Seppala grumbles that Constance is too softhearted and hints that a bullet might have been the easiest solution to Togos behavioral issues. They called a team of 20 mushers, including Leonhard Seppala. Snowy Owl provided all of the adult sled dogs used in the movie. Likes driver bribed by gamblings interests; at such odds, had the team won the race Leonhard "Sepp" Seppala (September 14, 1877 January 28, 1967) was a Norwegian sled dog breeder, trainer and musher who played a pivotal role in the 1925 serum run to Nome. The title card at the beginning declares that Togo is based on a true story, but how much of this is hard history and how much is Disney magic? It had happened to others. mongrels were the best way to travel in this frozen tundra. [17] In 2019, Disney released a movie based on Seppala's feats in the 1925 serum run to Nome, titled Togo and starring Willem Dafoe as Seppala. The Scandinavian miners, including Sepp's employer, Photos by George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images and Disney. His tour finished in the State of Maine in 1927 with a challenge race in A few also suffered frostbite. Dog Mushers. After the death IN 1913 SEPPALA'S EMPLOYER Jafet Lindeberg, a mining company operator, Club was challenged by the Ruby Kennel Club. America to sojourn in Norway with her new husband. IN 1913 SEPPALA'S EMPLOYER Jafet Lindeberg, a mining company operator, entrusted him with the raising and training of a group of Siberian females and puppies, about fifteen dogs in all. Nevertheless, Seppala took off to Alaska where he started working under Lindeberg. Leonhard Seppala pictured with his 'Siberian Racers' in 1916 (top) and in 1923, with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Virgos. In After 1932 he remained in Alaska. Today he is remembered for that feat, but also for the care and concern he showed for his dogs, who were not only co-workers, but were his friends. Seppala introduced the work dogs used by Native Siberians at the time to the American public; the breed came to be known as the Siberian Husky in the English-speaking world. In 1928, Seppala moved his permanent home to near Fairbanks, Alaska. Sound, traveling 340 miles over treacherous sea ice and through blizzard They have a strong faith and can be seen as stubborn in their old ways. Portrayed by In June 1999, a memorial was . He and his wife lived in Seattle until his death at the age of 89. It was a demanding and Finally, Seppala did indeed attempt to give Togo away to a woman who tried to make him a house pet, and according to The Cruelest Miles, Togo really did escape by jumping through a windowpane. JUMP TO: Leonhard Seppalas biography, facts, family, personal life, zodiac, videos and related celebs. Togo Photo of Seppala and his Siberians in Seattle: Jonathan Hayes. [15][16] He bred Togo, and the dog's descendants contributed to the "Seppala Siberian Sleddog", a sought after sled dog line, as well as mainstream show-stock Siberian Husky lines bred in New England and eventually elsewhere. To hasten delivery of the serum, more mushers were added to the relay. [13], A diphtheria outbreak struck Seppala's town of Nome, Alaska in the winter of 1925. In October of 1926 Seppala and his team was brought to the lower 48 states for a tour and to be honored in Madison Square Garden with a medal which would be presented by the famed Explorer, Roald Amundsen. To his surprise, the dog turned out to be a fast runner and Seppala happily decided to make him a lead dog and name him Togo after admiral Tg Heihachir. [1]:68, Seppala made the decision to compete in his first race, the 1914 All Alaska Sweepstakes, at the last minute. Of course, Everyone looking on was quite amused when a Russian fur trader by the name of William Goosak pulled into the starting shoot with some half-sized bushy-tailed rat dogs he had imported from Siberia. Seppala's direct involvement with the breed that now bears After he reached his adult weight of only about 48 pounds, the real Togo had a brown, black, and gray coat that made him look constantly dirty. Yes. The real-life Seppala was astounded at the effect of the harness: The 8-month-old Togo went from pesky to serious, and Seppala finally understood what Togo had been wanting all these months: to be a member of the team. In a feat unheard of for an inexperienced puppy, Togo traveled 75 miles on this first day. Generation. At the start of Togo, Seppala arrives in town after a run to find that a diphtheria outbreak has already claimed the lives of five children. [11], During his first winter in Alaska, Seppala became a dogsled driver for Lindeberg's company. This page is updated often with latest details about Leonhard Seppala. Leonhard Seppalas mothers name is unknown at this time and his fathers name is under review. Cruises and land tours are great ways to see Alaska. He writes: WHILE SEPPALA WAS IN ALASKA the sport of dogsled racing was developed Without the antitoxin, estimated mortality rates stood anywhere from 75% to 99.99%, practically a killing blow to Nome. for the gold fields, even offering to lend him money for his passage. [4][9] When Seppala was two years old, his family moved within Troms county to nearby Skjervy municipality on the island of Skjervya. Seppala became the crucial figure in the delivery by dogsled of a Desperate, he sent radiotelegrams to the other major towns in Alaska and one to the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington, D.C., pleading for help. Please check back soon for updates. Seppala grew to adulthood and followed in his fathers footsteps as both a smithy and a fisherman. SEPPALA'S EXPLOITS and the Poland Spring kennel breeding gave He tries locking him away and later give him away to another owner twice. Whos the richest Dog Musher in the world? Knowing the severity of the weather, as well as Togo's age, Seppala had no choice, but to take the mission. The real Togo spent a few weeks at his new home before he jumped through the glass of a shut window and ran several miles back to Leonhard's kennel. He was famous for being a Dog Musher. Seppala's only childan eight-year-old daughter named Sigridwas also at risk. In the movie, Togo gets his first break by busting loose and harassing Seppalas harnessed team until Seppala finally gives him a chance run with the big dogs. of self-defense. The other sled teams only ran 31 miles each (See the movie TOGO) and participated in the 1932 Winter Olympics. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. The following year a team of ten sleddogs was brought to Nome from eastern [8] Leonhard is considered to have been Kven. After a town meeting, the phone rang at Seppala's home and the dogs in the yard began to howl. [1], Seppala set out from Nome on January 28several days before he was due to meet the relay coming to Nulato. [1]:7275[12] He went on to win the race the following two years, as well, at which point the All Alaska Sweepstakes was suspended until 1983. Leonhard Seppala and his wife Constance play with a litter of puppies on the porch of their home. Seppala manages to get his team back to the outpost of Joe Dexter and passes the serum over to his friend Gunnar Kaasen. father's fishing boat the "Leviathan" at the age of twelve, and Dog musher who was one of the men tapped to deliver a vital shipment of diptheria serum over ice-bound roads. [1]:7071, Seppala's racing career took off the following year, at the 1915 All Alaska Sweepstakes. in a blizzard and nearly going over a two-hundred-foot precipice along the at lead, again setting a new trail record for this three-day 75-mile event. He eventually manages to meet up with fellow sledder Henry Ivanoff and retrieve the serum. However, many of his dogs' paw pads had been shredded and claws broken by the ice-encrusted snow as they clawed their way back to the top of the hill. Anadyr River were imported by a wealthy young Scot, Charles 'Fox' Maule Ramsay, First Name Leonhard #3. and then in the Fairbanks gold fields until his departure from Alaska in considered the hero of the run. After a town meeting, the phone rang at Seppalas home and the dogs in the yard began to howl. At the age of twenty he went to the city of Seppala had taken the shortcut across the Sound several times in his career; a less-experienced musher was likelier to lose not only his life and the lives of his dogs, but also the urgently needed serum. In reality, the winds were in a rare state of calm, and Seppala had a crowd to cheer on the beginning of his journey to Nulatohalfway to Nome, but still a six-day journey encompassing a total of 630 miles. In the movie, Seppala sets out for Nenana in the midst of a blizzard. Lindeberg convinced Seppala to come work for his Pioneer Mining Company. And while the suspense in the movie is more than adequate, Seppala described even more danger. Diphtheria can attack healthy tissues in the respiratory system. He began to go in his Seppala gave the ageing Togo to Liz Ricker so that his old leader could enjoy a He then had to learn mining from the ground up, starting The serum! The acquisition in 1931 by Harry R. Wheeler of the three Craving an escape from his grief,. However, the descriptions in The Cruelest Miles suggest more whimsy: The cheerful and diminutive Seppala was also seen as something of a show-off, known to flip double back handsprings just for laughs and land with a somersault. As shown in the movie, Seppala did beat legendary musher Scotty Allen in a race, which marked the beginning of his own celebrity. It was there they rested and slept for six hours before continuing their journey at 2 a.m., heading into another bad storm. The story goes, the raven kept landing in the trail just ahead of the team. Leonhard Seppala and his sled dog team led by Togo spent three days traveling 170 miles from Nome to Shaktoolik to pick up the diphtheria serum on January 31, 1925. Within the year, after the dust had cleared, Seppala and Togo began to be recognized for their accomplishments. Seppala didn't start out working with dogs, though. The darkness and a blizzard also made it impossible for Leonhard Seppala to see where he was going. His tour ended in January 1927 with the dogsled race at Poland Spring, Maine, where he accepted the challenge to race against Arthur Walden, founder of the New England Sled Dog Club and owner of the famous lead dog, "Chinook". 12.5K subscribers This clip features famed Alaska dog musher Leonhard Seppala and his wife Constance Seppala sitting on the porch in front of a house and playing with a litter of puppies.. Thank you! Rocks Inn in St. Jovite Station, Quebec. The ride back proves to be just as difficult when Seppala is forced to have Togo pull him and his team from a block of ice over the Norton Sound. The Port is iced in for miles and miles. While none of the mushers lost their lives, several of them succumbed to frostbite, including Charlie Olson and Gunnar Kaasen, who completed the final two legs of the journey. In the winter of 1924-1925, a diphtheria epidemic was threatening the town of Nome, located on the southern Seward Peninsula on the northwestern coast of Alaska. conditions to bring the serum back. History vs. Hollywood visited the headquarters in 2013 and captured the photo of Togo displayed below. This film sequence is an excerpt of AAF-2240 from the Seppala-Hanks collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska \u0026 Polar Regions Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.The Alaska Film Archives appreciates your support. For some years in Seattle in his retirement he had a The odds were set at 100 to 1 against these Siberian runts. Leonhard Seppala/Living or Deceased Is Togo Balto's father? 2004). Seppala also won the All Alaska Sweepstakes in 1916 and 1917, before the race was canceled until 1983. He was by many reasonable accounts, the greatest musher of all time! Highlights plus less visited destinations. Seppala is based on the real person of the same name. Kasson received most of the early press though he only traveled 53 miles. Generation also known as The Greatest Generation. The work was difficult for Seppala, and he regretted his decision to leave home, until he became a sled dog driver, mushing supplies up to 100 miles each day. Seppala became interested in dog sledding during his first winter in Alaska when he became a sled dog driver for Lindeberg's company. This clip features famed Alaska dog musher Leonhard Seppala and his wife Constance Seppala sitting on the porch in front of a house and playing with a litter. If not for Togo finding the way and leading the team to the roadhouse at Isaac's Point on the shore, a distance of 84 miles since picking up the serum, they would have faced certain death. Ivanoff had to run after Seppala as he raced past, shouting, "The serum! racing teams were fielded, dominated the 1910 third All-Alaska Sweepstakes, Seppala initially followed in his father's footsteps as both a blacksmith and a fisherman. seventy Siberian dogs bought at the Siberian trading village of Markovo on the After a close competition between him and experienced musher Scotty Allan, Seppala defeated him on the fourth day of the race and finished two hours ahead of Allan to win the Sweepstakes. Everyone knew Sepp's abilities. Together with his dog Togo and several other dogs, he was able to brave through snowy weather and tundra to save countless of lives. Visit September to April to see the Northern Lights. She too was at risk of being stricken with diphtheria. tough and self-reliant. In 1916 the Nome Kennel One competitor described his communion with dogs as unnatural control or hypnotism.. As for Leonhard Seppala, famous as a dog sledder (), I think I knew him well because I was taken for a ride with his white dog team one Sunday. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. However, Seppala was not always so Big. Alaska at the invitation of American journalist Lowell Thomas, enjoying Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives. Fortunately, he succeeded in stopping 20 feet from the drop-off, saving all their lives. Place of Burial: Nome, Nome, Alaska, United States. stricken city. [18], Leonhard Seppala after the 1925 serum run, Role in the "Great Race of Mercy" of 1925, Last edited on 25 December 2022, at 22:30, "Alaska Airlines To Serve As Iditarod's Official Airline Sponsor", "The High North Tour 2021: "I Went to School to Learn Kven", "Leonhard Seppala, Alaska, State Archives (Juneau), Naturalization Records, 1900-1972", Photo: Winners of the Eighth All Alaska Sweepstakes from Alaska's Digital Archives, "2008 All Alaska Sweepstakes Media Guide", "The Siberian Husky: A Brief History of the Breed in America", "Alaska Airlines continues long-standing support of Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leonhard_Seppala&oldid=1129527357, This page was last edited on 25 December 2022, at 22:30. His eight-year-old daughter Sigrid was in Nome, in danger of contracting diphtheria herself. Leonhard " Sepp " Seppala ( / lnrd spl /; September 14, 1877 - January 28, 1967) was a Norwegian-American sled dog breeder, trainer and musher who with his dogs played a pivotal role in the 1925 serum run to Nome, [1] and participated in the 1932 Winter Olympics. His friend Jafet Lindeberg had returned from Alaska and convinced Seppala to come to work for his mining company in Nome. Seppala traveled a total of 261 miles to save the children of Nome. He said goodbye to Togo and gave the dog to fellow sled dog musher, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. He continues to look after Togo and even sees off his offspring which become known as The Seppala Siberiansbecause of loyalty and stamina. also apprenticed in his father's smithy. trade and allow him to work as a Master blacksmith. Leonhard Seppala: property of Jonathan Hayes. 2020 by Poland Spring Seppala Kennels. All rights reserved. included that of Gunnar Kaasen who made the final leg with cull dogs of Seppala's WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. In real life, Seppala faced a similar issue when he entered his dogs in the 1914 All Alaska Sweepstakes. And while, in the movie, Constance Seppala initially objects to her husbands participation, saying that the town should pick someone with more stake in [the diphtheria outbreak], in reality the Seppalas did have more of a stake than is indicated by the film script: They had an 8-year-old daughter named Sigrid. While he raced to the roadhouse at Isaac's Point on the opposite shore, gale-force winds drove the windchill to an estimated 85F (65C) from a real temperature of only 30F (34C). Leonhard Seppala Is A Member Of . In 1925 when a diphtheria outbreak caught everyone off guard, Seppala was approached to take Togo and his sled dogs out towards Nenana and back to Nome with a serum. supply of antiserum via an otherwise impassable route between Nenana and the While in Skjervy, his father worked as a blacksmith and fisherman, building up a relatively large estate. When Leonhard Seppala and his lead sled dog Togo began the relay to transport diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Togo was 12 years old, which is practically ancient for a sled dog. This meant avoiding rocky cliffs along the shore, but it also exposed him and his team to the dangers of the Sound. Seppala soon worried for his canine friend upon learning that he was starting to suffer from his old age. Eventually Sepp got his chance to go prospecting for the company. Leonhard did farm work, keeping the family homestead going while when a native with a crosscut saw appeared out of nowhere and trotted easily When is Leonhard Seppalas birthday? sleddogs from Chukotka, Kamschatka and the Kolyma River basin, had been placed Seppala tells the story that he won this first race due to the intervention of a raven. until he completed his "masterpiece" in December 1898, the project Seppala apparently Despite doing most of the work, the credit instead largely went to the Gunnar Kaasen-controlled sled dog Balto, who completed the last, 55-mile stretch of the Serum Run through a blizzard. A challenge race in a feat unheard of for an inexperienced puppy, Togo traveled 75 on! Life, Seppala moved his permanent home to near Fairbanks, Alaska in the midst of a.. Interested in dog sledding During his first winter in Alaska when he entered his dogs in movie! Of being stricken with diphtheria grew to adulthood and followed in his fathers footsteps as both a smithy a. 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