --> 00:49:46.639
I would not do it I want.

00:49:46.659 --> 00:50:01.750
The action is dumb it is because so I worked there's a main road that goes right by the front of the beach, basically the beach area of the of the lake, and I worked at a gas station across that street, so the beach is right there, or the lake, I should say.

00:50:01.750 --> 00:50:09.436
I had to call the police and I saved a guy's life on us who went in on a snowmobile even so, imagine going in a car.

00:50:09.436 --> 00:50:12.210
So I luckily helped the guy live.

00:50:12.210 --> 00:50:14.976
I was in the paper and everything but were you really?

00:50:15.155 --> 00:50:16.887
yeah, that was on the paper once too.

00:50:16.887 --> 00:50:19.690
Oh, sorry for another time, maybe.

00:50:19.690 --> 00:50:28.036
So taking the ice could save the sea ice, excuse me, taking the sea ice could save a whole day of travel.

00:50:28.217 --> 00:50:30.090
Oh shit, that's pretty crucial at this point.

00:50:30.251 --> 00:50:35.135
Yes, the ice on Norton Sound was a little fickle.

00:50:36.166 --> 00:50:37.050
That's what it sounds like.

00:50:37.646 --> 00:50:41.114
It can crack and blow out to sea without any warning.

00:50:41.114 --> 00:50:48.427
Oh, really oh shit and blow out to sea without any warning.

00:50:48.427 --> 00:50:48.929
Oh really, oh shit.

00:50:48.929 --> 00:50:55.284
So the relay coordinators, yeah, assigned their best musher for this leg of the trip so how did they determine it was their best musher?

00:50:55.324 --> 00:50:56.907
like, how did, how did they know that?

00:50:56.947 --> 00:51:00.873
I guess that's my question so his name is le Seppala.

00:51:01.213 --> 00:51:01.514
Okay.

00:51:02.315 --> 00:51:05.599
And he was already a living champion in.

00:51:05.599 --> 00:51:06.221
Alaska.

00:51:06.221 --> 00:51:20.719
He was a champion racer Gotcha, a gold rush veteran and by 1925, he was still like a spry 48 year old, with a decade of mushing experience behind him.

00:51:20.860 --> 00:51:26.188
Okay, okay, so he, he was accomplished, accomplished, we'll just say that he was an accomplished musher.

00:51:26.367 --> 00:51:35.246
Yeah, and sepala would be the one to cross this icy sound well, I mean, that makes sense.

00:51:35.507 --> 00:51:37.813
You know, put your best guy at the hardest point.

00:51:37.813 --> 00:51:41.693
Yes, because otherwise you put some other joe schmoe who's?

00:51:41.693 --> 00:51:43.420
I've been doing this for three weeks.

00:51:43.742 --> 00:51:45.431
Yes, exactly, he's not going to fucking make it across.

00:51:45.431 --> 00:51:51.757
So Seppala had 20 of his best dogs on this leg.

00:51:52.465 --> 00:51:53.851
Holy fuck, that's a lot of dogs.

00:51:53.951 --> 00:52:00.235
Okay, including his prized lead, balto Togo.

00:52:00.416 --> 00:52:03.253
Togo was the lead, balto was a backup.

00:52:06.965 --> 00:52:07.326
Neither.

00:52:07.326 --> 00:52:07.726
No Tgo was lead.

00:52:07.726 --> 00:52:10.474
Yes, we will get to balto balto's not on this team.

00:52:10.934 --> 00:52:12.257
Correct gotcha okay.

00:52:12.699 --> 00:52:21.592
Correct gotcha, gotcha togo um is a 12 year old siberian husky sense.

00:52:21.592 --> 00:52:25.978
And Seppala's undisputed favorite.

00:52:26.519 --> 00:52:27.240
Oh, it sounds that way.

00:52:28.264 --> 00:52:29.650
He has a pup.

00:52:29.650 --> 00:52:36.052
Actually, togo was so small and he was sickly, oh no, and Seppala actually tried to give him away.

00:52:36.052 --> 00:52:36.833
Oh, shit.

00:52:36.833 --> 00:52:37.356
Mm-hmm.

00:52:37.356 --> 00:52:46.728
There was at one point where Togo had a new owner and Togo jumped through a closed window to escape.

00:52:46.728 --> 00:52:49.893
To get back to sepala, wow, that's crazy.

00:52:49.893 --> 00:52:55.972
Yeah, so it's funny how sepala is like okay, you can stay, I'll take it, you can come back.

00:52:56.753 --> 00:52:59.365
It's just funny how dogs are like that yeah you know, it's just.

00:52:59.365 --> 00:53:05.376
I mean, I've even experienced that with cats though because, like I told you, wicked anyways.

00:53:05.376 --> 00:53:10.989
She came back when came and went basically for a while before she became an official house cat.

00:53:11.009 --> 00:53:12.492
So yeah, she was gone for like what?

00:53:12.572 --> 00:53:14.496
five years no, that was.

00:53:14.496 --> 00:53:15.485
That was valentine.

00:53:15.485 --> 00:53:18.610
Valentine sway's brother.

00:53:18.610 --> 00:53:21.554
Um, both would be uncles toicket.

00:53:21.554 --> 00:53:27.108
Uh, he was gone for I think it was close to was it five years.

00:53:27.108 --> 00:53:27.791
That sounds right.

00:53:27.791 --> 00:53:29.856
I guess it's been a while since I've thought about it.

00:53:29.856 --> 00:53:33.655
He was gone for a long time and showed back up, that's crazy and I have no doubt.

00:53:33.655 --> 00:53:35.005
In my mind it was valentine.

00:53:35.186 --> 00:53:41.414
So yeah, yeah, yeah so as a as a pup, togo hyper.

00:53:41.414 --> 00:53:48.402
He was mischievous, he was constantly escaping, attacking other dogs on Seppala's team.

00:53:48.402 --> 00:53:49.824
Yeah, Anyways.

00:53:49.824 --> 00:53:52.172
It earned him some scars.

00:53:52.172 --> 00:53:52.894
I'm sure.

00:53:52.894 --> 00:53:59.032
But it also proved something to Seppala he was a leader.

00:53:59.445 --> 00:54:01.190
He was an alpha male kind of.

00:54:01.190 --> 00:54:01.452
Thing.

00:54:01.893 --> 00:54:06.467
Yes, a leader, he was an alpha male kind of thing.

00:54:06.467 --> 00:54:08.090
Yes, on one trip after togo had repeatedly busted out to follow the sled.

00:54:08.090 --> 00:54:11.297
Sepala finally harnessed him in togo rounds.

00:54:11.297 --> 00:54:14.302
Ran 75 miles in one day.

00:54:14.302 --> 00:54:16.628
That's crazy on his first outing.

00:54:16.628 --> 00:54:18.411
Oh my god, fucking hell.

00:54:18.411 --> 00:54:19.753
Yes, that's insane.

00:54:20.576 --> 00:54:27.913
Sepala was like all right you, you be my lead boy all right, let's get up to the top rudolph, won't you lead my sleigh tonight?

00:54:28.134 --> 00:54:29.679
exactly togo.

00:54:29.679 --> 00:54:31.125
Won't you lead my sleigh tonight?

00:54:31.125 --> 00:54:48.389
Yeah, exactly shit by 1925, togo had led seppala uh to victory in races and proven his, like his, instinct essentially for finding safe ground and sensing danger on the trail and you said he was 12 at this time.

00:54:48.389 --> 00:54:56.369
Yes, okay at 12 yeah he is actually old for an ancient excuse me, for a, um sled dog.

00:54:56.630 --> 00:55:01.726
Oh, he's old for a sled dog I mean that's old for a dog in general mm-hmm.

00:55:03.050 --> 00:55:06.545
But he was wise, he was tough and he was still willing to go.

00:55:06.545 --> 00:55:08.108
So he had seen some shit.

00:55:08.108 --> 00:55:14.887
Sepala trusted toga with his life and he wouldn't trust him with this anti -toxin, yeah.

00:55:15.668 --> 00:55:25.239
So sepala had left gnome on january 27th with oh so he's actually from Nome and he went to his point.

00:55:25.239 --> 00:55:26.661
If you will, yes, gotcha, okay.

00:55:27.445 --> 00:55:34.778
He was heading eastward into the storm to meet the relay from the other direction, right.

00:55:34.778 --> 00:55:40.894
So, while most teams start from the Nenana side, seppala took off from Rome.

00:55:41.416 --> 00:55:53.989
Nome Nomenome Gnome Hold please.

00:55:54.369 --> 00:55:56.717
Gnome.

00:55:57.565 --> 00:55:58.670
And then they went to the Vatican.

00:55:58.670 --> 00:56:07.413
What the fuck Rome get it?

00:56:07.632 --> 00:56:18.331
it rhymes on january 31st, near the settlement of shek to cook, shek, shek to lick shek to lick.

00:56:18.472 --> 00:56:19.733
Okay, shek to lick.

00:56:20.253 --> 00:56:24.659
I've heard of that it's on the north, the norton sound coast.

00:56:24.659 --> 00:56:42.458
Okay, seppo was mushing through wide out conditions when fate kind of intervened a little bit, oh dear another musher, henry ivanov ivanov okay had just picked up the serum from a driver coming from the north.

00:56:42.458 --> 00:56:48.039
Had just picked up the serum from a driver coming from the north.

00:56:48.059 --> 00:56:50.005
Ivanov's team promptly ran into a reindeer.

00:56:52.760 --> 00:56:53.463
Oh shit.

00:56:53.463 --> 00:56:58.097
Reindeer is Caribou, is caribou, yeah, yeah yeah.

00:56:58.097 --> 00:57:10.980
Ivanov's sled tangledled with this reindeer Caribou, and he, he was so frantic he couldn't see through this blizzard.

00:57:10.980 --> 00:57:11.864
He was so frantic.

00:57:11.864 --> 00:57:15.871
Then, all of a sudden, seppala and Togo Appeared out of nowhere.

00:57:15.871 --> 00:57:16.653
We got you, bro.

00:57:16.653 --> 00:57:21.204
Seppala was surprised, ivanov was surprised.

00:57:21.405 --> 00:57:22.570
I'm sure they all were.

00:57:22.764 --> 00:57:25.393
Neither of them were expecting the handoff yet.

00:57:25.393 --> 00:57:29.733
No, seppala thought he had like a hundred more miles to go.

00:57:29.733 --> 00:57:31.878
Oh shit, it was just weird.

00:57:32.907 --> 00:57:35.077
So it was just kind of like fate intervened yeah.

00:57:35.565 --> 00:57:40.896
But Seppala was actually was like you don't have the serum because it's way too soon for that.

00:57:41.277 --> 00:57:41.438
Yeah.

00:57:41.545 --> 00:57:42.690
So we're going to keep going.

00:57:42.690 --> 00:57:46.769
Oh, have the serum, because it's way too soon for that.

00:57:46.789 --> 00:57:47.851
Yeah, so we're gonna keep going.

00:57:47.851 --> 00:57:49.775
Oh, and I've been always like wait, I have the serum.

00:57:49.775 --> 00:57:50.295
So how did?

00:57:50.295 --> 00:57:50.996
How did they mess up?

00:57:50.996 --> 00:58:13.635
I don't know how they messed the timing up that's crazy, I don't know, but it was a good thing well, obviously it was very fortuitous that this happened, because he could have completely fucking went by him, yes, and then they would have been really fucked, and who knows how much time they would have lost yes, exactly especially if he's the one to go do this sound crossing, you know?

00:58:13.835 --> 00:58:16.806
yeah, jesus so sepala faced a choice.

00:58:16.806 --> 00:58:23.940
It was late afternoon, it was getting dark, even though it was probably already dark, I'm sure winds were escalating.

00:58:23.940 --> 00:58:30.293
Temperature was around negative 30 at this time, wind chill making it feel like negative 85.

00:58:30.293 --> 00:58:33.914
Fuck, he was just on the edge of the Norton Sound.

00:58:33.914 --> 00:58:36.956
The safe call would be to stay on land.

00:58:36.956 --> 00:58:37.579
Of course.

00:58:37.579 --> 00:58:44.563
Hug the coast, yeah, but Gnome's outbreak was worsening by the hour and sepala knew that how did he know that?

00:58:44.583 --> 00:58:50.313
because sepala started in gnome I get that, but he's been gone for a bit now but?

00:58:51.155 --> 00:58:54.710
but he knows, he just knows he's got an intuition.

00:58:54.710 --> 00:59:20.054
He's got a women's intuition well, I mean, he started in gnome so he knows that's fine so sepala turned back onto the ice of the norton sound, deciding to cut straight across the open expanse in the dark, in an arctic gale, so to save time I hope he at least had a compass with him I would imagine you.

00:59:20.255 --> 00:59:34.255
However, they put a lot of faith in those dogs no, and dogs are fucking smart especially those type of dogs that are are raised that way and, you know, bred that way and whatever they, they know how to navigate.

00:59:34.255 --> 00:59:38.684
I guess we'll call it but like could you imagine?

00:59:38.684 --> 00:59:47.347
I mean that's fucking crazy yes I, I know I couldn't do that so this part was insanely dangerous.

00:59:47.567 --> 01:00:00.856
Right frozen ocean under your feet, with storm winds that could crack the ice or blow it out to sea while you're on it right but togo delivered that a boy.

01:00:00.856 --> 01:00:02.297
Through total darkness.

01:00:02.297 --> 01:00:26.686
This debt dog led the team on a 20 mile straight shot across the ice god damn, somehow sensing the way to a tiny little town called isaac's point on the opposite shore wow, okay yes, at this point you could barely see the hand in front of your face.

01:00:26.706 --> 01:00:27.306
Oh, I'm sure.

01:00:27.306 --> 01:00:36.695
I mean I can't, I can't believe they could see literally that far, because a fucking alaskan gale, I mean you, can you imagine how much snow is coming down in that?

01:00:36.695 --> 01:00:41.150
That's got to be crazy, especially back then, because I mean global warming.

01:00:41.170 --> 01:00:54.938
We're good now they arrived at uh, the roadhouse on the far side, at 8 pm, having traveled 84 miles in one day through a storm 84 miles in one day.

01:00:54.938 --> 01:01:06.786
Yes, and remember, I said I said 50 to 70 miles was was fairly like typical yeah, but that 84 miles, that's insane I just closed down my screen.

01:01:06.786 --> 01:01:10.173
Why would you do that, keeping you on your toes?

01:01:10.173 --> 01:01:16.106
So sepala togo and the team had earned a big rest.

01:01:16.106 --> 01:01:22.353
They took a few hours at isaac's point to eat and regain strength.

01:01:23.835 --> 01:01:25.998
And they set out again at 2 am.

01:01:25.998 --> 01:01:29.605
Oh geez Into an.

01:01:29.625 --> 01:01:33.452
Arctic maelstrom, like M-A-E-L Maelstrom.

01:01:33.713 --> 01:01:34.335
Maelstrom.

01:01:34.594 --> 01:01:35.016
There you go.

01:01:35.597 --> 01:01:36.157
What you doing.

01:01:42.125 --> 01:01:43.530
I was going to look up the population of Isaac's Point point.

01:01:43.530 --> 01:01:45.034
I'm guessing it's pretty, pretty small.

01:01:45.034 --> 01:01:49.052
All right, this is not in a fucking good list.

01:01:49.052 --> 01:02:11.157
Anyways, I think if I kind of picture just a maelstrom, like a ups or a mail truck just blew up and mails everywhere anyways, I think there's a band called maelstrom, if I'm not mistaken the blizzard intensified overnight, temperatures plunged to negative 40 degrees, with winds gusting near 65 miles an hour.

01:02:11.157 --> 01:02:13.509
So they left at 2 am.

01:02:13.509 --> 01:02:15.572
How much rest did they have?

01:02:16.253 --> 01:02:24.005
well, they arrived at eight so eight to two not not long I mean that's six they had to do some certain things, I'm sure.

01:02:24.005 --> 01:02:26.635
Those poor dogs, holy fuck.

01:02:27.565 --> 01:02:29.572
They raced along the coastline.

01:02:29.572 --> 01:02:34.916
Yeah, the storm literally tore the ice behind them.

01:02:34.916 --> 01:02:40.251
So your previous question how thick was the ice as soon as they would go over?

01:02:40.271 --> 01:02:41.275
it, it was opening up.

01:02:41.275 --> 01:02:53.534
You'd look behind you and the ice was gone wow, so do you think that because obviously storm big part of it, but because they're putting pressure on it, going over it, that was a factor and it kind of just ripping apart?

01:02:53.715 --> 01:02:57.608
yeah, in a way yes, wow that's wild, see.

01:02:57.628 --> 01:02:58.891
This is why it'll go on the ice?

01:02:59.032 --> 01:02:59.992
no fuck that.

01:02:59.992 --> 01:03:00.193
No.

01:03:00.193 --> 01:03:11.436
Togo naggett navigated through this stretch with sure intuition sure saving the team from an arctic swim.

01:03:11.677 --> 01:03:17.248
Essentially, oh boy, oh yeah I mean, they all would have died if they fell through they would have.

01:03:17.248 --> 01:03:20.992
I mean, that's so fucking cold, that's just crazy.

01:03:22.936 --> 01:03:26.699
At one point Togo did save Seppala's life.

01:03:26.699 --> 01:03:27.981
Oh really, yes.

01:03:27.981 --> 01:03:35.356
When jumping an ice crack, seppala would have fallen into the sea had Togo not, like, anchored the line.

01:03:35.936 --> 01:03:37.599
Oh, wow, yeah, that's wild.

01:03:38.106 --> 01:03:49.896
So, as dawn broke on February 1st, the team faced another trial Okay, Little McKinley which is a 5,000 foot series of steep ridges.

01:03:49.896 --> 01:03:57.844
Oh Jesus, they had to cross this in order to reach the next relay point 5,000 ridges.

01:03:58.226 --> 01:04:00.134
I feel like 5,000 feet ridges.

01:04:00.134 --> 01:04:02.012
I feel like that's a mini mountain, not a ridge that seems pretty high.

01:04:02.012 --> 01:04:03.237
It's a mini mountain not a ridge.

01:04:03.257 --> 01:04:03.719
That seems pretty high.

01:04:03.719 --> 01:04:04.300
It's a mini mountain, yeah.

01:04:04.422 --> 01:04:05.144
Jesus Christ.

01:04:05.844 --> 01:04:25.567
Togo was 12 years old, leading this climb in a blizzard, right Okay, they went through whipping snow ridges and they finally descended to the next roadhouse where, finally, seppala could hand off the serum to someone else do you so?

01:04:25.648 --> 01:04:25.949
how?

01:04:25.949 --> 01:04:28.878
How many total miles did sepala go with his team?

01:04:28.878 --> 01:04:30.403
I will share that okay cool.

01:04:30.523 --> 01:04:36.851
Yeah, so he passed the package to musher charlie olsen.

01:04:36.851 --> 01:04:48.802
Okay, on february 1st at 3 pm okay sepala and togo and other dogs had covered 261 miles.

01:04:49.003 --> 01:04:57.068
Holy fuck in the worst conditions over a sound and water, all that ridges.

01:04:57.168 --> 01:05:02.972
god damn, it was the longest and most punishing leg of the entire relay.

01:05:02.972 --> 01:05:04.512
Well, it sounds that way.

01:05:04.512 --> 01:05:06.914
Yes, holy fuck.

01:05:06.914 --> 01:05:17.440
Charlie Olsen, who took over from Cepula, left the roadhouse and immediately got blasted by the blizzard which was now peaking.

01:05:17.659 --> 01:05:18.059
Of course.

01:05:18.681 --> 01:05:19.481
Gale force.

01:05:19.481 --> 01:05:23.663
Winds at 80 miles an hour, wind chill of negative 70.

01:05:23.663 --> 01:05:33.619
Olsen was thrown off the trail and suffered severe frostbite on his hands while trying to adjust blankets on his dogs.

01:05:33.619 --> 01:06:02.711
After a grueling push, olsen made it to the next stop on the evening of february 1st okay he arrived with his hands useless and his face mostly white from frost, but the serum was still intact that's wild waiting at the bluff was gunner casein gunner casein a musher, originally slated to be the second to last in the relay.

01:06:03.753 --> 01:06:04.552
So what happened there?

01:06:05.454 --> 01:06:06.114
I won't tell you.

01:06:06.114 --> 01:06:12.920
Sorry, Cason was Norwegian and he worked with Seppala in Nome.

01:06:13.340 --> 01:06:13.920
Oh, so he knew him.

01:06:14.302 --> 01:06:19.349
Mm-hmm, okay, his lead dog was Balto.

01:06:19.610 --> 01:06:22.918
Balto I was going to try and come up with something clever.

01:06:23.547 --> 01:06:24.393
I got nothing.

01:06:24.393 --> 01:06:29.550
Balto was actually one of sepala's dogs he stole him?

01:06:29.550 --> 01:06:41.271
No, okay he was three years old and sepala just hadn't picked him as the star leader well, because he had togo.

01:06:41.471 --> 01:06:42.572
Yeah, it makes sense.

01:06:42.813 --> 01:06:52.416
Balto had been mostly used for fright, not racing, oh yeah, so Balto ended up at the front of Kasson's team.

01:06:54.146 --> 01:06:55.532
Was he also a Siberian Husky?

01:06:56.226 --> 01:06:57.210
He was.

01:06:59.110 --> 01:07:00.403
I've never actually watched the movie.

01:07:00.865 --> 01:07:06.811
I don't think I actually found what kind of dog he was in the movie, the animated movie balto.

01:07:06.811 --> 01:07:11.206
I think it came out in the 90s I believe so he was a calf wolf half dog.

01:07:11.226 --> 01:07:18.246
Oh, I mean, all dogs are wolves, eventually but I mean, it was previously anyways, more recent than that.

01:07:18.246 --> 01:07:19.048
Well, yeah, anyways.

01:07:19.048 --> 01:07:23.036
Um, okay, yeah, I, yeah, I never actually watched the movie.

01:07:23.036 --> 01:07:23.679
I know of it.

01:07:23.679 --> 01:07:27.454
I might have seen a clip or two, I'm just not sure what he was, so okay.

01:07:28.545 --> 01:07:36.492
So by now it was the night of February 1st, and the blizzard was so fierce that Kaysen could barely see his own hand, let alone his team of dogs in front of him.

01:07:36.492 --> 01:07:40.534
Right, snowdrifts were like hills right next to them.

01:07:40.534 --> 01:07:42.409
Oh, I bet were like hills right next to them, like they just were huge.

01:07:42.409 --> 01:07:48.489
At one point the wind was so savage it actually upturned cass and sled.

01:07:48.489 --> 01:07:55.728
Oh, shit dumping him and his contents into the snow bank sure, so you gotta go search that shit out.

01:07:56.068 --> 01:08:07.076
Yes, which sucks he scrambled, he um, made the sled right up and then he realized the serum cylinder had fallen off and vanished into the snow.

01:08:07.076 --> 01:08:07.657
Oh fuck.

01:08:08.219 --> 01:08:08.579
Okay.

01:08:09.105 --> 01:08:16.677
After 600 plus miles, just miles from Nome, he loses the serum.

01:08:17.238 --> 01:08:17.819
Oh, my God.

01:08:18.805 --> 01:08:22.506
Kasten frantically ripped off his gloves, oh no.

01:08:22.506 --> 01:08:23.613
Casson frantically ripped off his gloves oh no.

01:08:23.613 --> 01:08:31.978
Grubbed through the snow with his bare hands until he found the container well, I figured that was going to be the case, but why did?

01:08:31.997 --> 01:08:44.277
you have to take your gloves off to do that, because he wouldn't feel it, otherwise he's gonna hit it, I know, but like maybe it was just kind of an intuition thing, like I just kind of take off my hair, I don't know.

01:08:44.277 --> 01:08:53.037
Okay, kasson's leg was supposed to be, was supposed to end at the roadhouse where the last musher.

01:08:53.185 --> 01:08:54.792
I'm glad you finished with that, because you said his leg.

01:08:54.792 --> 01:08:56.190
I'm like what happened to his leg.

01:08:57.166 --> 01:09:03.318
The last musher, Ed Rohn, was waiting in a place called Point Safety, which was 20 miles from Nome.

01:09:03.479 --> 01:09:03.719
Okay.

01:09:04.645 --> 01:09:11.819
When Kasson reached Point Safety in the pre-dawn hours of February 2nd, no one was around.

01:09:11.819 --> 01:09:17.037
I mean it was early but this fucker's supposed to be waiting.

01:09:17.037 --> 01:09:18.125
They're supposed to be waiting.

01:09:18.125 --> 01:09:33.064
Rohn assumed that no one would travel in this storm and was sheltering Cason faced a choice Wake Rome and spend time swapping out teams, or just do it myself, or just keep going to Rome.

01:09:33.064 --> 01:09:34.590
Fuck that guy.

01:09:34.590 --> 01:09:37.795
Obviously he was already full of adrenaline.

01:09:38.188 --> 01:09:41.073
Let's just keep fucking going, let's fucking do this also.

01:09:42.805 --> 01:09:46.856
So there's been a little debate.

01:09:46.856 --> 01:09:50.095
Some say he was being heroic by not wasting time.

01:09:50.095 --> 01:09:53.514
Others whisper that he wanted the honor of bringing in the medicine himself.

01:09:53.514 --> 01:09:53.994
Whatever.

01:09:53.994 --> 01:09:56.060
Okay, whatever, Whatever, whatever, whatever.

01:09:56.060 --> 01:09:57.710
Fuck that Case and mushed on.

01:09:58.072 --> 01:09:58.212
Yeah.

01:09:58.545 --> 01:10:03.207
Blowing right past safety while Roan snoozed supposedly Blowing right past safety while Roan snoozed supposedly.

01:10:03.207 --> 01:10:09.131
Balto led the way to the final stretches, which included dodging driftwood and ice along the trail.

01:10:09.671 --> 01:10:10.112
I'm sure.

01:10:11.171 --> 01:10:24.260
Just after 5.30 am on February 2nd 1925, gunnar Kasson and his team slid into gnome.

01:10:24.260 --> 01:10:28.743
Wow yes, a few people emerged.

01:10:28.743 --> 01:10:29.743
It was early morning.

01:10:29.743 --> 01:10:31.828
Sure.

01:10:31.828 --> 01:10:34.654
They finally realized oh my God, the serum.

01:10:34.994 --> 01:10:41.373
It's here is here, Okay, so do you have a number of people who have died by this time, or is it still five?

01:10:41.635 --> 01:10:42.015
I don't know.

01:10:42.015 --> 01:10:42.938
I have to read forward.

01:10:42.938 --> 01:10:50.604
Oh, I have to read on.

01:10:50.604 --> 01:10:50.985
I apologize.

01:10:50.985 --> 01:10:52.247
Casson had covered 53 miles in this last leg.

01:10:52.247 --> 01:10:58.613
The teams combined had covered 674 miles in 127 and a half hours.

01:10:58.613 --> 01:10:59.552
That's insane.

01:10:59.552 --> 01:11:06.960
Five days, seven hours, wow, okay, a new world record for overland travel.

01:11:06.960 --> 01:11:14.694
In those conditions, and partly water, not a single ampule of serum was broken.

01:11:14.694 --> 01:11:15.818
That's amazing.

01:11:15.818 --> 01:11:22.472
By noon that day the serum was completely thawed, like it might have started freezing over.

01:11:22.472 --> 01:11:24.492
I mean, they've spent five days outside.

01:11:24.492 --> 01:11:29.613
Yeah, I'm sure the serum was thawed and was starting to be administered to the sick.

01:11:29.613 --> 01:11:37.777
Wow, yes, over the next couple of weeks the antitoxin worked its magic.

01:11:37.777 --> 01:11:54.091
Sure, the death toll could have been in the hundreds, but was limited to about five or six in known, proper, okay, or six to seven if you include, like the outlying areas.

01:11:54.632 --> 01:11:57.158
Yeah, okay, that's not bad at all.

01:11:57.418 --> 01:12:08.018
Yes, dr Welch thinks that even further out, with the hub being known, could be up to 100.

01:12:08.719 --> 01:12:09.600
Oh, wow, that many.

01:12:09.600 --> 01:12:16.938
Yeah, okay, yeah, I suppose back in 100 years ago they didn't have the documentation, perhaps, okay.

01:12:17.966 --> 01:12:22.636
So the town of Nome finally went back to like a semi-normal life.

01:12:22.636 --> 01:12:27.054
Stepping outside wasn't as much of a fear.

01:12:27.054 --> 01:12:31.555
Kids were going back to school, sure, et cetera, et cetera.

01:12:31.555 --> 01:12:36.975
The mail resumed, stores reopened Wonderful.

01:12:36.975 --> 01:12:43.536
The newspapers turned the sled dogs and the mushers into overnight heroes.

01:12:43.536 --> 01:12:44.398
I'm sure they did.

01:12:44.398 --> 01:12:47.171
Oh yes, and one name kept popping up.

01:12:47.471 --> 01:12:48.515
Balto, balto.

01:12:48.515 --> 01:12:53.233
So I'm really kind of pissed that the movie wasn't called Togo.

01:12:53.994 --> 01:12:54.636
I'll get to that.

01:12:54.876 --> 01:12:56.158
I know I figured you would.

01:12:58.506 --> 01:13:01.585
He was the lead dog of the final sprint into Nome.

01:13:01.966 --> 01:13:03.953
Which makes sense why his name would be first.

01:13:04.425 --> 01:13:07.416
He ran 55 miles Togo.

01:13:07.435 --> 01:13:07.898
Jump change.

01:13:08.604 --> 01:13:10.471
Togo around 260.

01:13:10.471 --> 01:13:17.756
Exactly, balto was the one photographed in Nome with Kasson, and he made a great story.

01:13:17.756 --> 01:13:18.597
I'm sure he did.

01:13:18.597 --> 01:13:20.730
He was a national celebrity.

01:13:20.730 --> 01:13:22.838
He was a national celebrity.

01:13:22.838 --> 01:13:29.413
He and his musher, gunnar Kaysen, toured the West Coast for months, appearing in theaters and events.

01:13:29.413 --> 01:13:35.472
He starred in a short Hollywood film reenactment called Balto's Race Wow.

01:13:35.472 --> 01:13:46.157
In December 1925, 10 months after the relay, new York City unveiled a bronze statue of Balto in Central Park.

01:13:46.157 --> 01:13:49.914
Balto was actually present at that ceremony.

01:13:50.164 --> 01:13:51.572
Is that statue still there today?

01:13:51.572 --> 01:13:51.786
It?

01:13:51.945 --> 01:13:53.591
is, and I will insert a picture.

01:13:53.612 --> 01:13:54.917
Okay.

01:13:55.746 --> 01:14:00.636
Many of the relay participants were overlooked by the outside world.

01:14:00.936 --> 01:14:01.318
Of course.

01:14:01.645 --> 01:14:08.038
The native Alaskan drivers who covered nearly two thirds of the distance, distance got little fanfare.

01:14:08.060 --> 01:14:09.345
They probably didn't even get recognized.

01:14:09.345 --> 01:14:11.949
Yeah, that's terrible yeah, exactly.

01:14:12.511 --> 01:14:33.434
Well, bill shannon, who nearly died on that first leg, had a kind of a brief taste of fame, um, when he toured with his lead dog, blackie, okay, but nothing like what happened with Balto Sure and Leonard Seppala and Togo, who had risked the most.

01:14:33.434 --> 01:14:35.858
They were overshadowed.

01:14:36.279 --> 01:14:37.039
Which is terrible.

01:14:37.524 --> 01:14:46.452
Seppala arrived in Nome a few days after the serum because he actually did continue mushing, helping deliver mail and and stuff he went back to the serum.

01:14:46.452 --> 01:14:54.597
Yeah, normal shit, if you will, exactly so so that by the time that he got back, cat casein and balto were already kind of hailed as saviors.

01:14:54.597 --> 01:15:00.731
Yep um, in private, sepala was a little bit miffed he did love balto.

01:15:00.731 --> 01:15:07.970
It was one of his dogs, but he knew that balto was basically like a freight dog and he wasn't.

01:15:09.233 --> 01:15:20.177
He didn't do what togo did no, I mean he literally did almost like a fifth of it yeah, seppala said I never had a better dog than togo.

01:15:20.217 --> 01:15:25.108
Togo was the best dog that ever traveled the alaskan trail sure um.

01:15:25.108 --> 01:15:27.653
Seppala wasn't about to let his buddy fail.

01:15:27.653 --> 01:15:39.095
Uh, fade into obscurity in 1926, he and togo, along with their team of siberian huskies, went on their own tour of the lower 48.

01:15:39.095 --> 01:15:42.466
Oh nice, they did draw in some huge crowds.

01:15:42.466 --> 01:15:42.868
Good.

01:15:42.868 --> 01:15:48.774
Thousands of people came to see the other hero dog and the Iron man musher from Gnome, mm-hmm.

01:15:48.774 --> 01:15:53.780
Seppala and Togo headlined at Madison Square Garden for about 10 days.

01:15:55.126 --> 01:15:56.046
That's awesome.

01:15:56.046 --> 01:16:04.858
On that tour, Roland Amundsen, who was like a South Pole adventurerurer okay um.

01:16:04.858 --> 01:16:07.947
He presented togo with a gold medal for heroism.

01:16:08.287 --> 01:16:12.115
Oh yeah, it was, yeah it was they got some of their due.

01:16:12.176 --> 01:16:19.869
If you will, yeah, okay togo um ended up retiring and he spent his final years in.

01:16:19.869 --> 01:16:24.717
Oh I just, I just moved my shit you just moved your shit.

01:16:24.717 --> 01:16:29.269
Hold on, hold on, hold on hold please um.

01:16:29.269 --> 01:16:36.546
He spent his final years living with sepala, sepala's friend, in poland, spring maine.

01:16:38.088 --> 01:16:42.997
Poland, spring maine poland spring maine, uh, oh, so not the country Poland.

01:16:43.018 --> 01:16:43.779
No, no.

01:16:43.779 --> 01:16:45.430
Poland Spring Maine.

01:16:45.625 --> 01:16:46.810
You stopped at Poland.

01:16:47.385 --> 01:16:48.309
I did that on purpose.

01:16:48.650 --> 01:16:48.872
Why.

01:16:49.945 --> 01:16:50.909
Because I didn't read ahead.

01:16:50.909 --> 01:16:56.364
But he sired a lot of puppies, oh, good.

01:16:56.364 --> 01:17:01.615
And he continued the like Seppala Siberian sled dog lineage there.

01:17:01.917 --> 01:17:04.010
Okay, yeah, how old was he when he passed?

01:17:04.010 --> 01:17:04.350
Do you know?

01:17:05.065 --> 01:17:05.105
um.

01:17:05.126 --> 01:17:21.831
He passed away in 1929 at the age of 16 that's pretty fucking good that's good for a dog, especially with all the exertion he put through his life that's crazy sepala had togo's body preserved and mounted and taxidermied his dog you can see.

01:17:21.850 --> 01:17:29.381
See Togo himself on display at the Diatrod Museum in Wasilla, Alaska.

01:17:29.381 --> 01:17:29.980
Okay.

01:17:30.586 --> 01:17:30.827
Wow.

01:17:31.725 --> 01:17:36.954
His skeleton is at Yale's Peabody Museum.

01:17:36.954 --> 01:17:40.466
Really that's weird For Balto.

01:17:40.466 --> 01:17:46.158
He also lived out his days in retirement, mostly happy.

01:17:46.158 --> 01:17:58.134
He ended up in a sideshow in Los Angeles where he was neglected and poorly treated.

01:17:58.134 --> 01:18:14.234
Businessman named George Kimball saw what the situation was and he organized a campaign with local school children to raise money that rescued Balto and his team.

01:18:14.234 --> 01:18:31.006
They succeeded in March of 1927 and the heroes arrived in Cleveland to a hero's welcome and Balto lived out his remaining years at the Cleveland Zoo?

01:18:31.027 --> 01:18:33.109
What the fuck is wrong with Balto's owner?

01:18:33.109 --> 01:18:33.970
What?

01:18:34.030 --> 01:18:35.172
a fucking dick.

01:18:35.172 --> 01:18:36.956
I don't think it was his owner.

01:18:36.956 --> 01:18:39.059
I think it was the people who bought Balto.

01:18:39.720 --> 01:18:44.597
I don't care why the fuck did he sell him?

01:18:44.597 --> 01:18:45.947
What the fuck is wrong with this guy?

01:18:45.947 --> 01:18:50.578
He just wanted the fame that this dog brought him and he they both didn't even deserve it.

01:18:50.578 --> 01:18:52.668
Togo and sepala should have got it.

01:18:52.668 --> 01:18:55.635
Fuck that guy and you just go and sell him.

01:18:55.635 --> 01:18:57.519
Hey man, here you go.

01:18:57.519 --> 01:19:00.612
What the fuck, balto?

01:19:00.612 --> 01:19:01.793
Why do you do this to me?

01:19:01.793 --> 01:19:03.658
You're like uplifting story.

01:19:03.658 --> 01:19:05.350
Brad fucking hates people.

01:19:05.350 --> 01:19:08.212
Oh my God.

01:19:08.345 --> 01:19:11.996
Balto died in 1933 at 14 years old.

01:19:11.996 --> 01:19:20.076
He was euthanized due to health issues and, like Togo, he was mounted and placed on display.

01:19:20.176 --> 01:19:21.037
Where's his skeleton?

01:19:21.204 --> 01:19:23.055
Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

01:19:23.055 --> 01:19:23.559
Where's his skeleton?

01:19:23.559 --> 01:19:24.283
Cleveland museum of natural history.

01:19:24.304 --> 01:19:25.226
Where's the skeleton, though?

01:19:25.707 --> 01:19:29.697
I think it's one in the same, this one okay, that's why that was weird.

01:19:29.716 --> 01:19:30.926
That's uh togo.

01:19:30.926 --> 01:19:33.555
Yeah, here's his body, here's his skeleton.

01:19:33.555 --> 01:19:34.278
What the fuck?

01:19:34.278 --> 01:19:35.141
It was weird.

01:19:35.322 --> 01:19:47.268
They kind of go together in the aftermath of the serum run, honors were um given by president calvin coolidge oh good old coolidge he sent letters of commendation.

01:19:47.268 --> 01:19:49.935
Commendation to all the mushers did he send?

01:19:49.975 --> 01:19:53.329
some dog treats too we're gonna say yes.

01:19:54.353 --> 01:20:09.369
The us senate paused its work to acknowledge them good job senate mm-hmm, the pharmaceutical company that made the anti-toxin, gave each relay driver a gold medal oh nice yep.

01:20:09.369 --> 01:20:20.252
The public's fascination with slug dogs had additional effects as well I'm sure the success of the relay helped spur congress to fund ale roots.

01:20:20.252 --> 01:20:22.175
Excuse me, ale nope.

01:20:23.016 --> 01:20:43.078
Air mail routes in alaska okay and within a decade, bush pilots were routinely flying supplies in arctic winters and dog teams once the only way to travel gradually became more of a sport than a necessity hence, hence the Iditarod Mm-hmm yeah.

01:20:43.078 --> 01:20:48.076
But the 1960s snow machines replaced sled dogs.

01:20:48.076 --> 01:20:58.399
Mm-hmm, and most famously the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race became a thing.

01:20:58.904 --> 01:21:00.091
It became a sport.

01:21:00.425 --> 01:21:01.430
It became a sport?

01:21:01.470 --> 01:21:04.293
Yeah, because they still do it every year, don't they, mm-hmm yeah.

01:21:04.604 --> 01:21:11.778
It runs over 1,000 miles from Ingerton to Nome every March and it is said to commemorate the 1925 CRM run.

01:21:12.784 --> 01:21:15.632
I never knew that was the origin of the Iditarod, that's pretty cool.

01:21:16.375 --> 01:21:19.872
Exactly Now, Balto became a movie star.

01:21:21.155 --> 01:21:21.416
Sure.

01:21:23.645 --> 01:21:30.436
There is a Balto movie made in 1995 by Amblin Entertainment.

01:21:31.158 --> 01:21:31.920
Yeah, not Disney.

01:21:32.204 --> 01:21:34.694
They took a lot of liberties.

01:21:35.265 --> 01:21:36.289
Are you surprised at?

01:21:36.310 --> 01:21:40.697
that he was a half-wolf outcast.

01:21:40.697 --> 01:21:55.091
He battled treacherous terrain, a rival dog, a grizzly bear, and he had a wise-cracking goose pair and polar bears as sidekicks, and Toga was written out of that story.

01:21:55.385 --> 01:22:03.377
See, knowing this now, I will never, ever fucking watch balto however, in 2019.

01:22:03.377 --> 01:22:10.930
Okay, disney oh, they actually made something released a film titled togo.

01:22:10.951 --> 01:22:30.546
Oh, I didn't know that on their streaming platform oh, disney plus it is with willem dafoe I love, willem I love willem dafoe great and finally togo is put front and center as he should have been it's a little bit of a tearjerker right here a little bit of a nail biter right here, but we're gonna watch it.

01:22:30.627 --> 01:22:34.296
You know we are well, we'll give it a look, but we're not watching balto.

01:22:34.336 --> 01:22:36.065
Fuck that I liked balto as a kid.

01:22:36.065 --> 01:22:41.333
I don't care, I don't care no, nothing against balto.

01:22:41.673 --> 01:22:52.287
I kind of pissed at his owner and fucked them for getting the fucking recognition when they did literally, like I said, almost a fifth of what the fucking sepala and togo did.

01:22:52.306 --> 01:23:02.873
Yeah, fuck them bitches it took 94 years, but togo finally got his hollywood moment yeah, good thing he was dead balto does make a cameo in Togo.

01:23:02.873 --> 01:23:04.516
Well, he's a part of the story.

01:23:04.516 --> 01:23:07.112
He is a part of the story, but he's not the main fucking thing.

01:23:07.225 --> 01:23:08.771
That's what's irritating about it.

01:23:10.585 --> 01:23:11.046
In Nome.

01:23:11.046 --> 01:23:22.635
The memory of 1925 is still absolutely cherished, as the town has commemorative sled dog races that they call the Togo Trek.

01:23:22.635 --> 01:23:28.908
That's awesome and that is the Tgo and balto story of the 1925 serum run it's the togo story.

01:23:30.654 --> 01:23:32.439
No, nothing against the dog.

01:23:32.439 --> 01:23:47.509
Fuck that guy for selling his dog and making him live in a fucking circus, and then at least he got saved for the remaining years yes he did fuck that guy okay, so you haven't had a bacardi limon limon, limon in a while.

01:23:47.569 --> 01:23:48.612
What did you think of it?

01:23:49.173 --> 01:23:50.037
uh well, I still haven't.

01:23:50.037 --> 01:23:53.568
I've had bacardi rum with lemon and sprite.

01:23:53.847 --> 01:23:55.992
It's good I like it it's really good.

01:23:56.212 --> 01:23:57.014
I like the lemon.

01:23:57.014 --> 01:24:00.467
I especially like once we got the levels right.

01:24:00.467 --> 01:24:14.453
Yeah, because you were heavy-handed on that pour I'm usually not, so that's really surprising, and I, you know, you've seen me make a bourbon and lemonade, bourbon and sprite, bourbon and coke, whatever I pour that fucking heavy.

01:24:14.453 --> 01:24:17.198
Yeah, rum not so much so that was.

01:24:17.605 --> 01:24:20.073
It was a bit heavy, but at first, but once we balanced it out it was.

01:24:20.073 --> 01:24:20.755
It was really good.

01:24:20.755 --> 01:24:21.868
I rather enjoy it.

01:24:21.868 --> 01:24:25.296
Limon certainly a different flavor.

01:24:25.296 --> 01:24:29.087
I'm going to have to have you try that someday with a Sprite, because it's fucking delicious.

01:24:29.087 --> 01:24:32.693
Awesome, well, I suppose.

01:24:32.693 --> 01:24:33.728
All right, buffoons.

01:24:33.728 --> 01:24:35.153
That's it for today's episode.

01:24:35.738 --> 01:24:38.971
Buckle up, because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you.

01:24:38.971 --> 01:24:46.994
Next time Feeling hungry for more buffoonery, or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore.

01:24:47.244 --> 01:24:48.570
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01:24:48.570 --> 01:24:53.292
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01:24:53.292 --> 01:24:57.353
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01:24:57.353 --> 01:24:59.270
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01:24:59.270 --> 01:25:00.911
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01:25:01.244 --> 01:25:05.756
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01:25:06.284 --> 01:25:09.314
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01:25:09.765 --> 01:25:11.873
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