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"The Cruelest Miles" By Gay and Laney Salisbury

An interview with Gay Salisbury

by June Price

02/23/2005

As children, Gay and Laney Salisbury, the youngest of nineteen cousins, romped in Central Park, climbing atop and patting the over-sized statue of a dog that stands there. That statue is of Balto, heroic symbol of all the dogs that participated in the 1925 serum race to Nome. Children were dying of diphtheria there and the serum that could save their lives could only be delivered by dog sled. Of course, at that time, that meant little to these active little girls who grew into equally active young ladies who enjoyed the likes of mountain biking, roller blades and sailing. Both were as curious as they were active, enjoying books and writing, with Laney eventually becoming a wire reporter for Reuters, an international agency, while Gay moved into marketing and publishing. There was little to indicate that far away Alaska would one day draw them both, Gay to stay.

Despite this, there were ties, ties that would result in the critically acclaimed "The Cruelest Miles," not to mention wind up with Gay arriving at her wedding in a dog sled. Laney was researching their grandfather who, as the lone doctor in a remote tropical area had been faced with saving lives threatened by diphtheria. One of those lives was Gay’s father, who suffered from the disease. At the same time, Gay was deep into research for a book dealing with the history of New England’s whaling industry, including its impact on the Arctic and the Natives that lived there.

Then, they saw the obituary of Edgar Nollner. Although Leonhard Seppala and Gunner Kaasen emerged as the heroes of the story, it is one that had many heroes, most of whom remained unsung, in the shadows. Nollner was one of these but although the Salisbury cousins never got to meet Nollner, his death would change their lives.

Nollner had been the last living musher who had taken part in the dog team relay of vials of diphtheria serum from Nenana to Nome, a trail that covered 674 miles by dog team. The teams ran in relays, with Seppala covering the longest section. Nollner’s story, they discovered, was an echo of their own past connections to the disease. Both soon dropped their individual book projects and began working together to tell the story of this race to save lives that had touched the world.

Their efforts bring to life for us those unsung heroes as well as their dogs and all who labored to save the children of Nome. In telling this story, "The Cruelest Miles" reveals for the first time not just how, but why the story was able to touch the world. News wire services were new and striving to make their impact felt and this story was a natural, one that played out in the headlines around the world. It also tells of the role of government in the story, including the "not quite ready for prime time" air industry’s role in the story.

There have been many reviews of the book written, so I won’t dwell on that here but will say it puts a human and canine face to what might otherwise be just another retelling of the story. The description of death by diphtheria alone is one of the most gut wrenching readings you’ll ever encounter, bringing home the urgency the lay just beneath the efforts of all involved. You’ll know the patients, doctors and nurses, not to mention Togo as well as Seppala by the time you finish this book and, perhaps, as I did, ponder the burdens of fame and how it destroyed a friendship that saw Kaasen winning the battle of the headlines but, over time, perhaps coming to rue the day he first agreed to be photographed and embark on a tour with Balto and some of his other team members. As such, "The Cruelest Miles" perhaps not only tells a story but teaches us some life truths, whether about government operations or human frailties. It’s a story about life, with all the subplots that whirl about us on a daily basis.

It was Laney that made the first incursion into the world of mushing. She took a six day dog mushing trip and was able to relate it to the experience of sailing to explain the rush to Gay. For instance, balance is a key element for both sports. Finally the ties that bound them to the history of the race began to come together. Gay’s interest in the Inuit, their health and theory of disease that she’d explored in her research into the whaling industry was a natural tie-in. Oddly enough, however, few shared their enthusiasm for the story of the serum race, at least initially.

"Terrance didn’t like the story, either," laughs Gay about her now husband. Of course, he hadn’t met her yet. She’d talked to a doctor who found the story of the serum run to be irrelevant. "The Cruelest Miles" would be far more reaching, however, delving into both the history of the race and structured around the theory that "All roads lead to Nome." In other words, it would be placed in its historical context, one that was played out on an international stage.

"I’d been doing research into the Gold Rush era and the name Terrance Cole came up repeatedly as someone I should interview," remembers Gay At that point, the Salisbury’s had nearly six months of meticulous research behind them and had spent another three months preparing for their trip to Alaska. Cole wasn’t in Alaska, however, when they arrived.

"I was scheduled to fly out but had been delayed," remembers Gay. "I was in the library going through some old copies of the ‘Nome Nugget’ when he walked in." Cole had just returned from a trip to Chicago. An associate had told him she had been looking for him.

"It was love at first sight," concludes Gay, admitting that while it may seem a cliché, it was certainly true. As they talked, they began to discover how alike they were, even to the point of both of them talking more and more with their hands as they get excited and immersed in the talk. Then, they both managed to knock their glasses off while talking with their hands, perhaps the first visible hint of how very alike they would turn out to be.

Gay remembers talking long into the night. That was the beginning. They were married last year. In fact, the "New York Times" featured their wedding. Gay was taken to the ceremony by a dog team. Her arrival was heralded by the sound of barking dogs as the team delivered her right to the spot she needed to get out to stand for the ceremony. Gay currently splits her time between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Manhattan.

By the way, Terrance has come to share her passion for the story behind "The Cruelest Miles." Whereas the story itself didn’t excite the historian in him, the fact it’d never been told in its historical context did. As Gay notes, it wasn’t just a story about tiny Nome, Alaska. It was "an American story," one told by the fledging news wire services and updated daily. People around the world were caught up in the story.

It’s a story that was most recently told during the 2005 Westminster Dog Show. The video story, which Gay helped produce, "was in acknowledgement of both the 80th anniversary of the serum run and the 75th anniversary of the American Kennel Club’s formal acknowledgement of the Siberian Husky as a breed." Leonhard Seppala is acknowledged as the forefather of the breed.

"The Cruelest Miles," which has just come out in paperback, has been translated into fourteen languages and is a national bestseller. With the paperback edition just out, Gay finds herself on the road, embarking on an eight city tour, one that’ll take her to not just places like Cleveland (where Balto’s stuffed remains stand in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History), Portland, Denver and Boulder, but bring her to Anchorage for the start of Iditarod 2005. There, among several other appearances, Gay will speak to a group of teachers and race fans, sharing her slide presentation and making herself available for a book signing afterward. In her "spare time," Gay, as well as Laney, is also involved in a twenty city, radio satellite tour over the next couple weeks.

Not bad for two little girls, now grown up, who used to climb onto an oversized Balto and wonder what their future would bring. Since then, besides getting married and moving to Alaska, Gay’s moved along the trail of the actual Serum Run, spoken to countless groups about the story and visited Seppala’s home in Nome and Togo’s glass display case in Wasilla, Alaska, among other things. She’s still writing, too, of course. History, as "The Cruelest Miles" shows, is a trail of many twists, it seems.