Mush!

In honor of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, won three days ago by Dallas Seavey and his lead dogs, Reef and Tide, here's a game poster from the 1991 event. At the time, it was distributed across Alaska by Unilever, along with a $5 gift pack of coupons for Mrs. Butterworth's, Snuggle fabric softener, Country Crock, and the like.

The race commemorates the "serum run" undertaken in 1925, when an outbreak of diphtheria hit Nome. The territory of Alaska (not yet a U.S. state) was having one of its worst winters in 20 years, and the nearest supply of serum was 1,000 miles away in an Anchorage hospital. Workers loaded the medicine aboard a train headed north to Nenana. It was then relayed westward by 18 mushers and their dogsled teams. The great bulk of the work was done by Leonhard Seppala and his lead dog, Togo. But it was Gunnar Kaasen and his lead dog, Balto, who ran the last leg and grabbed most of the glory when they pulled into Nome.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? After his death, Togo's body was stuffed, mounted, and put on display at a museum in Wasilla, Alaska. Balto and his team eventually retired to Cleveland, living their final years in the city's zoo! When Balto died, his body was also stuffed and mounted and is now part of the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.