Balto - Dog Statues on Waymarking.com

This is the statue of Balto located in Central Park in New York City.

Balto was a Siberian Husky sled dog who led his team on the final leg of the 1925 serum run into Nome, Alaska.

In 1925, doctors in Nome, Alaska realized that a diphtheria epidemic in the town was probable. In its wake, the epidemic would likely kill many of the town's youth. The only serum that could stop the outbreak was in Anchorage, Alaska, about 1000 miles away. The only two aircraft that could have delivered the serum had been dismantled for the winter, and after much consideration, delivery of the serum was to be via sled dog.

More than 20 mushers took part in the relay through a blizzard where temperatures dropped below -50° F. The longest and most dangerous leg of the trip was actually led by another musher and his dog team. Balto gets the credit for the run, one, because he was the lead dog of the sled who brought the serum into Nome. However, Balto's musher, Gunnar Kaasen, remarked during the trip that the snow was so thick he could barely see his hand in front of his face. Because of these white out conditions, Kaasen and his team missed the last dog sled team. Kaasen, demoralized by the cold temperatures was ready to give up because he was unable to guide his team, but Balto was able to lead the team and ended up taking the serum twice as far, eventually delivering it to Nome.

Today, this historic trek is memorialized in the annual running of The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

The plaque beneath the statue 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

Breed: Siberian Husky Date Built: 1925/12/17

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