In the 1920s, Alaska was one of America’s last remaining frontiers. The isolated region was one full of hardship but offered a quiet existence. After a mining boom that waned in the early 20th century, Nome, on the Western coast, became a city occupied by brave souls. Driving, or mushing, sled dog teams was a popular pastime in the area, one of necessity and sport. Mushers carried mail and supplies and also raced, with many drivers becoming minor celebrities. Little did the people of Nome know that sled dogs, represented by Balto, one canine hero in particular, would become their saviors in January 1925.
Balto: Birth of a Legend
Balto the dog was born in 1919 at the kennel of Leonhard Seppala. Seppala was a famed musher around the Nome, Alaska area and a winner of numerous races. He was known for the quality of his dogs and his care for them.
Seppala promoted the Siberian Husky breed, a new breed for Alaskans, many of which he imported directly from Siberia. Balto was part Siberian Husky and also had genetics that traced to other breeds of accomplished sledding dogs.
However, Seppala was not impressed with Balto’s physical conformation, which tended towards the stout. He designated him a “freight dog” or “scrub dog” rather than a racing dog, with his personal preference leaning towards light, fast dogs to lead his sled teams. As a result, he had Balto neutered, not wishing to perpetuate this physical style of dog. Seppala named the dog Balto after Samuel J. Balto, one of the men who first crossed the Greenland Ice Cap in the late 19th century.
The Serum Run of 1925
In January 1925, Dr. Curtis Welch, the only doctor in Nome, began to notice a curious uptick in respiratory disease among the children of Nome and the surrounding Indigenous villages. His curiosity turned to alarm when he observed the classic telltale symptoms of diphtheria, a highly contagious and deadly disease. Though most children in the United States are vaccinated against diphtheria today, an effective vaccination was not widely used until the 1930s.
Dr. Welch feared that an epidemic was imminent, and the only treatment he had was expired. The replacement medication he had ordered had been unable to reach Nome before deep winter set in, and the port froze, preventing shipping. Town officials were able to locate a supply of antitoxin in Anchorage, but the problem was far from solved.
Anchorage was approximately one thousand miles away from Nome, and transportation was now the chief concern. The frozen port prevented the arrival of ships. Planes were starting to be utilized for flight in Alaska, but their open cockpit design made flying in the dead of winter practically impossible. Railroad tracks criss-crossed parts of Alaska, but the closest train depot lay in Nenana, almost 700 miles from Nome. Cars, trucks, and roads on which to drive them were far from widespread in those days.
The citizens of Nome decided to rely on the form of transportation they knew best: dog sleds. The Indigenous people of the area used dogs for centuries before settlers began utilizing them as well. Dog sleds were used to transport people and goods, including postal service, throughout the region. The journey would become known as the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, or the “Great Race of Mercy.”
The initial plan was to have a musher pick up the serum in Nenana and then meet a second driver at a halfway point, but the mission soon grew to include multiple mushers and teams in an attempt to speed the journey, as fresh teams could likely travel faster as the situation in Nome grew more dire. The relay grew to include twenty mushers and their teams.
One of the drivers was Leonhard Seppala, who was assigned to the most perilous aspect of the journey, including a 5,000-foot elevation climb over Little McKinley Mountain. Seppala’s dogs would also run for other mushers, and Balto was assigned to a team driven by Gunnar Kaasen.
The teams set off on January 27, with the weather quickly turning as a cold front blew into the region. Mushers and their dogs experienced temperatures as cold as 85 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, with biting winds, fog, and snow making for an inhospitable climate. Teams battled frostbite, and some dogs perished.
Despite these conditions, the groups persisted, running varying distances and terrain. Seppala, led by his dog Togo, traveled five times the distance as any of the other teams. Balto and Kaasen were slated to be the second to last team on the journey, but when he reached the transfer point, Kaasen elected to keep going rather than wake the next musher.
There has been some controversy about this decision, with critics stating that Kaasen wanted the glory of finishing the run. Supporters argue that the time necessary to wake the other musher and ready his team was not time that the run had to spare. Balto kept his team on track throughout their sections of the relay, even with his relative inexperience.
At one point, the sled flipped, resulting in Kaasen earning frostbitten hands as he dug through the snow to retrieve the delicate serum package. Balto also stopped short at one point, preventing the team from crashing through the ice at the Topkok River.
After 55 miles, Balto led Kaasen’s team into Nome around 5:30 AM on February 2, 1925, greeted by relieved citizens of Nome and the media. The serum was safely delivered without a single broken vial, and the diphtheria cases were soon in check. The entire run took 127.5 hours, covering a distance of approximately 674 miles, and was featured on the front page of the New York Times the next day. Kaasen recreated his arrival with photographers several hours later and took photos with Balto for the news media, calling his lead a “damn fine dog.”
A Star Is Born
After the run’s conclusion, Balto ascended to hero status in the eyes of the US and the world. He was the most visible dog that had run the route, as the team leader that arrived in Nome to spectators and the media. He became a symbol of hope and heroism and celebrated the world over.
Later that year, a statue of Balto was erected in New York’s Central Park. He and his team went on tour to meet adoring fans. A short film was made in 1925 called Balto’s Race to Nome, creating reenactments with Kaasen and his team.
Even decades after the Serum Run, Balto was celebrated in an animated film by Amblin Entertainment that was released in 1995. Balto, starring the likes of Kevin Bacon, Bridget Fonda, and Phil Collins, would go on to have two sequels and was popular with children all over the world, grossing over 11 million dollars worldwide.
Does Balto Deserve His Fame?
As the public face of the Serum Run, Balto became the most famous dog that participated in the race. This always chagrined his breeder, Leonhard Seppala. Seppala and his team of dogs, particularly the lead dog Togo, who was twelve years old, had persisted through the longest and most dangerous route of the entire Serum Run, yet in many cases, the media and public treated Balto as the hero of the story.
There was also a supposition that Balto was not actually the lead dog on the home stretch and that it was, in fact, another dog on the team, Fox. No photos were taken when the sled originally arrived to prove or disprove this theory.
A Rough Life After the Run
After the Serum Run was over, Balto and his twelve teammates toured the United States with their musher. Since breeding was off the table, Balto ended up being featured in shows and events to earn money. Once the initial excitement from the run wore off, public interest in seeing the dogs waned, and Kaasen sold them to earn money for his trip home to Alaska.
The dogs ended up in a novelty museum in Los Angeles. When former prizefighter turned businessman George Kimble visited the museum in February 1927 and saw the dogs; he was appalled at their living conditions. The dogs were chained in the exhibit and looked like they were receiving poor care. Kimble negotiated with the museum to purchase the dogs and was given a price tag of $2,000.
Working with the media, the public, and the Animal Protective League, Kimble raised more than that amount in ten days. The remaining funds were used to bring the dogs home to Cleveland with him, where they were welcomed with a parade. Balto and his six remaining teammates, Fox, Billy, Tillie, Sye, Old Moctoc, and Alaska Slim, settled into their new home at the Brookside Zoo in Cleveland, today known as Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Finally in comfortable retirement, Balto and his friends lived at the museum until their deaths. Balto passed away at age 14 on March 14, 1933.
Balto Lives On
Over ninety years after his death, Balto’s legacy remains alive and well. His remains were taxidermied after his death, and he has been on display at the Cleveland Natural History Museum ever since. Occasionally, Balto is loaned to other museum exhibitions around the country. His physical remains have allowed scientists to study his genetics and help provide more information about sled dog development and canine evolution.
For example, in 2023, scientists used Balto’s DNA to create the first sequenced dog genome. This not only provided information about Balto’s lineage and genetics but also details about the differences between dogs of the past and today. Balto may now be a relic of the past, but despite some controversy, his fame and legend live on.
