Named for a sled dog.
Togo is named for the dog who led the longest leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska.
The run to Nome
In January 1925 diphtheria broke out in Nome, Alaska. The antitoxin the town needed was in Anchorage, and in winter no ship could reach Nome. 1
The serum went by train to Nenana. From there twenty mushers and about 150 dogs carried it 674 miles to Nome in five and a half days. 1
Togo, then twelve years old, led Leonhard Seppala's team. They ran about 170 miles out from Nome to meet the relay near Shaktoolik, then carried the serum 91 miles back toward Golovin, crossing the open sea ice of Norton Sound at night in a storm. 2
Counting the run out, Seppala's team covered more than 260 miles, the longest distance of any team in the relay. 2
The National Park Service calls Togo's leg the longest and most dangerous of the journey. 4
Balto led Gunnar Kaasen's team on the final leg into Nome. That December his statue was unveiled in Central Park, New York. 5
The lamp in the mark
At the finish of the Iditarod in Nome, a lamp is lit and hung on the arch. It stays there until the last team crosses the line. 3
The mark carries both: a prompt chevron, four paw prints on a straight trail, and a lit lamp at the end of it.