Nenana celebrates serum run anniversary
The Serum Run centennial celebration is here and Nome as well as Nenana are hosting events in honor of the historic event that commemorates the transport of lifesaving diphtheria serum run by relay of dog teams from Nenana to Nome. In Nenana, where on January 27, 1925 serum was taken off the railroad and packed into the first dog sled, the town held a celebration last Friday and a reenactment on Saturday, complete with a team of Siberian huskies gearing up for a run to Nome.
“It’s a part of our history that’s kind of been forgotten. And so we’ve been talking about and preparing for this for years and wanting to make a bigger deal about it,” Mayor of Nenana Joshua Verhagen told the Nugget.
On January 24 a celebration was held at the Nenana Civic Center with dinner, a discussion of the history behind the serum run and a watch party of the Disney movie “Togo”, the most trusted lead dog of Leonard Seppala, who played a major part in the 1925 run.
Then, Saturday was the day. Jonathan Hayes, a musher from Maine, and his 12 Siberian huskies and crew arrived in Nenana after a tumultuous journey including a slight delay due to an avalanche on the Parks Highway.
Hayes owns and operates Poland Spring Seppala Kennels in Fort Kent, Maine where the iconic musher Leonhard Seppala established a kennel. Hayes plans to mush the entire trail of the serum run, traveling 674 miles from Nenana to Nome.
On Saturday the team held a meet and greet with the people of Nenana outside the railroad depot that received the lifesaving serum by train to the town 100 years ago.
In 1925, Bill “Wild Bill” Shannon was the first musher out of Nenana, and though the conditions of over 60 below are nowhere near what Hayes will face, it’s still going to be rough riding.
Aaron Burmeister, who was raised in Nome and has run the Iditarod 22 times, lives in Nenana and grooms the trail Hayes will begin his journey on.
“The main trail that was originally run is not usable and I don’t have it maintained this year, there wasn’t enough snow and there's a lot of open water and treacherous stretches of that trail,” Burmeister told the Nugget. “So we had to come up with an alternative route.”
Burmeister flew the area beforehand to scout a viable trail for Hayes and his crew, which includes two trailbreakers on snowmachines and a videographer who is making a movie of Hayes’ trip.
There’s a big difference in the trail Hayes is on now from 100 years ago. Back then it was the mail trail, used much more and with places to stop every 30 miles, Burmeister said. “They have a heck of an adventure and a lot of challenges ahead of them,” Burmeister said.
When Hayes left Nenana on Monday January 27, he was carrying a replica of the box that held the serum and made the trip to Nome by relay. Many community members contributed to the making of the box, Mayor Verhagen said, and to top it all off they filled it with nine vials labeled with different pandemics that have happened in the last 100 years, including COVID-19.
The box also contains a set of letters from the students at Nenana City School to the students of Nome Public Schools.
“We’re sending some good will to Nome with those vials,” Verhagen said.
The box was also part of the reenactment, sent from Anchorage to Nenana by train, but because of weather the train was stopped in Talkeetna and sent back. Then it took a day to retrieve it from the railroad and find someone who was headed up their way. Verhagen and his wife drove to Healy to pick the box up just in time.
“It was like a relay all over again,” Verhagen wrote.
Hayes reported from the trail it was tough getting going due to the rain and flooding, but over the next few days the weather in the interior will cool significantly making for better conditions. Hayes expects to be in Nome by the end of the second week of February.