Seppala's only child-an eight-year-old daughter named Sigrid-was also at risk. Previously unexposed children as well as adults were at risk of dying from the infection. Dogs from left to right – Togo, Karinsky, Jafet, Pete, unknown dog, Fritz.Ī diphtheria outbreak struck Seppala's town of Nome, Alaska in the winter of 1925. Leonhard Seppala with his dogs after the serum run in 1925. Role in the "Great Race of Mercy" of 1925 : 72–75 He went on to win the race the following two years, as well, at which point the All Alaska Sweepstakes was suspended until 1983. 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. Seppala's racing career took off the following year, at the 1915 All Alaska Sweepstakes. He nursed them back to health for most of the remainder of that year they were not ready to train again until autumn. Seppala felt he had abused the dogs' loyalty by putting them in danger of death and injury, and withdrew from the race in shame. 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. Fortunately, he succeeded in stopping 20 feet from the drop-off, saving all their lives. Indeed, when the whiteout conditions suddenly lifted, Seppala found that he and his team were at the bottom of a hill, racing towards the cliffs along the sea. Neither he nor his canine freight leader, Suggen, knew the dangerous trail, and when a blizzard suddenly descended on the area during the race, Seppala realized his young dogs had lost the trail and they were all at great risk of death due to the nearby drop-off to the Bering Sea. Seppala made the decision to compete in his first race, the 1914 All Alaska Sweepstakes, at the last minute. When Amundsen cancelled his trip a few weeks after the puppies arrived in Nome, Lindeberg gave them to Seppala. "I literally fell in love with them from the start", he recalled "I could hardly wait for sledding snow to start their training". 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. In 1913, Seppala inherited his first team of sled dogs by chance. It was unusual at that time to keep sled dogs working when the snow thawed, or to spend as much time with them as he did. He kept his dogs in form during the summer by having them pull a cart on wheels instead of a sled. This also meant he worked as long as 12 hours a day. While most drivers considered 30 miles (48 km) a long run, Seppala travelled between 50 miles (80 km) and 100 miles (160 km) most days. He expressed pleasure in the rhythmic patter of the dogs' feet and the feeling of the sled gliding along the snow. He enjoyed the task from his first run, which he recalled clearly for the rest of his life. ĭuring his first winter in Alaska, Seppala became a dogsled driver for Lindeberg's company. His friend Jafet Lindeberg had returned from Alaska and convinced Seppala to come to work for his mining company in Nome. However, in 1900, he emigrated to Alaska during the Nome gold rush. Seppala initially followed in his father's footsteps as both a blacksmith and a fisherman. While in Skjervøy, his father worked as a blacksmith and fisherman, building up a relatively large estate. When Seppala was two years old, his family moved within Troms county to nearby Skjervøy municipality on the island of Skjervøya. Leonhard is considered to have been Kven. His father's family name is of Finnish origin. He was the eldest child of Isak Isaksen Seppälä (born in Sweden of Finnish descent) and Anne Henrikke Henriksdatter. Seppala was born in the Lyngen, Troms og Finnmark, Northern Norway. The Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award, which honors excellence in sled dog care, is named in honour of him. 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. Leonhard " Sepp" Seppala ( / ˈ l ɛ n ər d ˈ s ɛ p ə l ə/ Septem– 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, and participated in the 1932 Winter Olympics.
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