Balto, a Siberian husky , became famous as part of a sled dog team that delivered desperately needed medicine to the town of Nome , Alaska, in 1925. Balto served as the lead dog on the journey’s final leg.
In January 1925, an epidemic of the severe illness diphtheria threatened Nome, a small, remote town in northwestern Alaska . The closest medicine for the disease was a serum in faraway Anchorage . No roads or railroads connect the towns, and aircraft had not been tested to fly in the extreme cold. The serum was transported by railroad to the town of Nenana, near Fairbanks . From Nenana, a sled dog relay set out on the night of January 27 to deliver the serum. A series of 20 mushers (sled drivers) each rushed to pass the serum to the next team on the trail. The trail from Nenana to Nome was 674 miles (1,085 kilometers) long. The relay became known as the “Great Race of Mercy.”
Balto was part of a team driven by the Norwegian-born musher Gunnar Kaasen << GOO nahr KAW suhn >> . The dog used scent to navigate in blizzard conditions. Balto and his team endured temperatures as low as –50 °F (–46 °C) and winds strong enough to tip the sled. When Balto’s team arrived to pass the serum off to the next musher, that driver was not ready. Kaasen decided to keep going. Balto led the sled carrying the serum into Nome in the early morning of Feb. 2, 1925, a little over five days after the relay began. The serum helped to stop the epidemic and save the town.
Kaasen and Balto quickly became international celebrities. They were featured in the short motion picture Balto’s Race to Nome (1925). Kaasen and Balto, along with some of the other sled dogs, traveled the United States as part of a vaudeville -style show. In 1927, the dogs were sold to a sideshow attraction in Los Angeles. That same year, George Kimble, a former prizefighter from Cleveland , Ohio, began a campaign to purchase the dogs. Balto and his teammates were welcomed to Cleveland with a parade and given a home at the Brookside Zoo (now the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo). Balto died on March 14, 1933. His body is displayed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
A statue of Balto was erected in New York City’s Central Park in 1925. Balto’s story was made into an animated movie, Balto (1995).
