Balto ( – March 14, 1933) was a Siberian Husky and sled dog belonging to musher and breeder Leonhard Seppala. He achieved fame when he was part of a team of sled dogs driven by Gunnar Kaasen on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nenana, Alaska, by train and then to Nome by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease. Credited as the leader of the team, Balto's celebrity status, and that of Kaasen's, resulted in a two-reel motion picture, a statue in Central Park, and a nationwide tour on the vaudeville circuit.
A falling out between Seppala and Kaasen resulted in Balto and his teammates being sold under disputed circumstances to a traveling circus operator and ultimately housed in squalor at a dime museum in Los Angeles. When news stories emerged in February 1927 about his poor living conditions, a two-week fundraising effort in Cleveland, Ohio, led to the successful purchase of Balto and his team by the citizenry of Cleveland. Balto lived in ease at the Cleveland Zoo until his death on March 14, 1933, at the age of 14; his body was subsequently mounted and displayed in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where it remains to this day. While the subject of numerous cultural depictions and homages, including a 1995 animated film, Balto's role in the serum run remains controversial as contemporary media coverage focused almost entirely on him over the efforts of the other mushers and dogs—most notably, Seppala and his lead dog Togo—and has more recently undergone historical reappraisals.
Life Early years Little is known about Balto's early years. Balto's birth year is commonly recognized as 1919, in Nome, Alaska, at the kennels of Leonhard Seppala, a native Norwegian, sled dog breeder, musher and competitive racer. He was named after Samuel Balto, a Sámi who was part of Fridtjof Nansen's exploration of Greenland in 1888, and whom Seppala admired. No birth records were kept for Balto or his litter as his body type did not align with other racing huskies that Seppala was breeding. The only evidence of Balto's birth year came from later interviews with Seppala. With a largely black fur coat, Balto had a small, stocky build, unique for a Siberian husky.
Believing Balto to be "second rate" and not holding much potential, Seppala neutered him at six months of age. He considered him a "scrub dog", unable to run as fast as his other dogs, who were derisively called "Siberian rats" by mushers against whom Seppala competed. Seppala claimed in his memoir to have "given [Balto] every chance" to ride with his primary sled dog team "but could not qualify"; thus, Balto was relegated to haul freight and large cargo for short runs and was part of a team that pulled railcars with miners over a disused railroad. Gunnar Kaasen, another native Norwegian and a close family friend of Seppala with 21 years' dog sledding experience, came to know Balto through his work at Seppala's mining company. Kaasen believed Seppala misjudged Balto's potential and that the dog's short stature could allow him to be more strong and steady.
The serum run
In January 1925, doctors realized that a potentially deadly diphtheria epidemic was poised to sweep through the young people of Nome, Alaska, placing the city under quarantine. Dr. Curtis Welch, the primary physician in Nome, transmitted via Morse code that the town's existing serum, which was over six years old, was being depleted. Additional serum was made available in Anchorage, but the territory's only two usable aircraft had open cockpits and were thus grounded for the winter. After considering all the alternatives, officials decided to have the serum ferried via multiple dog sled teams over the "Seward-to-Nome Trail". The serum was transported by train from Anchorage to Nenana, where the first musher embarked as part of a relay. More than 20 mushers took part, facing a blizzard with temperatures and strong winds. Originally projected to arrive in Nome by February 6, the date was moved up several times as the teams repeatedly broke land speed records. News coverage of the event, in particular the hazards posed to the dogs and the leaders, was relayed worldwide; newspaper headlines read; "Relief Nears Nome!", "Dog Teams in Race with Death in Far North" and "Seppalla ... May Save Diphtheria Victims".
As the serum run progressed, additional teams were recruited as Alaskan governor Scott Cordelle Bone worried about Seppala's team experiencing fatigue. Kaasen was appointed to drive a team of Seppala's dogs originally set aside for company business during the run, with Fox chosen by Seppala as the leader. Kaasen, however, chose Balto to co-lead alongside Fox, a move Seppala later disagreed with as he felt Balto was not worthy to be a lead dog. Balto had been largely untried as a sled dog prior to the run, but Kaasen expressed confidence in Balto's abilities and likely identified with him. The serum package was handed to Kaasen by Charlie Olson in Bluff at 10:00 p.m. on February 1. The blizzard quickly began to bear down on the team, causing them to become lost and confused. This prompted Kaasen to move Balto to the lead, yelling at him, "Go home, Balto." Balto's ability to pull heavy freight allowed him to steadily navigate the team through the storm; at one point, Balto stopped in front of a patch of ice on the Topkok River that broke underneath him, saving Kaasen's life along with the entire team. Kaasen suffered frostbite after his sled flipped and the serum package fell into the snow, forcing him to search bare-handed for it.
Kaasen and his team arrived in Point Safety ahead of schedule, but found the last team of the run was not ready and the roadhouse they lodged in was dark. Ed Rohn, the leader of this final team, was asleep at the time under the impression Kaasen had been halted in nearby Solomon, a settlement Kaasen rode past without visibly recognizing due to the poor weather. Kaasen decided not to wake him up and continue on, knowing it would take time for Rohn to prepare and risk putting additional dogs in harm's way. Despite suffering from exposure and exhaustion, Kaasen and Balto traveled the remaining to Nome, and arrived at Front Street on February 2, 1925, at 5:30 a.m. While frozen solid, all 300,000 units of the antitoxin were intact, and Kaasen handed them over to be thawed for use by midday. Four of Kaasen's dogs were partially frozen when they arrived; one newspaper dispatch erroneously stated Balto and the majority of the team died several days later from frozen lungs, and was immediately retracted shortly after publication. Seppala reached Nome two days later and praised Kaasen for having continued on through blizzard conditions.
Kaasen gave all credit to Balto, telling a United Press reporter, "I gave Balto, my lead dog, his head and trusted to him. He never once faltered ... [i]t was Balto who led the way, the credit is his." After reaching Dr. Welch's office to deliver the serum, Kaasen tended to Balto, hugging him and purportedly repeating, "Damn fine dog ... damn fine dog." On the U.S. Senate chamber floor several days later, Washington Senator Clarence Dill recognized the efforts of everyone who helped with the serum run but cited Balto in particular, saying, "[t]his black Siberian dog, through the darkness and storm, crossed this icy desert and kept the trail when no human being could possibly have found the way." The H. K. Mulford Company, one of the manufacturers of the serum units, awarded Kaasen a $1,000 prize () alongside inscribed medals which were given to all the mushers.
Post-race fame: movies, statues, vaudeville and sale to a sideshow Newspapers were heralding the feats achieved during the serum run almost exclusively to Balto, eclipsing the efforts of the 18 other mushers and 150 sled dogs who participated. The death toll in Nome was seven people—not counting Alaskan Natives who were not recorded—adding further to the media sensation as the diphtheria epidemic was seemingly averted. When the New York Daily News published exclusive photos of Kaasen's arrival in Nome, Balto was pictured directly in the foreground of the entire team; these photos were later revealed to be staged recreations hours after Kaasen arrived. The recent adoption of radio in the contiguous United States also meant dispatches from Nome had been relayed to radio stations throughout the country. As 1925 ended, Balto was credited in news coverage as having accomplished the entire serum run by himself, a misconception that persisted long after his death.
Film producer Sol Lesser promptly signed Kaasen, Balto and the team of "thirteen half wolves" to a contract with Educational Pictures for a movie based on the serum run. Film production began in April 1925 in Los Angeles. Upon arriving in the city, Balto was the recipient of the "bone of the city" by the mayor of Los Angeles, along with other dignitaries including actress Mary Pickford. The two-reel movie, Balto's Race to Nome, debuted the following month to positive reviews; it is now considered a lost film. Shortly after the film's release, Kaasen sued Lesser for unpaid wages; Lesser then sold the existing contract to the vaudeville circuit. Kaasen and Balto soon traveled across the country, making public appearances and being bestowed gifts from the cities visited. In one instance, while visiting Cleveland, Ohio, Kaasen was awarded a subscription to The Plain Dealer as a gift from an existing subscriber, to be delivered to his home in Nome.
A statue of Balto, sculpted by Frederick Roth, was erected in New York City's Central Park on December 17, 1925, ten months after Balto's arrival in Nome. Balto modeled in front of Roth and was present for the monument's unveiling. The statue is located on the main path leading north from the Tisch Children's Zoo. In front of the statue, a low-relief slate plaque depicts Balto's sled team and bears the inscription, "[d]edicated 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".
Seppala had been "amazed and vastly amused" at Balto and Kaasen's celebrity statuses, but was displeased as it overlooked his lead dog Togo, who went through the run's longest and most dangerous part. Seppala made a similar cross-country tour with Togo and his teammates in 1926, including a gala ice-rink appearance at Madison Square Garden, believing that Togo had been deprived of fame and acclaim. Before relocating to Poland Spring, Maine, in March 1927, Seppala claimed Fox was the actual leader of Kaasen's team and failed to get any proper credit due to Fox's name being more common and would not stand out in newspaper headlines like Balto. A February 1932 interview Seppala had with Henry McLemore furthered this, claiming a newspaper reporter simply chose Balto as "the lead dog ... that brought the serum in" after multiple names were offered by Seppala; as he was still riding to Nome with Togo at the time, this is likely anachronistic. The "Vaccine Research Association" unsuccessfully called for the Central Park statue's removal in 1931, citing a 1929 interview where Seppala claimed all the dramatic events surrounding the run were fabricated to sell newspapers. Unwilling to show disrespect to a sled dog, Seppala partly backtracked from these claims in his memoir: