A sled dog named Togo became the savior of a town in Alaska. It was the year 1924-25 when a calamity struck the town of Nome in Alaska, USA. Nome was a town of fewer than 2000 people and Curtis Welch was the only doctor in the town. The calamity came in the form of Diphtheria, a highly contagious disease. The disease that struck the town people especially children was initially thought to be tonsillitis but then as children began to die, the true horror emerged. The town hospital had run out of vaccines and the ship carrying vaccines could not arrive in time due to the port being closed because of the Ice. The town folk gathered around to meet and decide how to bring in the vaccines but later realized that even airplanes could not be used because of several factors such as the planes not being suitable for cold weather because of water-cooled engines, inexperienced pilots and so on. An epidemic was bound to happen if the vaccines did not arrive on time.
The town health board and others decided that there was only one way to get the vaccines – dispatch sled dogs. It was decided by the board of Health that two dogsled teams would be used to get the vaccines. One team would start at Nome (the diseased town) and the other would start at Nenana and two would meet at Nulato. The serum would be transported to Nenana from where it would be collected by a dogsled team that would then meet the other team at Nulato who would collect it and take it to Nome. A Norwegian man named Leonhard Seppala was chosen among other mushers to lead the dogsled team from Nome to Nulato – a round trip of 630 miles (1024 km) – his route was the most dangerous part of the trail. He was a legendary musher who had earlier made a run from Nome to Nulato in a record-breaking four days. The trip from Nulato to Nome normally took 30 days, although the record was nine. Leonhard was to be accompanied by his equally legendary dog Togo who would lead the sled team.
Togo was a male Siberian Husky. As a puppy, he was sickly and required lots of care from Leonhard’s wife. He was highly intelligent but was rowdy and very gutsy and showed every sign of becoming an undisciplined and uncontrollable adult dog. He refused to be confined and would somehow always escape. Leonhard had no use for such a would-be delinquent dog and so he gave away Togo when the puppy was only six months old. Little did Leonhard know that Togo would become one of the greatest dogs to have ever lived! After a few weeks of being given away, Togo made a dramatic escape by crashing through the glass window of his new owner’s home and ran back to Leonhard’s home. It seems he knew his destiny lay with his former owner Leonhard and no one else. This time Leonhard did not give him away but Togo continued to be a trouble maker and would challenge, irritate, and attack other dogs. He once attacked a Malamute leader and was mauled in return and this proved to be a good lesson for him. One day when Togo was eight months old, he caused a lot of trouble to Leonhard by provoking and distracting the other dogs in Leonhard’s sled team. Leonhard got fed up and put young Togo in a harness to control him. He was surprised to see Togo instantly accept the harness and joyously run with the other dogs. Leonhard, seeing Togo’s stamina and speed kept moving him up in the line and towards the end of the day, Togo, even as an 8-month-old puppy, had run 75 miles sharing the lead position with another dog named Russky. No dog had ever done that and Leonhard knew Togo was born not just to be a sled dog but a sled dog team leader. Leonhard realized that in Togo, he had a priceless dog. After that day, everything changed for Togo.
Now coming back to the calamity. The first batch of serum was delivered by train from Anchorage to Nenana where it was picked up by the first set of mushers and more than 100 sled dogs. Leonhard and Togo (as the sled team leader) traveled 260 miles (420 km) from Nome in three days and picked up the serum in Shaktoolik. Their journey was full of terrible hardships that included temperatures as low as -34 degrees Celcius and very strong icy gale winds that caused a wind chill of -65 degrees Celcius. Their journey included some very treacherous terrains, breaking and constantly moving seawater ice that would swallow any human or dog in seconds, icy cold blizzards, and whatnot. There was certain death lurking at every step of the journey. In many places, the ice was such that it was difficult to even for the seasoned dogs to get a foothold. Leonhard knew of a shortcut across Norton Sound that would save one day of travel but this shortcut was extremely dangerous and only a seasoned musher with a sled team leader like Togo could navigate this shortcut. After terrible hardships, the team did cross Norton Sound only to discover that only after a few hours the ice (that served as a bridge to them) broke up and melted into the sea. It was a truly heroic journey. After stopping for rest at some places, Leonhard finally delivered the serum to another musher named Charlie Olsen who in turn passed it to another musher named Gunnar Kaasen who finally reached Nome with his sled dog team led by another legendary dog named Balto. This entire journey and this episode are known as the ‘Great Serum Run’. There is no doubt that Togo displayed brilliant leadership and a stupendous degree of fearlessness during the hazardous journey. No lesser dog could have suited the role of team leader. Togo indeed saved many human lives and a possible epidemic.
In the aftermath, it was actually Balto who got more credit than Togo and this hurt Leonhard a lot. No doubt Balto was a great dog but his team covered only the last leg of 55 miles that was a small part of the journey. Togo and his team traveled almost 260 miles battling numerous dangers – his journey involved more dangers than that of Balto’s journey). Togo outran Balto by more than 200 miles and so rightfully deserves a place in history. Eventually, people (especially mushers) did come to realize the truth of Togo’s greatness and accomplishment. Had Togo not delivered the serum, Balto would not have become a legendary dog either.
Togo was euthanized at the age of 16. Many newspapers praised him and he is now a legendary dog. His mounted skin can be seen in a glass case at Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Headquarters museum in Wasilla, Alaska. The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University has his skeleton in their collection. Walt Disney Productions has made a wonderful movie on Togo in which Willen Defoe plays the role of Leonhard Seppala. The dog actor named Diesel played the role of Togo. The movie named ‘Togo’ was released on Dec 20, 2019. We see that as a puppy, Togo was rowdy, rebellious, and difficult to manage but as soon as he was put in the sled team he quickly became a legend. We often see this happening in the lives of many people also. Many people are also underestimated, derided, ridiculed, and considered useless or failure but as soon as they start doing what they are meant to do, they achieve great success and glory.
Here is a photo of the real Togo
By Stefannaumovv – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
Article Author: Manish Jaitly
Blog Post Featured Image by 272447 from Pixabay
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