Once the diphtheria antitoxin was located in Seward, a plan had to engineered to get the medicine to Nome 938 miles away. The railroad ran to Nenana just south of Fairbanks. There would still be 674 miles to Nome. From there, supplies and mail were loaded onto dogsleds and the durable canine freight dogs and the equally durable mushers delivered their cargo to the far western communities. It too about 25 days to get from Nenana to Nome. To expedite the journey of the serum a plan was devised to send two dogs teams to meet each other. One would start from Nenana, the other from Nome. They’d meet in Nulato. That plan changed.
On January 30th, George Tollner handed the serum over to Charlie Evans in Bishop Mountain. Evans, and Athabascan Native was 21 years old. He covered the 30 miles to Nulato in five hours with his five dog team. Temperatures were extremely cold, minus 64 degrees.
Mail carrier, Tommy (Patsy) Patson carried the serum 36 miles to Kaltag. His average speed was 10 miles per hour. His was the fastest leg of the 674 miles journey.
Jack Nicolai (Jackscrew) left Kaltag with the serum for the forty mile run to Old Woman Cabin. Old Woman cabin is know by the mushers of today. Musher who stay there leave food for the old woman otherwise, she’ll follow them to Nome bringing bad luck. The old cabin has been replaced by a Forest Service Safety Cabin.
Victor Anagick a Native of Unalakleet drove his 11 dog team to Old Woman Cabin, collected the serum from Jackscrew and returned 34 miles to Unalakleet early on the morning of January 31st.
