11 Facts About Gunnar Kaasen

Gunnar Kaasen was a Norwegian-born musher who delivered a cylinder containing 300,000 units of diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska, in 1925, as the last leg of a dog sled relay that saved the US city from an epidemic.

Gunnar E Kaasen was born the son of Hans and Anna Kaasen in Burfjorddalen, in Troms county, Norway.

Gunnar Kaasen went to the United States to mine for gold in 1903, in the wake of the discovery of gold-bearing sands on Cape Nome in 1898, which triggered one of several gold rushes in the state between 1891 and 1898.

In 1925, an outbreak of diphtheria threatened Gunnar Kaasen's adopted home, and the disease could easily spread across the northern Alaska villages of which Nome was the hub.

Gunnar Kaasen was scheduled to transport the 20 pound cylinder of serum along the next-to-last leg of the relay, from Bluff to Point Safety, Alaska.

At Bluff, Charlie Olson passed the serum to Gunnar Kaasen, who left with a team of 13 dogs, led by the husky, Balto.

Gunnar Kaasen traveled through the night, in the middle of winds so severe that his sled flipped over and he almost lost the cylinder containing the serum.

Ed Rohn, the next musher in the relay, was sleeping, so Gunnar Kaasen pressed on the remaining 25 miles to Nome, reaching Front Street at 5:30 AM.

Gunnar Kaasen gave the serum to Dr Curtis Welch, the only physician in Nome, who distributed the serum.

Gunnar Kaasen was 78 when he died of cancer in 1960.

Gunnar Kaasen was buried at Everett's Cypress Lawn Memorial Park next to his wife, Anna.