The Nenana daily news., 1921-01-27
IDITAROD MESSAGE SPEEDS
 :. DOCTOR FROM ANCHORAGE

man, in the Iditarod district, Dr. J. B. Beeson, chief surgeon of the Government hospital, at Anchorage, arrived in Nenana from the coast shortly before midnight last night and left for the lower river after stop here just long enough to take dinner and to transfer from the special train, which was sent to the end of steel for him, to the basket sleigh of Ole Jacobson, to which were attached a string of r dogs.
 Dr. Beeson is going to Iditarod to attend Claude Baker, of the Miners & Merchants bank, of that place. who is dangerously i'll and without medical attendance. The par ticular nature of his illness is not known, but the urgency of the call for help indicates that the condition of the we'll known oldtimer is re- garded as serious.
 The doctor travelled by train from
 Anchorage to the end of steel, on
 the Southern division of the Gov
 ernment railroad, crossed over the
 Broad Pass trail on an Alaskan En-
 gineering commission mail team, es- corted by Mail Superintendent Dan
 Leech, and was met by a special train at Healy, the end of steel on the Northern division. The remain der of the journey will be made with dog teams, arrangements having at
 tended to by agents of the North Tern Commercial company. The Jacob
 son team will make the run to Fort Gibbon, and fresh team will take
 him from there to Ruby, where q third team will be in readiness to take him to Iditarod, by way of Poorman and Takotna. The distance from Nenana to Iditarod, by way of the winter trail, is approximate | fly 600 miles,. and it is estimated . that the trip will consume at least eight. days.
 !, In former winters travel between , Iditarod and the coast went by way of what is known as the Seward , ftrail, connecting with the Govern
 ment railroad at Chickaloon. But that trail has been abandoned as a mail route and it is presumed that , 1 it is now closed ato travel by un- broken drifts. Otherwise Dr. Beeson undoubtedly would have gone that
 way, as the distance between the , coast and Iditarod on that trail is , considerably less than the river , route, by way of Nenana and Ruby , There is also shortcut route by
 way of Lake Minchumina, in the
 Kantishna district, hut that trai a also is little traveleC and the snow doubtless would have been founc too deep for rapid travel. Int
 doctor is taking the long way, but 6 the sure way. q Considerable time could have beer , saved had the message for help bee, sent to Fairbanks, instead of An
 Ichorage, but it is presumed tho l. friends of the sick man had tn, f Seward trail in mind when the! g sent their wire to the coast town
 Mr. Baker is we'll known in Ne
 mana and in Fairbanks. He formerl,
 resided in the Fairbanks distric O anu was uSlS 1dSt SQiAHlc4 NA III k way back to Iditarod from the ; e vacation in the States. Mrs. Bake ;, was with him.
 L- There was a time when the Idit
 arod district numbered several med ~ ical men among its population, bu \ with a decline in the camps act
 ivities, the doctors scattered t
 other parts of the territory. Ther
 has not been a doctor there flo
 several years, and they are equall
 scarce in other localities along tn
 lower Yukon, below Fort Gibbor