Time. Ed Rohn, the next musher in the relay, was sleeping, so Kaasen pressed on the remaining 25 miles (40 km) to Nome, reaching Front Street at 5:30 AM. Kaasen traveled a total of 54.3 miles (87 km). Kaasen gave the serum to Dr. Curtis Welch, the only physician in Nome, who distributed the serum. No further deaths from the disease were reported. A second batch of serum, from Seattle, Washington, arrived in Seward, Alaska, five days later, and was transported to Nome in the same fashion. Prior to 1925, the disease killed 20,000 people a year in the U.S. The worldwide publicity the event received helped spur widespread diphtheria inoculations, which greatly reduced that number. Celebrity Like all mushers who participated, Kaasen was given a citation by the Governor of the Alaska Territory. All mushers also received a daily wage from a public fund of between US$30 and $40. H. K. Mulford Company, which manufactured the antitoxin, awarded medals to all participants in the first relay. Unlike the other mushers, Kaasen became a celebrity. In addition to the medal, the H.K. Mulford Company awarded him $1,000, and he was even offered a role in a movie. Balto became even more famous. On December 17, 1925, a bronze statue of the large black dog was unveiled in Central Park in New York City. Although news sources promoted the idea that this was a statue of Balto, his name does not appear on the dedication plaque, but instead reads, "Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925. Endurance · Fidelity · Intelligence". Balto appeared in Madison Square Garden before a crowd of 20,000 people. Another statue was erected in downtown Anchorage, Alaska as well, depicting a sled dog in mid-stride, and though most consider this to be another likeness of Balto, the plaque itself, like the NYC statue never mentions the famous dog and instead is dedicated “to all dog mushers and their heroic dogs.” Kaasen lived in Everett, Washington, from 1952 to 1960. He was 78 when he died of cancer in 1960. He was buried at Everett's Cypress Lawn Memorial Park next to his wife, Anna. References Other source Sherwonit, Bill Iditarod: The Great Race to Nome. (Alaska Northwest Books.