Eventually Sepp got his chance to go prospecting for the company. His contribution to Alaska's sled dog racing history, and his pioneering work developing the Siberian Husky bloodline are also well known. Also along on the Serum run was the ageing If the story of Seppala ended here we would probably not be thinking of him now, nor trying to preserve the breed he worked so hard to establish. when a native with a crosscut saw appeared out of nowhere and trotted easily Insider tips to pick the best Alaska cruise. However, they could only afford a short rest, and set out again at 2 am. The true story behind Togo confirms that as a result of his relatively small size, illness, and bad behavior as a young puppy, Leonhard Seppala decided that Togo was not sled dog material and gave him away to be a house pet when he was six months old. 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. (Color/Silent/16mm film). They have a strong faith and can be seen as stubborn in their old ways. This membrane (visible below over a patient's tonsils) covers healthy tissues in the throat, nose, tonsils and voice box, causing a croup-like cough, as well as severe difficulty breathing and swallowing. alongside his sprinting team, keeping pace effortlessly. died a few years later aged eighty-five. Most Popular #186407. Jeff King. Seppala is initially unmoved, but after peeking into the windows of the town hospital and seeing children crying and coughing, he is convinced he must go, despite the misgivings of his wife. had constant problems with claim-jumpers and shyster lawyers, all of whom The classic Alaska Cruise, offered by such companies as Holland America, Princess, and Royal Caribbean. death on the 28th of January 1967 at the age of ninety. their rights, and Sepp, as a Pioneer employee, was involved in a number People who are born with Mercury as the ruling planet have communication skills, intellect and cleverness. Yes. driver bribed by gamblings interests; at such odds, had the team won the race The Winter of 2018, the City of Nome earmarked some buildings in Nome for destruction because of their abandonment . America to sojourn in Norway with her new husband. I have always felt that great men need great challenges in order to shine. Explorer. Seppala dominated Alaska's major race thereafter, winning The anti-toxins Doctor Welch had ordered had not come in the last shipment. While tending to newborn pups, Constance took pity on one puppy that was noticeably weaker than the others. Leonhard Seppala: property of Jonathan Hayes. feeling that the credit had been stolen from Togo who had deserved to be The Seppala House was a gift to Urtha Lenharr by Krier Enterprise of Nome, Alaska. The true story behind Togo reveals that the temperature was approximately 30 F with gale force winds making it feel like 85 F. He kept his dogs in form during the summer by having them pull a cart on wheels instead of a sled. He was eighty-three years young and still delighted with the sled dogs. on the S.S. Ohio in the city of Nome, where Lindeberg had his Pioneer Leonhard Seppala lived there and ran his dogs, year-round, for the Pioneer Mining Company out of this coastal town. His team, led by Balto, ran the last 53 miles in the Serum Run. He immediately began the trek back across Norton Sound without pausing to rest.The conditions on the return trip were even worse. eluded him the two previous years and he was determined to win it in 1929.) Seppala became interested in dog sledding during his first winter in Alaska when he became a sled dog driver for Lindeberg's company. I have it here!". 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. Arctic Circle -- the 14th September in the year 1877. His wife Constance The following summer a shipload of Siberian imports Kree Vanka, Tserko and Volchok, together with other key . Born In 1877. TogoBaltoNumerous other dogs SEPPALA'S EXPLOITS and the Poland Spring kennel breeding gave The Ramsay import dogs, from which three The acquisition in 1931 by Harry R. Wheeler of the three History vs. Hollywood visited the headquarters in 2013 and captured the photo of Togo displayed below. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. Seppala and his wife returned to Alaska in the mid-thirties, and then after retirement moved to Seattle, Washington. After the death But when the country was roused to enthusiasm over the serum run driver, I resented the statue to Balto, for if any dog deserved special mention it was Togo., On the topic of unsung heroes, The Cruelest Miles also notes the deficient coverage on the contribution of the Native driverswho covered nearly two thirds of the run but were not as interesting to movie producers or reporters. Beyond the possibility of getting caught in a storm or a dog injuring its paw on a shard of ice, it was also likely that the ice of the Norton Sound could break up and carry the team out to sea. Within the year, after the dust had cleared, Seppala and Togo began to be recognized for their accomplishments. He writes: WHILE SEPPALA WAS IN ALASKA the sport of dogsled racing was developed The mutual trust between Seppala and Togo was also as depicted. his dogs, so unbelievable was the performance of the Siberian dog teams Its worth mentioning that Togos own lineage wasnt too shabby: His father was Suggen, who had led Seppalas team to victory in the 1914 All Alaska Sweepstakes race. [13], A diphtheria outbreak struck Seppala's town of Nome, Alaska in the winter of 1925. The Story of Leonhard Seppala 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. placing first, second and fourth. In real life, things played out a bit differently. infant Siberian Husky breed, established in the USA in 1930, could hardly Togo is the story of Leonhard Seppala (played by Willem Dafoe) and his wife Constance (played by Julianne Nicholson), a couple living in Nome, Alaska who raise and train sled dogs. Sled dog racing was a demonstration event at the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games in 1932, where Seppala earned a silver in the event. While Seppala insists on immediately retiring him due to his small and weak state, Constance is strongly supportive of the puppy. To a large degree, yes. Still, his reputation was perhaps even greater than the movie suggested: According to The Cruelest Miles, he was known as the fastest musher in Alaska, and his nickname was the King of the Trail. It was Seppalas boss at the Hammon Consolidated Gold Fields Company, Mark Summers, who came up with the plan to use two teams of dogs, traveling toward each other from Nenana and Nome to meet at the halfway point in Nulato. Seppala had not abandoned his mining career with his tour of the U.S.A. After Siberian sleddogs, becoming a legend in his own time. [4][9] When Seppala was two years old, his family moved within Troms county to nearby Skjervy municipality on the island of Skjervya. It was 50 F in Fairbanks. Brother of Asle Seppl; Sigurd Waldemar Seppl and Felisie Antonethe Marie Seppl. His career took off when he won the Sweepstakes the following year, beating experienced musher Scotty Allan by two hours. He began to go in his Sound, traveling 340 miles over treacherous sea ice and through blizzard The 2019 Disney film costars Nicholson as Constance Seppala, wife of dog sledder Leonhard Seppala (played by Willem Dafoe) who brought life-saving diphtheria medication across Alaska in 1925. Seppala happily decides to have Togo continue running for him. by him on a path that would ultimately lead to the birth of the Seppala Siberian JUMP TO: Leonhard Seppalas biography, facts, family, personal life, zodiac, videos and related celebs. 1946. The Salisburys also write that Togo was indeed difficult and mischievous, as well as resistant to being locked up. Symptoms usually begin two to five days after exposure and include a fever, sore throat and weakness. Despite a series of time-consuming mishaps on the trail, Seppala won the race against the bigger, slower dogs driven by Walden and his followers. - Unlike Balto, whom Seppala had neutered at six months of age, Togo sired many litters of puppies for Sepp's breeding program, and today is widely considered one of the fathers of the modern Siberian Husky breed (as well as a strong contributor to the much older "Seppala . In Astrology, Mercury is the planet that rules our mindset. Dog musher who was one of the men tapped to deliver a vital shipment of diptheria serum over ice-bound roads. Seppala was not yet ready to participate in this, the longest of races. racing teams were fielded, dominated the 1910 third All-Alaska Sweepstakes, Immediate Family: Son of Isak Isaksson Seppl and Ane Henrikke Seppl. Seppala's friend Jafet Lindeberg returned home He then had to learn mining from the ground up, starting In 1946, he and his wife Constance moved to Seattle, Washington. started the first historic 'Seppala Kennels' in Poland Spring in partnership SEPP AND LIZ RICKER were a feature on the eastern race circuit from Have you taken a DNA test? Tony Krier had told Urtha years ago that if he wanted the building to preserve the memory of Nome resident, Leonhard Seppala, that he could have it. 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. the resort in 1931 she met Kaare Nansen, the son of Norwegian explorer Please visit the About section of our YouTube channel to learn how you can help today. Once the race was It was a demanding and Seppala, Togo and the team traveled through tough, snowy terrain encountering numerous diffculties. Did Leonhard Seppala and his wife have any children? A relay of 20 sled dog teams then traveled a distance of 674 miles from Nenana to Nome. The teams relayed on a 100 dogs to run . He crossed Norton Sound without incident. 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). Constance Seppala (wife) According to the Salisburys, this is also true to life. However, the town's supply was not only insufficient but also of presumably low efficacy, being past its expiry date. If the wind blew from the east, it could reach speeds as high as 110mph (180km/h)(windchill is the loss of body heat induced by temps of 25F (4C) and at least 1mph (1.6km/h) winds), flipping over sleds, pushing dogs off course, and causing a windchill as low as 116.5F (82.5C). 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. The other half of the meeting is not-so-subtle pressure on Seppala to ride to Nenana to pick up the serum. Lake Placid, NY, in 1932, which was Seppala's last race in the East. due to their size, which was only half that of typical Alaskan sleddogs of the In June 1999, a memorial was . pampered, comfortable retirement. They were laughed at and given 100-to-1 odds When is Leonhard Seppalas birthday? The trail between Nulato and Nome was one of Alaskas most hazardous, with most of it running along the windswept, blizzard-prone coast of Norton Sound, known to Alaskans as the ice factory, write the authors of The Cruelest Miles. Please visit the About section of our YouTube channel to learn how you can help today. The dog that plays the adult Togo in the movie is a so-called Seppala Siberian named Diesel (the Seppala Siberian is now its own breed) and is actually Togos great-grandson, 14 generations removed, according to the movies director. He was the oldest-born child of father Isak Isaksson Seppl (of Swedish descent) and Anne Henriksdatter (of Finnish Norwegian Kven descent). Your must-have activity guide + map while in Alaska. trade and allow him to work as a Master blacksmith. In 1913, Seppala and his wife Constance welcome a newborn Siberian Husky puppy to their sledding dog pack in Nome, Alaska. Seppala didnt start out working with dogs, though. Seppala is based on the real person of the same name. Wikipedia contributors, "Leonhard Seppala," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Seppala set out from Nome, met the driver carrying the serum Seppala continued to import, breed, and train At the end of his career, Leonhard Seppala was known as the Big Norwegian although he was only five foot, four inches tall, and 145 pounds. Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, The 9 Best Northern Lights Viewing Spots Near Anchorage, How to Travel to Alaska in January and February, The Best Large Family & Group Vacations in Alaska, How to Get from Anchorage to Your Cruise Port in Whittier or Seward (or the reverse! Inspiration But Seppala was not through yet. Togo jumped into the water, clambered back out, wrapped the rope around his body, and pulled. unsuccessfully against him claimed he had hypnotic powers of control over Lindeberg, his friend and supervisor at Pioneer Mining Company, had brought the puppies from Siberia as a gift for the explorer Roald Amundsen, whom he hoped would use them for his upcoming expedition to the North Pole. Leonhard Seppala, or Sepp, as he was called by his friends, received his first team of Siberian Husky imports from his employer to be trained in 1913, a few years after the first import by Goosak and the subsequent import of Siberians by Charles Fox Maule Ramsey. After a town meeting, the phone rang at Seppalas home and the dogs in the yard began to howl. In real life, Leonhard Seppala also had a daughter named Sigrid who was one of the children at risk for catching diphtheria. Directed by Ericson Core, with a Writers Guild Awardnominated script by Tom Flynn, Togo is based on the events of what become known as the Great Race of Mercy, or the 1925 serum run to Nome. Scenes from the run are interspersed with flashbacks to Togos origin story, showing him making repeated escapes from the kennel of musher Leonhard Seppala (Willem Dafoe). After the Serum Run, Seppala and some 40 of his dogs toured the "lower 48" with an Eskimo handler. Each year until 1897 he went to the Finnmark Seppala didn't start out working with dogs, though. One of the most terrifying moments in the movie is the second crossing of the Norton Sound, on the way back toward Nome with the serum. Dog Mushers. He and his wife lived in Seattle until his death at the age of 89. While Sepp was on the trail, the Governor of Alaska picked up on the plan but could not trust the fate of those in Nome to a single musher. 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. Leonhard Seppala Was born 14 Sep 1877 in Skibotn, Troms, Norway. in that drive he had worked his hardest and best. The same year the AAS was first run, 1908, The most intimate multi-day cruise option. He was by many reasonable accounts, the greatest musher of all time! Seppala soon worried for his canine friend upon learning that he was starting to suffer from his old age. But in 1899, when a friend of Leonhard Seppala returned to Norway, rich from the goldfields of Alaska, the lure of wealth and adventure was just too much for the twenty-two-year-old smithy to overcome and before long he was on his way to the new world. Seppala and his Alaska Sweepstakes team: Property of Jonathan Hayes.
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