Mush! The Yukon River’s Huskies of 1925 and Today
The Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race became legendary very quick after being started in 1973. But what is ignored or forgotten is the legendary story of an emergency dog sled run that saved Alaskan natives residing in the far-fetched frostbitten town of Nome in 1925. That run not only influenced the creation of the Iditarod sled race but also influenced how the “Huskies” moniker came to be at the University of Connecticut.
When the Connecticut Agricultural College became the Connecticut State College in 1933, the school’s athletic teams could no longer be called the “Aggies”. In 1934, the student newspaper, The Connecticut Campus, conducted a student survey to select a mascot. The top choice was the Siberian husky. A student contest resulted in naming the dog “Jonathan” for Jonathan Trumbull, Connecticut’s Revolutionary War-era governor. But nowhere is it mentioned what influenced the students to choose the Siberian husky as the school’s mascot.
Mushing was already popular due to the last gold rushes in the United States in Alaska in the late 1800s and early 1900s. After mining towns were shut down, mushing became a regular open competition sport. The first major competition was the incredibly popular 1908 All-Alaska Sweepstakes, which ran from Nome to Candle and back. Siberian huskies were introduced for mushing in Alaska in 1910, quickly replacing the Alaskan malamute and other mixed breed huskies. The race was discontinued in 1918 due to World War I.
The most famous event in the history of Alaskan mushing is the 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the “Great Race of Mercy”. A diphtheria epidemic threatened particularly the Alaskan native children of Nome, who had no immunity to the “white man’s disease”, and the nearest quantity of antitoxin was found to be in Anchorage. Patients were dying the day they were diagnosed. Nome was completely inaccessible by plane or ship at this point. Without the antitoxin, the expected mortality rate was close to 100%. The exact toll is not known because the Alaskan natives had a tradition, or as reported, “habit”, of burying their children without reporting their deaths.
The antitoxin was transported by train from the port of Seward to Nenena, near Fairbanks, and then was transported 674 miles by dog sled to Nome in five and a half days. Twenty mushers and about 150 sled dogs undertook the very arduous task. Temperatures were far below zero. This trip normally took 25 days. The natives of Nome were saved. This event also revolutionized the transport of goods during winter months. The snowmobile almost drove the sled dog into being obsolete in the 1960s but recreational mushing was revived through the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race.
The mushers were nationally praised as heros. Many mushers today believe the true heros are 3-time All-Alaska Sweepstakes champion Leonhard Seppala and his team of dogs led by Tero because they ran the longest and most hazardous leg but it was Gunnar Kaasen and his team led by a Siberian husky named Balto who became celebrities for running the last leg and toured the west coast from February 1925 to December 1925 and starred in a 30-minute film, titled “Balto’s Race to Nome”. A statue of Balto was unveiled in New York City’s Central Park during a visit on December 25, 1925. Balto and the other dogs became part of a sideshow and lived in horrible conditions until rescued and given a hero’s welcome by the Cleveland Zoo. Because of age, Balto was euthanized on March 14, 1933, at the age of 14. He was mounted and placed on display in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Is it a coincidence the bronze statue of Balto in Central Park looks very similar to the bronze statue of Jonathan in Storrs? Just over two months before the legendary sled run, the Connecticut Agricultural College Aggies achieved a milestone season in football, being undefeated. Some of the run itself was along the Yukon River.
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