Bill Hanks and Sigrid Seppala-Hanks, Burlingame, California
Cussie Kauer, Nome, Alaska
Ruthmarie McDowell, Seattle, Washington
Steve Misencik, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio
Benoni Nelson, Knik Museum and Mushers Hall of Fame, Knik, Alaska
Dan O'Neill, Fairbanks, Alaska
Vesta Polsen, Hillsboro, Oregon
Donna Redding and Mike Zaidlic, Bureau of Land Management, Anchorage, Alaska
Penny Rennick, Alaska Geographic Society, Anchorage, Alaska
Sled Dog Museum and Iditarod Headquarters, Wasilla, Alaska
Jerry A. Steiger, Meteorologist, National Weather Service, Nome, Alaska
Jack Strege, Everett, Arizona
Dr. Bill Stringer, Prof. Emeritus, Geophysical Institute, Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska
Pam and Bob Thomas, International Siberian Husky Club, Elkhorn, Wisconsin
Dirk Tordoff, Film Archivist, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska
Kenneth A. Ungermann, St. Augustine, Florida
Jona Van Zyle, Eagle River, Alaska
Ann Walsh of Fairbanks, Alaska
Jim and Betty Walsh of Seattle, Washington
Joe Walsh of Fairbanks, Alaska
Janice Weiland, Arlington, Virginia
Jean Summers-Wolf, San Francisco
Dale and Nancy Wolff, Dayton, Ohio
Web Sites
www.akc.org (The American Kennel Club)
www.anch0rage.ak.blm.gov/inht3.html (Bureau of Land Management's Iditarod National Historic Trail)
www.iditarod.com (Iditarod Trail Committee)
www.ckcusa.com/seppala/isssc.htm (International Seppala Siberian Sled Dog Club)
www.ckcusa.com/seppala/isssc.htm (Leonhard Seppala's geneology)
www.gi.alaska.edu (Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks)
http://home.no.net/tunheim/seppala/seppalae.htm (Leonhard Seppala's history in Norway)
www.iarc.uaf.edu (International Arctic Research Center)
www.ishclub.org/history.html (International Siberian Husky Club)
www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/croads/eskimo.html (Arctic Studies Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)
www.nomekennelclub.com (Nome Kennel Club)
www.nomenugget.com (Nome Nugget, Alaska's oldest newspaper)
www.theserumrun.com (Colonel Vaughan's Annual Commemorative Run)
www.txoms-slekt.coni/historical/kaasen/gkmain.htm (Gunnar Kaasen's genealogy)
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the resources, support, and hospitality of many people and institutions across the United States during the three years we spent researching and writing. At the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, we are particularly grateful to Professor Terrence Cole of the history department. We also thank Syun-Ichi Akasofu, director of the International Arctic Research Center; Julia Triplehorn, librarian of the Keith B. Alather Library at the Geophysical Institute; and library assistant Ann Wood. We are also indebted to the dedicated staff at the university's Elmer E. Rasmuson Library: Robyn Russell, Dr. William Schneider, Dr. Susan Grigg, Caroline Atuk, Peggy Asbury, Richard Veazey, Rose Speranza, and Dirk Tordoff.
Ted Fathauer, lead forecaster of the National Weather Service in Fairbanks; four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher; sea-ice expert Dr. William Stringer; and Dermot Cole, reporter for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, were all generous with their time and help. To the ever-patient Campbell family in Tanana, thank you for the firsthand experience driving dogs in bush Alaska; and thanks to Dan O'Neill and Sarah Campbell for recounting their trip by dog team over the entire serum run trail.
We found a warm welcome wherever we traveled in Alaska. We would especially like to thank Richard K. Nelson for his inspiration; Diane Brenner and Kathleen Hertel of the Anchorage Museum of History and Art; Igor Kripnick of the Arctic Studies Center; Penny Rennick of the Alaska Geographic Society; Judy Skagerberg at the Alaska State Archives; Bea Shephard of the Methodist Church Archives; Anne Laura Wood of the Alaska State Library; Mike Zaidlic and Donna Redding at the Bureau of Land Management; Dr. Robert Fortuine of the University of Alaska, Anchorage; Bruce Merrell of the Loussac Library; Joanne Potts of the Iditarod Trail Committee, Inc.; and Benoni Nelson at the Knik Museum and Mushers Hall of Fame.
Descendants of both Leonhard Seppala and Gunnar Kaasen offered freely of their time and memories. We would like to thank the many relatives of Gunnar Kaasen in both America and Norway, especially Jack Strege, Janice Weiland, and Stein Kaasen. We also thank the late Sigrid Seppala-Hanks and Bill Hanks for their assistance.
Nome of 1925 could not have been brought to life without help from many longtime residents such as Ruthmarie McDowell, Vesta Polsen, and Jean-Summers Wolf. As all researchers into Nome find out sooner or later, the many members of the Walsh clan were both gracious and informative. Our guide and host in Nome, fourth-generation Nome resident Cussy Kauer, was indispensable. She helped us in so many ways, often from 5,000 miles away, that we could never adequately thank her. Her Nome Cemetery Project, which city councilman Stan Andersen pushed through, was particularly vital to our efforts to reconstruct the epidemic. Others in Nome who helped were Deborah L. Redburn, John Handeland, Laura Samuelson, Lana Harris, Leslie Simone, Branson Tungiyan, Jerry A. Steiger, and Wes Perkins.
Researching the story of the serum run we also accumulated debts in England, Canada, and across the Lower 48. Many experts enthusiastically shared their knowledge with us, including the entire staff of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, particularly their Balto expert, curator Steve Misencik; Sarah Bartash at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo; Kenneth A. Ungermann, who wrote the classic account of the serum run more than forty years ago; Ed Blechner, whose devotion and tireless efforts to honor Togo's memory, upon finding his mount atop a refrigerator in a closet in Vermont, resulted in the dog hero's return to Alaska; Bob and Pam Thomas of the International Siberian Husky Club; Susan Carroll of the Merck Archives; Blaine Maley and Sara Cedar Miller at the Central Park Conservancy; Jonathan Kuhn at the New York City Parks Department; Barbara Narendra at Yale University's Peabody Museum; Polly C. Darnell and Barbara Rathburn of the Shelburne Museum in Vermont; John Parascandola and Marjorie Ciarlanti of the National Archives in Washington, D.C.; Elsie Chadwick of the Siberian Husky Club in Toronto; Julie Muhlstein of the Everett Herald; Jim Bowman of the Glenbow Archives in Calgary; Red Cross historian Jean Waldman; Herb Farmer at the USC Moving Image Archives; Gregory Malak of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum; and Ken Atherton, formerly of the UK Hydrographic Office. Others who were helpful include Julian "Bud" Lesser and Marjorie Fasman, the children of Sol Lesser; Jona Van Zyle; Dale and Nancy Wolff; Terris C. Howard; Matt Morgan; Lance McLean; and Wendy Fitzgerald.
The writing of a book is always a group effort, and we thank our many friends and family members who read draft after draft of the manuscript. In particular we thank our parents for their continued support, insight, home-cooked meals, and a refuge in the country for writing; we thank Ricky Fortunato, Dermot Cole, Terrence Cole, Dan O'Neill, and Bob and Pam Thomas for their careful reading, and Aly Sujo for his fine-tuning. Our cousin Ned Salisbury provided brilliant art direction; Adrienne Salisbury helped with photo and film research; and Harry Zernike was a merciless photo editor. The wonderful staff at Norton were behind the book from the beginning, particularly our editor, Starling Lawrence, and assistant editor, Morgen Van Vorst, as well as Louise Brockett, Jeannie Luciano, Felice Mello, Elizabeth Riley, and Bill Rusin.
Above all we want to thank the woman who has been there from the start, whose enthusiasm and editorial insight never wavered no matter what the condition of the trail, and who guided us along every step of the way, our friend and agent Susan Rabiner.
Finally we honor the "indomitable spirit" of the dog drivers and sled dogs of Alaska who together "carved a legend in the snow," and to the memory of all the dear dogs we've loved so well: Mu
ffin, Major, Maoser, Magic, Piggy, Trixie, Jack, Lochy, Piper, Piper II, Cosmo, Frisbee, and Sasha.
The Cruelest Miles: the Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic Page 32