Iditarod: Racing Against Death

Iditarod: Racing Against Death

Lance Mackey crossed the finish line first in the Iditarod Trail
Sled Dog Race yesterday, the second year in a row that he's
won the race. It's kind of a family tradition -- both his brother
and his father have won the race through Alaska, which this
year awarded the winner $69,000 and a new truck.

For Edgar Nollner, though, his trip to Nome, Alaska, back in
1925 was "simply a day's work," The Times reported in 1999
shortly after his death. He and 19 other mushers formed a
relay to transport serum more than 670 miles to save Nome's
1,429 residents from a raging diphtheria epidemic. The trip
dominated radio broadcasts and newspaper headlines, and
inspired the Iditarod race.

"Delivery by air seemed the obvious answer," The Times
wrote, "but with Alaska's only two planes, both open-cockpit
models, crated for the winter, the territorial Governor, Scot C.
Bone, knew such an effort would be futile -- and in the frigid,
windy weather almost certainly fatal. He was willing to let
pilots risk their lives, but he would not risk the serum.

"So, turning to a more reliable, 19th-century technology, he
ordered the serum sent by rail from Anchorage to Nenana,
298 miles to the north. From there, it would be a matter of
men and their dogs."



From The Times: "Edgar Nollner, 94, Dies; Hero in Epidemic" (Jan. 24,
1999)
From The Times: "Warm Welcome for Winner of Iditarod" (March 13, 2008)