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A century ago 300,000 vials of antitoxin were rushed from Nenana to Nome as the western Alaska community succumbed to diphtheria. This weekend, three local sled dog teams are reenacting a small segment of the journey that saved Nome.
The forecast calls for 34 degree temps on Sunday, not quite as cold as the sub-zero temps Gunnar Kaasen experienced a century ago. The Norwegian mushed the final segment of 1925’s Serum Run led by his famed husky, Balto.
President of Nome Kennel Club, Jessica Lemaire, is one of the mushers hitting the trail this weekend.
“We're really looking at honoring those dogs that came across in some pretty gnarly weather," Lemaire said.
Lemaire will be joined on the trail by Garrick Fuller and Sarah Richards. The mushers plan on leaving Nome Saturday for the 20 mile journey to Safety. It’ll be a snowy journey, but nothing like what Kaasen’s dog team went through.
“Just the idea of those dogs marching through that weather and those conditions and the mushers that took them through it, to be able to honor those dogs," Lemaire said. "Even in just the small part that we're doing, Safety to Nome is I think really neat.”
The reenactment is the finale of a week of activities in Nome, including a series of museum talks and a Serum Run themed trivia night. The trio of mushers plan to make it back to town Sunday afternoon, where they’ll hand over a commemorative vial to a hospital employee.
KNOM will be sharing photos from the trail through a special livestream, including a live map. You can find that at knom.org/serumrunlive starting around 2:00 p.m. Saturday.
