Hi! I am currently working on a book about the Serum Run, when 20 dog sled teams relayed anti-toxins to Nome, Alaska, in the winter of 1925 (January 21, in fact) to cure the deadly diphtheria epidemic. The only way to get the medicine to Nome was by dog sled, as aviation appropriate enough had not been invented yet, and ships could not port due to the ice.
Well, here is my preview; I am writing this book in honor of the 100th year anniversary of the historical event next year in 2025. What do you think?
Long ago, on the western shore of Alaska and just south of the Arctic circle, Inupiat hunters searched for game to feed their people, having settled in what they called Sitnasuak, what would later become known to the whole world as the little town of Nome. This location is found in the Seward Peninsula, which is the part of Alaska that is closest to Russia. Just 37 miles across the sea from the peninsula is the far eastern Russian region of Chukotka, part of Siberia, where the Chukchi Peninsula juts out into the Bering Sea as if reaching for the snowy American frontier. In prehistory, thousands of years ago, many tribes and people groups crossed a land bridge from Siberia into Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands (otherwise known in the local native tongue as Unangam Tanangin). Long ago, during a period we like to call The Pleistocene, the land on the eastern edge of Chukotka, the land bridge where sea water now floods in modern day, and the western part of Seward was called Beringia. The hunter/gatherer tribes that migrated from Russia to Alaska over the land bridge were the following: the Athabaskans, the Aleuts (or Unangan), the Inuit, the Yupik (or Yupiit), the Tlingit, and the Haida. Many of the tribes, namely the Aleut, use Russian Cyrillic as their alphabet of choice. The Aleutian Islands stretch westward toward the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. In the Interior of Alaska, which is a very large region away from the coastline beginning south of the Brooks Mountain Range all the way down to the Kenai Peninsula, it is mostly unexplored wilderness, and that is a terrifying yet beautiful prospect. When you think of the Alaskan frontier, you are basically thinking of the Interior. This was especially true before the first European and Russian settlers, when the original Alaskan natives had the run of the land and called it their home. The native people of the Interior are called Athabaskans. On the coastline of the Seward Peninsula, the Inupiat people live; it is believed that the Inupiat descended from the Thule people. They are well known for their technological advances, such as the use of slate knives and kayaks. They were also efficient in hunting seals, whales and walrus. When the Thule people came over, apparently there was already a civilization in Alaska! Yes, you heard correctly; there were natives before the natives we know today. They were called the Dorset, and they would go on to suddenly disappear around the 1500s. My guess is that they disappeared like most lost civilizations do; either through racial warfare, or interbreeding with other native tribes, or both. This is similar to what happened to the Neanderthals and other human species; scientists are now fairly sure that the Neanderthals did not die out, but interbred with Homo Sapiens, and so merged with us. That, however, is just my theory, and it is not supported by evidence to my knowledge The Athabaskans had religious beliefs which they held sacred to them. They believed they had a close bond with nature, and like a lot of Christians they believed that everything had some form of spirit within it, including the rocks, trees, and grass. The Athabaskans also had a close relationship with the animals that dwelt in the land, for their very survival depended on them. You and I would too if we did not have modern commodities and lived like the rest of our human ancestors. In the 1800s, Russian Orthodox missionaries made their way over to Alaska to teach the natives about the gospel of Jesus Christ. They would go from town to town, baptizing all they’d meet; it is rumored that some of the Athabaskans thought the ritual was part of the trading process with the foreigners. Something that set the Inuit, and Athabaskans, apart was their domesticated dogs; these dogs were hardy, working animals that pulled people on sleds and allowed efficient travel all over the vast, foreboding landscape. When European settlers arrived around the 1740s, they knew that they needed these dogs themselves and so essentially made deals with the natives to breed their dogs with the Alaskan sled dogs in order to acquire good working stock. These were the ancestors of the indomitable canines that went on to relay the anti-toxin to icebound Nome in the winter of 1925, and save the town from certain death. Eventually European settlers, particularly Scandinavians, discovered gold in Anvil Creek in the summer of 1898. By the next year in spring, Nome had over 10,000 inhabitants who had come from all over the world to search for their own fortune. The area was organized as the Nome mining district, also known as the Cape Nome mining district, due to the gold found in the local waterway by “The Three Lucky Swedes”: Jafet Lindeberg, Erik Lindblom, and John Brynteson. The area received gold rush attention for many years to come, mining not just for gold but also for coal. By the year 1900, even more people arrived from Washington and California on steamships, numbering in the thousands. A tent city was erected on the bare treeless land, very close to the beach; in those years, gold was even found for many mile long stretches in the sand. If I had been alive during that time, I probably would have called it the Golden Sands of Alaska.
Well, here is my preview; I am writing this book in honor of the 100th year anniversary of the historical event next year in 2025. What do you think?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Long ago, on the western shore of Alaska and just south of the Arctic circle, Inupiat hunters searched for game to feed their people, having settled in what they called Sitnasuak, what would later become known to the whole world as the little town of Nome.
This location is found in the Seward Peninsula, which is the part of Alaska that is closest to Russia.
Just 37 miles across the sea from the peninsula is the far eastern Russian region of Chukotka, part of Siberia, where the Chukchi Peninsula juts out into the Bering Sea as if reaching for the snowy American frontier.
In prehistory, thousands of years ago, many tribes and people groups crossed a land bridge from Siberia into Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands (otherwise known in the local native tongue as Unangam Tanangin).
Long ago, during a period we like to call The Pleistocene, the land on the eastern edge of Chukotka, the land bridge where sea water now floods in modern day, and the western part of Seward was called Beringia.
The hunter/gatherer tribes that migrated from Russia to Alaska over the land bridge were the following: the Athabaskans, the Aleuts (or Unangan), the Inuit, the Yupik (or Yupiit), the Tlingit, and the Haida. Many of the tribes, namely the Aleut, use Russian Cyrillic as their alphabet of choice.
The Aleutian Islands stretch westward toward the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.
In the Interior of Alaska, which is a very large region away from the coastline beginning south of the Brooks Mountain Range all the way down to the Kenai Peninsula, it is mostly unexplored wilderness, and that is a terrifying yet beautiful prospect.
When you think of the Alaskan frontier, you are basically thinking of the Interior.
This was especially true before the first European and Russian settlers, when the original Alaskan natives had the run of the land and called it their home.
The native people of the Interior are called Athabaskans. On the coastline of the Seward Peninsula, the Inupiat people live; it is believed that the Inupiat descended from the Thule people. They are well known for their technological advances, such as the use of slate knives and kayaks. They were also efficient in hunting seals, whales and walrus.
When the Thule people came over, apparently there was already a civilization in Alaska! Yes, you heard correctly; there were natives before the natives we know today. They were called the Dorset, and they would go on to suddenly disappear around the 1500s.
My guess is that they disappeared like most lost civilizations do; either through racial warfare, or interbreeding with other native tribes, or both. This is similar to what happened to the Neanderthals and other human species; scientists are now fairly sure that the Neanderthals did not die out, but interbred with Homo Sapiens, and so merged with us.
That, however, is just my theory, and it is not supported by evidence to my knowledge
The Athabaskans had religious beliefs which they held sacred to them. They believed they had a close bond with nature, and like a lot of Christians they believed that everything had some form of spirit within it, including the rocks, trees, and grass.
The Athabaskans also had a close relationship with the animals that dwelt in the land, for their very survival depended on them. You and I would too if we did not have modern commodities and lived like the rest of our human ancestors.
In the 1800s, Russian Orthodox missionaries made their way over to Alaska to teach the natives about the gospel of Jesus Christ. They would go from town to town, baptizing all they’d meet; it is rumored that some of the Athabaskans thought the ritual was part of the trading process with the foreigners.
Something that set the Inuit, and Athabaskans, apart was their domesticated dogs; these dogs were hardy, working animals that pulled people on sleds and allowed efficient travel all over the vast, foreboding landscape.
When European settlers arrived around the 1740s, they knew that they needed these dogs themselves and so essentially made deals with the natives to breed their dogs with the Alaskan sled dogs in order to acquire good working stock.
These were the ancestors of the indomitable canines that went on to relay the anti-toxin to icebound Nome in the winter of 1925, and save the town from certain death.
Eventually European settlers, particularly Scandinavians, discovered gold in Anvil Creek in the summer of 1898. By the next year in spring, Nome had over 10,000 inhabitants who had come from all over the world to search for their own fortune.
The area was organized as the Nome mining district, also known as the Cape Nome mining district, due to the gold found in the local waterway by “The Three Lucky Swedes”: Jafet Lindeberg, Erik Lindblom, and John Brynteson.
The area received gold rush attention for many years to come, mining not just for gold but also for coal.
By the year 1900, even more people arrived from Washington and California on steamships, numbering in the thousands. A tent city was erected on the bare treeless land, very close to the beach; in those years, gold was even found for many mile long stretches in the sand.
If I had been alive during that time, I probably would have called it the Golden Sands of Alaska.