| The annual dog sled race in Alaska, the Iditarod race, | | | | and pick up the medicine.The medicine was taken to |
| is held the second Saturday in March each year. The | | | | Nenana from Anchorage by the Alaska Railroad. A |
| race starts in Anchorage with the finish line in Nome, | | | | dog sled relay would be used to pick up the medicine |
| approximate distance of 1,200 miles. The first race | | | | at Nenana, a town north of Anchorage. Twenty |
| was held March 3, 1973. Since that first race, the | | | | mushers volunteered to relay the medicine from |
| popularity of this event has grown through the | | | | Nenana to Nome, 674 miles away. It was 50 below |
| years, along with the amount of the prize money. | | | | zero, when the first musher left Nenana and six days |
| The winner of the 1973 race received $50,000 and | | | | later, on February 2, 1925, the dog team of Gunner |
| today that amount has increased to around | | | | Kaassen arrived in Nome. Legend has it that on this |
| $500,000.The mushers spend anywhere from a few | | | | last leg of the trip, a big gust of wind turned the sled |
| thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars on | | | | over, with the life-saving serum falling out onto the |
| the race. Not only do they have the entry fee to | | | | snow. Kaassen used his bare hands to dig the serum |
| pay, but also the cost of their sled, their clothes and | | | | out of the snow, turned his sled upright and |
| equipment; plus the cost of keeping their dogs all | | | | proceeded to finish the trip into Nome.The lead husky |
| year, which estimated total cost of everything runs | | | | of Kaassen's dog team was Balto. He immediately |
| around $60,000. They do have corporate sponsors | | | | became a world hero, as the world had been |
| who sponsor them, which helps to defray their | | | | watching this story unfold through newspaper |
| cost.The Alaska Iditarod is to Alaska about the same | | | | accounts. Balto traveled the United States for two |
| as the Indy 500, the Super Bowl or the Olympics. It | | | | years after the serum run, with people celebrating his |
| is the longest distance dog sled race in the world. It | | | | heroic deeds that helped save the children in |
| was originated as a tribute to an actual event which | | | | Nome.Then in 1933 when Balto died, his preserved |
| occurred during the winter of 1925. During that winter | | | | body was put on display at Cleveland's Natural |
| of 1925, a deadly outbreak of diphtheria had struck, | | | | History Museum. His popularity lives on, as in 1995 an |
| threatening all the children of Nome. They needed the | | | | animated movie about Balto was made.He has |
| serum to fight this disease, but the serum was in the | | | | become a highlight with the Alaskan children and |
| city of Anchorage, over 1,000 miles away to the | | | | some are working to get Balto brought back to his |
| southeast.There was one airplane that could have | | | | home state of Alaska to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog |
| been flown to Anchorage to pick up the medicine, | | | | Race Museum in Wasilla.Balto is also partly responsible |
| but it had been dismantled and stored for the winter. | | | | for the Iditarod race which was first started in 1973. |
| A large Alaskan wilderness of uninhabited land lay | | | | It is held to commemorate the courage of the |
| between Anchorage and Nome. There was frozen | | | | mushers and the dogs who participated in that life or |
| and rough terrain with no roads. As a last resort, it | | | | death race to save the children of Nome. |
| was decided to try sled dogs to travel to Anchorage | | | | |