What event inspired the Iditarod Sled Dog Race?

In 1925 the remote Alaskan village of Nome, suffered an outbreak of diphtheria. Doctor Curtis Welch was the village's only physician. Dr Welch feared that an epidemic would decimate the village of 1400 people. The nearest batch of antitoxin serum was located 1,000 miles away in Anchorage. The severe weather conditions made a plane drop impossible, and the only way to deliver the medicine to the village was by dog sled.

A train carried the medicine as far as Nenana but Nome was still another 674 miles away. Wild Bill Shannon and his 9 dog sled team made the start for Nome. Twenty mushers and about 150 dogs total were used to relay the medicine all the way to Nome. The grueling cross country trip to deliver the medicine took five and a half days.

Today's annual Iditarod sled dog race follows much of the same course that carried the life saving medicine in 1925.